living on campus

So the university I am at is very high end. The fact that all the classes are taught in English is attractive and very prestigious! They also have beautiful roses and other glowers all over the campus and today the gardeners were out. I noticed this on my way back from dinner! If you can't tell what the picture is. The round bushes were cut so there was a bare place where the face would be and the green part is the hair, and the bush has giant sunglasses on!

Other interesting things from living in the dorms includes, f

ans are forbidden until it is hot enough to use them. we think it may be because they don't want the waste of electricity. All of the lights all over turkey have motion detectors. So all the hallways in most places, in the schools, hotels, bathrooms, etc have motion senor lights. so it looks like you are going down a dark scary hallway, and then BAM! the lights come on. its annoying though when you are waiting in dark scary hallway and not moving enough, and the lights keep going out.

Also I was told I would have a Turkish roommate!!!! I was NOT expecting this! My roommate for the project did not end up coming, so I have been enjoying having the peace and quiet of not having a roommate, and extra space to myself. Well, the univer

sity doesn't understand my position. They think I am just another foreign exchange student for the summer. With all my responsibilities, it would be very detrimental for me to have a roommate, especially one that isn't Christian. Most students living in this dorm are about 18-20, so not only is there an age gap, but I am still working while here, and my room is a place of rest and comfort, away from distractions and a rest from the language and culture. I think they understand I can't have a roommate, but the language/cultural barrier makes me worried sometimes.

the view from my dorm window

I'm here!!!!

I made it!

I have had some fun interesting experiences so far. one of the days we got to visit the famous blue mosque and hagia sophia. They are right next to each other and symbols of the city. I loved looking at history, and just learning more so I can better pray for the people here.

we did have one downfall. This city is so big, and there are so many people. one of the girls went to the bathroom, and I am not sure anyone knew. We left and were touring around, and when we were counting to see if we had everyone so we could move on to the next stop we realized she was missing. It had been over an hour since anyone had seen her. We quickly retraced our steps and found her in front of the restaurant we had lunch at. Praise God she was ok, and stayed put! It was scary, but we realized we needed to have a better grasp of the buddy system, and really watch out for each other.

a guy on the street making some sort of candy

the work in progress - the yellow is the plaster that covered the beautiful mosaics underneath it.

one of the famous beautiful mosaics that was plastered over when it was turned into a mosque

The hagia sophia - a famous church that was made into a mosque, but is now a museum

The famous blue mosque and hagia sophia

The blue mosque is a very large and beautiful mosques that is part of the European skyline of Istanbul

Beautiful detail inside

Julie, who is leading with me, and her little trooper! Ellie has been so good this whole trip so far!

The large racks of "doner" meat. one is lamb the other is chicken. They rotate slowly and cook by flame on one side. The meat is shaved off to make sandwiches that are common everywhere, you can find them from $2-$7 wrapped in a large tortilla, pita or on a baguette.

a cool shot I was able to get in a break in the crowd

I have no idea what the sign says

the city skyline

the blue mosque and the hagia sophia from the ferry boat traveling between Asia and Europe. I am living in Asia, but most of the touristy places are in Europe

welcome to campus!

the night-time view of the city from my dorm window

the campus entrance

somewhere in the middle of campus

cool sign :-)

these are a few of the interesting things....

pickled pine cones?

this street is named "fish street"

now that's fresh garlic!

vegetable market!

a nice bakery! we didn't have any of those in Thailand!

loading up on water because you can't drink from the tap

"restaurant" street

this man is selling simit (sounds like sa-meat) it is a bagel shaped bread that is not as soft or dense as a bagel

These men are selling water and disguises? in between the fast paced traffic

A view of the city while driving in

a brave? man selling water in between heavy traffic

a mosque closely situated among other buildings

traffic that reminds me of Bangkok

first day in the M.E.

So my first day here this was the salad I got!!!!!!

I was ecstatic!!!! I love cucumbers and I love tomatoes, and so when I found out this is very popular/common, I was glad that I would continue to have something healthy to eat.

Our flight and travels overall went very smoothly, and we were not too tired when we got in, but we were super tired by about 6 or 7pm. With a 7 hour time difference, and not getting a full night's sleep on the 14hour journey left us a bit bleary eyed. :-)

My first impressions of the country were that it reminded me a lot of Thailand!!!! similar building structures, the city layout with everything sort of hodge podge with really nice buildings mixed in with poor shacks. Even just the sidewalks reminded me of Thailand. I am sure people probably got tired of me saying, "wow! this is so much like thailand!!!" The only difference though is when I was in Thailand I was with people that could understand and speak a little of the language my whole first year. I didn't do much exploring on my own. Here the language has been a little harder for me to pick up, and I am frustrated all the time when something isn't clear, and I can't understand them or they can't understand me.

New sister in Christ!!!

The beginning of the semester started out as I was feeling a bit down. Like I had already tried to visit many students last semester, and I didn't have anyone left to go to their rooms, or whatnot. At least not new students. But I realized there are over 5,00 intl students at MSU, and surely I hadn't talked to all of them. Plus there were many students I would see in the dorms, that I knew I had never met before.

I decided to knock on some new doors, people I didn't have a card for, but I figured it was worth a shot. One of the doors I knocked on belonged to a girl named Wendy. I started talking to her and doing a picture survey with her, but halfway through she had to run to meet a friend she forgot about, but she really wanted to finish our conversation.

So the next week I came back, and we got into a conversation talking about God, and I was able to go through our short booklet called "Knowing God Personally." In it there are 4 main points that are basically the meat of the Gospel. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. But because of our sin (choosing to go our own selfish way and not choosing God) we cannot experiencing this love and plan. Jesus is God's only provision for our sin so we can know Him personally and experience His love and plan. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord and then we can experience God's love and plan.

After sharing this with her, and a little of my own personal story, she

wanted to pray right then and there to have God come into her life so she could know Him personally and experience His love in her life. I was so excited! Here I was not very ambitious about talking to new people, and one of the first people I talked to was interested in God!

I am so thankful, and am excited to see how God uses Wendy and helps her to grow more!

It was cool too that we had a game night shortly after, and We

ndy was able to come and meet some new people, as she doesn't have too many friends on campus still. Over 40 people ended up coming to the game night, and we were able to build some new friendships!

Here's a picture below!

Believer's Overnight

At the very beginning of January, we had an overnight just for our Chinese friends who are Christians. We wanted them to all meet each other (since many didn't know each other) and have a time of fellowship and growth in their Christian walk.

It has been so hard getting any of our key students to attend conferences with Bridges or CCC. We have tried many things, and so having just a short 24 hours seemed like a great way just to start the ball rolling this semester and get students started on the right foot.

Six of our 17 believers were able to make it! This was a great turnout and we were excited that we were able to get that many students together at one place at one time (our bigger parties are all nonbelievers from all over campus, and about 1/3 to half of the students invited usually come)

We started the night with pizza and getting to know one another, talked about the worthiness of Christ, to help fix their eyes on the Lord for the weekend, and then played some games and shared stories and laughter. I missed part of the games and such because I was still getting over my terrible cold I had the week before.

The next morning we had to pull students out of bed to get them to help make breakfast, and start our first session of the day. It turned out the girls (two to a room) all stayed up talking into the wee hours of the morning. It was great they were forming friendships and such, but not so good if you want people to be awake to learn stuff. :-)

Our first session was how to spend time with God, and we gave them time to spend reading their bibles. Then we talked about how to share your faith with friends, family, and others you meet on campus and at work. we then took a break for lunch and some sledding!!!! Most students had never played in that much snow before ( about a foot and a half) and LOVED it!

Afterwards we warmed up with hot chocolate and talked about the importance of fellowship. Overall it was a great 24 hours, and I think the students were greatly encouraged and built up by this time!