Here Comes Santa Claus

Here comes Santa Claus

Here comes Santa Cluas

Right down Cumhuriyet Caddesi

Fıstık and Rumi and all his lambs 
Pullin' on the reins. 
The Call to Prayer is sounding, people are bowing, 
All is merry and bright. 
So go to IKEA and find a fake Christmas tree and assemble it with glee, 
'Cause Santa Claus is comin' to me. 

Here comes Santa Claus, 
Here comes Santa Claus, 
Right down Cumhuriyet Caddesi, 

He's got a bag that's filled with a dryer 
and I feel all merry and bright. 
Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle, 
Oh what a beautiful sight, 
So jump out of bed, and strip the sheets,

laundry's gonna get done tonight, 
'Cause Santa Claus is comin' to me. 

Seriously?

Is this really what being in my thirties is going to be like?  

I mean, seriously? 

Seriously? 

Anti-Wrinkle

and

Anti-Blemish?

For pete's sake...

I'll have to put it on my Christmas list!

Next year it'll be fishnet support hose.

The best of both worlds!  

Bah Humbug!!

Caramel

Watch out world...

someone learned how to make caramel!

Sweet mercy, IT. IS. GOOD!!!


apples dipped in caramel

caramel popcorn

caramel cake

caramel eaten by the spoonful

caramellows

turtle cheesecake

caramel sundaes


The possibilities are endless!

Life is sweet in our home today!!!

The Sacrifice Holiday

Next week the sacrifice holiday begins.  The kids are off school for the entire week.  Lord help me!!

The pungent smell of animals is wafting through the city.

"Hear this, nations! God's Message! 
   Broadcast this all over the world!
Tell them, 'The One who scattered Israel 
   will gather them together again.
From now on he'll keep a careful eye on them, 
   like a shepherd with his flock.'
I, God, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob; 
   I'll free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully.
The people will climb up Zion's slopes shouting with joy, 
   their faces beaming because of God's bounty—
Grain and wine and oil, 
   flocks of sheep, herds of cattle.
Their lives will be like a well-watered garden, 
   never again left to dry up.
Young women will dance and be happy, 
   young men and old men will join in.
I'll convert their weeping into laughter, 
   lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy.
I'll make sure that their priests get three square meals a day 
   and that my people have more than enough.'" God's Decree.


Jeremiah 31:13-15

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday, Michelle!  I love you!!!

Things I Accomplished Over the Weekend

Answered all of my emails and got my inbox cleared out

Finished all of my thank you notes

Relaxed in the special local style bathhouse and pool at the hotel

Ate breakfast all by myself every morning

Listened to some really good talks

Was encouraged

Finished our newsletter

Had some good study and prayer time

Watched two soccer games

Made new friends

Had dessert and coffee with some dear girlfriends

Kept up with my blog

Met some precious local believers

Knitted two hats for my favorite twins

Helped my friends sell their products at a table in the back

Got a lot of my Christmas shopping done

Played a game of Monopoly on my phone

Ate a Krispy Kreme doughnut


Did I tell you that my weekend was pure bliss?  It was!!

My Hubby Rocks!!

Justin is AMAZING!!!


I left on Thursday afternoon for the Women's Conference.  Every day when I talked to Justin he was worn out, but he did not complain.  The kids were so happy and LOVED having Daddy in charge!!


Justin was offered a job on Friday.  Amen and praise the Lord!!!


He will be opening and running a regional branch for an international company that makes applications for cell phones.  He will get to help them develop their products for our country.  Initially it will be a part time position, but hopefully it will expand to a full time position with employees!  So, just like we were praying for, Justin will get to work with locals, earn some money, and get a work permit.  We are so excited!!


When I arrived home on Sunday evening the house was quiet.  Justin had taken the kids to the zoo.  It is not even in our city!  They took the bus down to the train and rode the train an hour outside of the city!  They all had so much fun.  They said it was quite an adventure.


NOTHING like an American zoo!!


All of the laundry was done and hung out on the laundry racks.  The kitchen was spotless.  It was a beautiful thing!  Justin had done such a super job.


When they returned from the zoo it was such a sweet reunion.  I missed my family so much!!  It's nice to get the chance to miss them!  We are all together so much nowadays that a little absence truly makes the heart grow fonder!


We got the kids bathed- they smelled like the zoo- and put them in bed.  They were all exhausted and fell asleep immediately.  Justin and I stayed up late talking.  It was bliss!!


Today, Justin got two more job offers!!  These were for very part-time english teaching jobs.  We are talking and praying about whether to give it a try or not.


I am so proud of my husband.  He endured the storm of international job hunting for six months with faith and stamina.  He waited for what the Lord had for him.  And is content with the end result.  Justin also did an amazing job with the kids this weekend.  I was prepared to come home to a house that looked like a tornado, laundry piled up to the ceiling, and grumpy kids that had been watching television for 72 hours straight.


NOPE!  Not my man.  He took care of everything!


Thank you, Lord, for Justin.  He is your best gift to me!!




"I found the one my heart loves. 
I held him and would not let him go."
Song of Solomon 3:4

Sunday Sneak Peak

Life's Work

I am at a Women's Conference this weekend.  Originally Anne Graham Lotz was booked to speak, and all the female workers in the country were excited.

But...she had to cancel.  And it was sort of late to find someone else.  The conference organizers scrambled and found some ladies to fill the speaking slots.  And as it turns out, a few of the speakers are local believers.

They have blessed me so much.  The first lady stood up and thanked us.  She said, "it is because of your coming here that I first got to hear about Jesus!  Thank you for coming here!  Thank you for leaving all that you have left and coming here to us!!  Thank you!!!"

Local believers are so rare and Muslim Background Believers are even fewer.  So, to hear the testimony of some of these sweet sisters is like a shot in the arm.  It makes it all worth it.

The chance to get to share the news of Jesus is such an amazing gift!  It's like being the one person on the sinking ship who gets to throw out a life raft and give life to people who are facing certain death.

AMAZING!

The other neat thing that they did at the conference was to have women of different years of service stand up for recognition.  The earliest workers (who still remain in the country) came in the 70's.  I wasn't even born then, and these women were already plowing and sowing seeds in this dry land!  40 years of service!  An entire lifetime.  Their entire life's work is to love the people here.

The newest arrival was a woman who had just come into the country six days ago.  She is just starting her life's work.

To be honest, many of the people are unlovable- as most who are not in Christ are!  They lie, manipulate, and cannot understand the truths of Christ.  As my aunt would say, "They are lost people acting like lost people.  That's what lost people do, and you cannot expect them not to.  They are lost."  It is a very difficult work, with endless hours, sad stories, and unsolvable problems.

But the yearning for the local people to hear the good news of Jesus Christ has caused them to stay!  For years and years and years they have served and loved and helped to introduce countless locals to Jesus.  Praise His Name!!

Peace Like a River

In the local language pis means dirty.  But not just dirty.  I looked it up on the online translation dictionary and these are the synonyms: filthy, vile, unclean, piggish, abominable, obscene, nasty, obnoxious.

You get the point.  The tricky thing is that pis is pronounced just like the english word peace!

The synonyms for peace are accord, friendship, love, neutrality, order, neutrality.

Peace vs pis.  They sound the exact same, but mean something so very different.

The rest of us have sorted this out, but sweet Lucy cannot figure out why on earth during our prayer times we are asking the Lord for pis!  Who wants that?!

God

"Befuddled believer!  If every Ramadan one fasts in the name of God and every Eid one sacrifices a sheep or goat as an atonement for his sins, if all his life one strives to make the pilgrimage to Mecca and five times a day kneels on a prayer rug but at the same time has no room for love in his heart, what is the use of all this trouble?  Faith is only a word if there is no love at its center, so flaccid and lifeless, vague and hollow- not anything you could truly feel.

Do they think God resides in Mecca or Medina?  Or in some local mosque somewhere?  How can they imagine that God could be confined to limited space when He openly says, Neither My heaven nor My earth embraces Me, but the heart of My believing servant does embrace me.

Pity the fool who thinks the boundaries of his mortal mind are the boundaries of God the Almighty.  Pity the ignorant who assume they can negotiate and settle debts with God.  Do such people think God is a grocer who attempts to weigh our virtues and our wrongdoings on two separate scales?  Is He a clerk meticulously writing down our sins in His accounting book so as to make us pay Him back someday?  Is this their notion of Oneness?

Neither a grocer nor a clerk, my God is a magnificent God. A living God!  Why would I want a dead God?  Alive He is.   His name is al-Hayy- the Ever-Living.  Why would I wallow in endless fears and anxieties, always restricted by prohibitions and limitations?  Infinitely compassionate He is.  The name is al-Wadud.   All-Praiseworthy He is.  I praise Him with all my words and deeds, as naturally and effortlessly as I breathe.  The name is al-Hamid.  How can I ever spread gossip and slander if I know deep down in my heart that God hears and sees it all?  His name is al-Başir.  Beautiful beyond all dreams and hopes.

Al-Jamal, al-Kayyum, al-Rahman, al-Rahim.  Through famine and food, dry and thirst, I will sing and dance for Him till my knees buckle, and my body collapses, and my heart stops pounding.  I will smash my ego to smithereens, until I am no more than a particle of nothingness, the wayfarer of pure emptiness, the dust of the dust in His great architecture.  Gratefully, joyously, and relentlessly, I commend His splendor and generosity.   I thank Him for all the things He has both given and denied me, for only He knows what is best for me."

taken from The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Şafak pp 180-181

Women's Conference

Tomorrow after lunch I am leaving for a Women's Conference.  It's in our city, but our city is so huge that it feels like I'm leaving town.

To be honest I don't care where it is.  I am just so excited to go.  Justin and I were talking and we figured that the last time I went anywhere overnight without him and/or the kids was a scrapbook weekend with my dear friend Sue 6 1/2 years ago!!!

Um yeah... it's time.

EXCITEMENT!!!

I hope the bed is comfy and the pool is warm!  I may not make it into any of the teaching sessions!

Hamsi

Me and my big mouth!!

Everyone here eats fish but we do not.  I HATE FISH!!!  Fish smell bad and are nasty.  Plus I am petrified of swallowing a fish bone!

But...

Everyone here eats fish, and I have been telling myself that in the very least I should try fish.  Quite honestly I have not even really tried fish since I was young.

I used to hate tomatoes until we moved here and I had to eat them all the time.  Now I like them.  I had convinced myself that the same could happen with fish.  If I could just force myself to eat it a few times I could end up liking it.

Well, I shared this theory with my local friends.  I even went so far as to tell them that it was my goal for the year.

So, what happened?  They decided to help me out!  Tonight our friends invited us over for dinner.  On the menu:

HAMSI

Hamsi is an anchovy.  Right now it is big time in season and all the locals are eating them like crazy!  My friends didn't just invite us for dinner, they first wanted to teach me how to cook hamsi for my family.  Here's how:

1. Pinch their heads off

2. Run your finger through the belly, gutting the tiny fish

3. Discard the head and guts

4. Rinse the fish well

5. Salt the fish

6. Flour the fish (corn flour is best)

7. Fry the fish in just a little bit of oil until light brown on both sides

8. Serve to (too nice to run away screaming) friends

That's it!  Run to your local fish market and buy a kilo or two and get to work.  It's not too late for tonight's dinner!

They are small, but you can easily pick the meat off the tiny spine.  I also picked off the tail.  Although a lot of people eat them whole- head, bones, and tail.  They didn't taste so bad.  If it was only up to my mouth and taste-buds, everything would have been fine.  But my head kept getting in the way.  I was still quite grossed out.

In the end, I ate about 7.  I was so proud of myself.  Justin ate at least twice as much as me.  Lucy ate about 4.  Noah tried a few bites.  Callie couldn't do it.

We each were surprised that they tasted better than we expected.  Just don't count on me making them any time soon!!!

Top 3 Things That I Brought Back

1. Waterproof boots for all of us

2. Crockpot

3. Waterproof mattress cover and spare sheets