JESUS CALLED US TO LUKE 10!

Jesus called us, He called Roelof, Ilze and Lume together, He gave us authority to cure diseases, to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told us:” Go, take no money I will provide” God was our everything! We all can testify of what God did for us. God wanted us to learn how to trust Him for provision, and oh how He provided, God took care of all our needs. There were difficult times but looking back it only brought us growth, and we had some amazingly good times aswell.

Let me tell you more about our Luke 10 journey: Jesus called us to Izmir. We trusted God for transport from Kuşadası to Izmir, so we started to hitch hike and just before it got too hot and too far a guy stopped to pick us up, the first car to stop and he was on his way to Izmir. Confirmation, thank you Jesus.  Just outside Izmir we got our second lift with 3 guys who dropped us off at the sea.  We found a tree “ The Tree” the only tree in sight with shade, we sat down being a little bit uncertain, irretated, thankful and relieved that we made it to Izmir we decided to chill under the tree for a while.  We then decided to start walking left , after wandering around Izmir trying to find our Man of Peace and the reason for being in Izmir we decided to return to the tree. Under  the tree two men sat trying to sell perfume, we started to make friends with the two men Can and Oscar and soon enough a group of girls also joined us and then there were 9 of us fellowshipping under the tree, we got the oppertunity to share the Gospel with them, God opened the doors to share by questions asked and places shown on the map. The girls blessed us with food and drink and tried to find a place for us to sleep at a church but there was no space..the perfume guys( Can and Oscar) took us to a Catholic church and argued with the Priest to let us stay there for the night. It was mind blowing, two Muslim guys fighting with a Catholic Priest to let 3 Charismatic Christians have a place to sleep. They blessed us with an apartment for the 3 of us, with beds, aircon, living area, warm shower, kitchen, fridge, water the works. First day and God provided beyond what we could have immagined and all for His glory. Jesus gave me 2 Scriptures for our first day 1. “He is able to do exceedingly far more abundantly above all that I ever dared to think or ask by the power at work within me” Eph 3:20  2. “The Lord will guide you and satisfy your desire” Ish 58:11 Both of these promises came true for the day. We prayed for food expecting maybe bread, Jesus gave us hamburgers and chips, we prayed for a roof over our heads, Jesus gave us an apartment  all for ourselves for 5 days.

We met lots of different people in Izmir who blessed us, we always had food and water. We were especially moved by a guy named Hosan, Roelof met him one night randomly at the pier, he invited Roelof to his home and later he invited all of us to his home . He provided for us abundantly. He is a very talented music teacher and we had some great fun with him trying to teach us to play the saxophone. He sent us off with a bag full of food, cookies  and coca cola.

Around the 4th  day of our Luke 10 I strongly felt God telling me to relax a bit, not to look for oppertunities to share the gospel and have an all planned out day but to do and go about as I would like to. I decided to go to starbucks and see if I could use their wifi, out of frustration I asked in little faith a guy standing next to me if he could speak English, to my little faith he said yes and started to help me, he invited me to come sit at their table and all 3 men could speak English, we started talking and I shared with them what we are doing and told them about our years journey. They blessed me with chocolate cake, so I spend the rest of the day with one of the guys Berk he blessed me with coffee, took me for my favourite food at the best places and asked if I wanted to go shopping for clothes. It was an amazing day of being totally spoiled by Jesus. THANK YOU JESUS.  The next day we got a lift back to kuşadası with one of the guys Ulaş, I met the previous day at Starbucks, to go fetch our big backpacks and that same day with the same guy we got a lift back to Izmir again with all our luggage. He offered that we stayed at his appartment for the night, blessed us with the best baklava in town( something that Roelof asked Jesus to spoil him with and so Jesus did) Praise God! The blessings just kept coming. The next day we were dropped of at the highway to start hiking to Istanbul, we got picked up by a guy(Celçuk) who was on his way to Istanbul  ( we thought it would take atleast 2-3 days to reach Istanbul) and we got there in one day! He blessed us with Burger King, cold drinks, water and chocolates on the way to Istanbul and he paid for our bus and fiery ride from the Asian side of Istanbul to the Europe side of Istanbul. Again God undeservingly blessed us with more than enough. On the bus a random guy just out of nowhere payed our bus ride to the fiery. UNBELİEVABLE!!!

On the Europe side we decided to walk to a beautiful park and see if we can sleep there for the night, but the gates closed at 23:00 and we were not allowed, so we kept on walking to a restaurant  the Ayasofya Büfe we once had apple tea at (THE BEST IN ISTANBUL) they welcomed us with open arms gave us food and tea and offered that we can sleep in their restaurant. We stayed there for 3 nights and helped around the restaurant. After a while we almost knew everyone in the street. They blessed us with food and everything that we needed they even ordered a shower for us in a fancy hotel. It was a priveledge to have stayed with them they feel like family and treated us like their family. Uncle Sabastian even called us his children and said to us he is our father. I am speechless how God provided and cared for us throughout our Luke 10 journey.

We always had a comfortable bed and a roof over our heads, we never went to bed hungry, but had enough food to bless others. We almost never walked far for transport. We finished the journey with money where we started our journey with no money, we got to make amazing friends that we could share the gospel with. Our hearts are changed by these encounters and despite our disobedience and sin God blessed us beyond anything we could imagine. ALL THE GLORY TO OUR GOD!

Thank you Lord for your love, Thank you for new hope, Thank you that we can be part of  your mission God, thank you Lord is all we can say. Thank you for Luke 10.