Northbound with Bronwyn and Clara excited to have a feast of Doner Kebaps in Adana.
Dear Friends and Family!
I apologize for the extended silence on my behalf, as well as not being able to finish the blog yesterday.
Adana was an extremely blessed time for Northbound! We enjoyed the time spent in serving and having fellowship with the church members tremendously! All glory and honour to God for providing the funding and means for us to visit Adana. Even having
grace with the 15kg per bag weight limit for our flight, what a miracle seeing that we were almost 20kg overweight in total!
On our first day the pastor welcomed us very friendly with an open heart and we had a very pleasant chat. We also worshipped and prayed together. Throughout the week we were blessed to be able to start our day with 2 hours of joined prayer with different Christian believers from Adana. We gained more insight on the situation in Turkey and were able to intercede with them for Turkey.
Tuesday
We had the opportunity to serve as we cleaned and redecorated the church building. In the afternoon we could explore some places in the city whilst engaging and interacting with people in Adana as the Lord guided us.
Wednesday
A wonderful time of spring cleaning and gardening were had at the place where we were staying and we enjoyed a
little bit of free time and relaxation in the afternoon.
Cycling to the lake
I was really privileged to cycle down to the big lake (don't know the name..) in Adana guided by a lovely brother and light bearer of God, on his scooter. I loved racing down the steep hill! We had a marvellous time in enjoying the fresh air and lovely scenery as the sun was setting. It was so pleasant to communicate through signalling and describing with hands and facial expressions, as the Turkish and English were a bit too big of a language gap. I am sure I should not be sharing my little adventure with you, but here goes! I was offered to
hold on to a cable attached to the scooter as an aid to help me ascend the steep hill, it was quite tricky and terrifying at stages as the cable would continually jerk me towards the scooter. By grace I was able to avoid collision, however as we reached the steepest section of the incline I suddenly noticed little clouds of smoke puffing out from the scooter. Luckily I am a keen cyclist and swiftly changed to manual and spinned up the hill, it was sooo good to be back on a bicycle!
Blessed by a Turkish Meal
Our Turkish brother blessed us with his culinary skills. We shared a wonderful meal of couscous, beef and vegetables complemented by delicious spices.
Friday
The day started with a bit of an adventure as we had to battle against some overflow from the drainage system. Thank you to all the war veterans who 'sweeped' the victory for us! Our beloved Turkish brother and a lovely sister guided us to the University where we were overwhelmed by the beautiful scenery and Spring festivities, there were traditional Turkish dancers celebrating the beginning of spring. We engaged with some of the Turkish students and invited them to come to our South African celebration at the protestant church. One thing that I must mention about the Turkish people is that they are extremely friendly and very interested to help and talk with tourists or foreigners. In the afternoon we travelled by train to Tarsus, the birth city of apostle Paul. Everyone explored the city as they wished.
Saturday
Youth from the church usually gather on a Saturday
to have guitar or piano lessons. We enjoyed spending some time with them and performed a short drama for them. An innocent girl is corrupted by bad influences and this eventually drives her to despair, misery and attempted suicide, but Jesus saves her from it all and gives her a new joyful life.
Credits: (and thanks to all the stars and supporters involved!)
Play write and director: Michelle
Main Actress: Cara
Supporting roles: Albie, Marita & Pieter
Cast: Andre, Estelle, Mary Kate, Michelle
Sound: Wessel
Support: Bronwyn, Clara, Estee, Shanine.
PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN we enjoyed flipping and flopping "lekker pannekoek". I welcomed everyone to our South African afternoon in Turkish, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English and taught them to say LEKKER! Pieter shared some interesting information about South Africa with a photo slide show, Clara shared short and sweetly about some of the native tribes and Bronwyn
gave a brief introduction to our 'light musical performance'. We proudly and very joyfully sang our anthem, 'In die Hemel is die Heer' and 'Jabulani'. The audience really loved it as well as the lekker pannekoek! Shanine shared her testimony and we once again performed our drama. The pastor concluded for us 'en toe kuier ons almal lekker saam'. The testimonies from the church members were extremely inspiring!
Just before we reached 'home' for the night we came across the opening night of a supermarket and they were joyfully distributing free food. We delighted in toasted buns with cheese, wraps with an interesting cheese and some more lekker pannekoek at home. Praise the Lord for all His blessings!
Sunday
We attended the Turkish church service and it was wonderful to worship with them! Albie, Wessel and Pieter shared some words and testimonies and it was amazing that even a Muslim 'priest' attended for a short
period. We once again had a very blessed and amazing time of fellowship with the church. On our way home we treated ourselves with delicious Doner Kebaps! Later on the pastor and brother spent some more time with us and we joined in prayer and worship.
Monday
Up and out of the feathers bright and early as we cleaned the apartment to be on time for our flight to Istanbul. Our Turkish brother and the pastor blessed us by helping us reach the airport on time with all our luggage.
We praise the Lord for the most wonderful, joyful and blessed time in Adana and the joining of paths with the believers in Turkey!