Olive Grove + The Beginnings of Cultural Exchange

Hello kind readers! Sorry it's been awhile again. The past week and a half we were away from nearly all technology and wifi in a town in the mountains 45 minutes outside the city. Casey and I were helping at Olive Grove, a holiday adventure that TCKs and MKs from all over come to! We were privileged to work with a wonderful group of co-counselors from all over the US, and some serving as workers, or TCK's themselves, and then campers from all over Turkey, Russia, Lithuania and Kazakhstan! It was truly an AMAZING experience! The first few days were orientation and we learned more about ways to better serve our campers. Then campers arrived Saturday and we got to spend time with them swimming in a super clear and gorgeous part of the Mediterranean, hike with them up the mountains, and even go visit the ruins of an ancient city with them! Casey and I also specifically served as ESL helpers, something neither of us had done before. But God provided excellent teachers and we were able to follow their instructions and get to know and see our students improve their English in just a short time. It was pretty exciting! One of my favorite moments at Olive Grove happened on the last day. We had worship outdoors facing the mountains, and we began to feel lots of wind as we watched the clouds roll into the mountains. Our group was positioned in the middle of this, singing praises to our God, and as we sang, the gravity and majesty of the moment hit me. How often to we get to praise Our Father with people from all parts of the World, in a plethora of languages while in the midst of His beauty? It has not happened many times in my experience, but the exciting thing is, this was truly a foretaste of heaven. I wanted to stay in that moment forever. Alas, time goes on, and we returned this past Saturday to Antalya to do lots of laundry and catch up on rest before we started the Cultural Exchange program Tuesday. It started off well with worship and getting to meet the university students, believers from England. We have made some grand friendships with them already, and learned much from each other. We went to the beach to play get to know you games and meet the Turkish students. It was really exciting and fun! Since then we have participated in conversation groups talking about the hard issues in our respective societies as well as about what we value and want to change most about the world we live in, shared many yummy meals, and have had many wonderful adventures and experiences together! We took a boat ride Wednesday which was super exciting, and a little bit scary when we jumped off the boat into the water, the super strong current kept pushing us where we did not want to go! But we all survived and were able to laugh at ourselves in the end. We also have had tavla tournaments, danced together, bowled, and sang together on the beach. Through these shared experiences I am thankful for the friendships that have really begun to grow and develop, despite the fact that our native languages are not the same. We have also been able to learn so much from one another and I pray that truly continues. Please pray for the friendships that will continue to develop in this community and that through our lives we are able to share the Lord's goodness with those who do not know Him in the program! Thanks for all your past and future prayers!