Would you believe the Holiday Inn

We have been wondering where we would live for the over lapping weeks before the Canfields return home and we move into the full time apartment.  Well now we know.  We travel over 6200 miles to one of the worlds most ancient cities and where will we stay?  Of course the Holiday Inn Istanbul what else.  Does anyone find any humor in this or is it just me.  Shouldn't it at least be the Ali Baba Inn?  Good news, it is a king size room.  I would think for the area it should be a "Sultan" size room.

We learned from the August mission report that more work is being done with the refugees and 70 sleeping bags and 70 duffle bags were provided to the Professional American Women of Istanbul to distribute to the young men who have escaped from the war and bloodshed in neighboring countries and have refugee status in Turkey. The Canfields  have been able to meet some of them and hear their stories. They have seen their parents and families murdered, they have been tortured and imprisoned, they have seen their homes destroyed. Most of them are Christian and were persecuted because of that. Some just marched for freedom, and were considered threats to their government. They come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Somalia. But they all have one hope in common and that is to have a normal life, to find peace, to get an education, to have a family and to have work.

It appears that a seminar has also been scheduled at Istanbul University with hearing specialists from the Church coming to teach professors and graduate students to help develop a course of study.  There seems to be no limit to the possibilities for service.  Hopefully we will be there when this new effort is initiated.

We will be traveling to Salt Lake next week and hope to visit with our language trainer and his family as well as meeting with Humanitarian Services to learn more about the wheelchair process and other service projects.  We are also hoping to have lunch with the Coltons.  The Coltons will be moving to Izmir in January and will obviously be part of our Turkish experience.

Sonra Görüşürüz