January and December in Turkey

So...we will be heading to Turkey with a team of 10 students and 1 co-leader at the beginning of December. We are beyond excited for this, as this nation has been on our hearts for outreach since spring of this year. We will be spending the first month in Istanbul building relationship with University students, playing music in local parks, and trying to make friends with as many locals as possible. Trying to love as many as we can in such a short amount of time. We will be spending the month of January in the smaller city of Antakya (Antioch...yes, the place mentioned in the Bible...the place that Paul visited.) Here we will be involved much more organically in people's lives. We will spend a lot of time just asking God what he would have us do on any given day, and spend the day doing that very thing we felt Him lay on our heart. We will also be working with Kurdish children. Playing soccer with them, and any other games we can come up with. We are excited to love on these children who have been labeled as outcasts from society...and show them a God who brings love and hope. You can see the two cities underlined with yellow on the map above. The city in the north-west corner is Istanbul and the city in the south is Antioch. We are so excited that we get to go to a place with so much history...especially history pertaining to the very roots of Christianity. We expect to be blown away by Jesus while we are there...and the Faithfulness of God as he is unfolding his Grand Story.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers. Please continue to pray for our finances, as they have taken a big hit in the last month...not really sure what God is up to there...but will continue to rest on the Truth that he is good :) We love you guys and are so thankful to call you friends!!