Hello all
 
Hope you’re all well.
 
Thank you all for your continued support, I really appreciate it.
 
I’ve now been here over 3 months and am really enjoying it.  It’s fair to say my time here has been a rollercoaster at times, however I’ve known God’s great hand of love and protection over me and seen Him change me in ways I wouldn’t have imagined.  It is Christ alone that strengthens me.
 
1 Peter 1:6-9: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
 
High season has been pretty busy work-wise, but good fun.  I’ve been really blessed with some of the guests I’ve met.  One of my highlights was meeting two awesome girls my age that were really going for Jesus; the week they were here they were such an inspiration to me.  I’ve enjoyed being a rep, although it has been manic at times with the many trips I’ve been organising, and I am looking forward to it getting a bit quieter.  I have another month or so left here; it is currently being decided whether I will come home at the beginning or the end of October.  Please pray this clarity will come soon.
 
I’ve really enjoyed going to Bodrum Grace Church while being out here and it has been amazing to see their faith in such difficulty.  Due to work being busy and me often having to stay in the hotel I’ve not been able to get along much this month, which I’ve found hard and have longed for the freedom of just being able to go to church every Sunday.  Please pray I am able to go a bit more now it’s less busy.
 
The next couple of weeks all the English staff go home bar me, so there should be interesting change of dynamics. The Living Sun team will now consist of my boss Nuket, waterfront Ibraham and me.  I will be the only English staff in the whole hotel and also the only Christian, so please do pray for me with this.  Although the Living Sun team has had its ups and downs, I have really appreciated being able to go up to the girls and just ask them to pray for me if am feeling tired or worn out.  I will especially miss our staff prayer meetings in the morning as is great way to give the day to the Lord and fix my eyes on God despite what type of night’s sleep I’ve had.
 
God has continued to use me amongst the Turkish staff.  My Boss Nuket has been especially open to hearing more about Jesus; I had the privilege of praying for her one morning.  She’s also started to sometimes sit in our prayer meetings, which has been great.  One day she came with me to the communion service we have every Sunday night, we had dinner together afterwards and she was asking me a lot of questions about it all and I was also able to share some of the Bible with her.
 
It is currently Ramadan, which has been really interesting to see.  This is when Muslims will not eat or drink during the day, although they are allowed to eat at the break of day and in the evening - a cannon goes off in our bay to say they can eat.  This means they may not even go swimming in case they get water in their mouth. A couple of the Turkish staff have been doing Ramadan, however most aren’t, but are fasting from alcohol for the duration.
 
Please pray God uses me as a light to the Turkish staff and strengthens our friendships.  Also please pray against misunderstandings that can happen with the difference of cultures and the language barrier.  Please also pray for me with the language, I find it really frustrating how slow I seem to learn and remember words!  I’m currently learning more of the verbs and sentence structures.
 
I’ve continued to really enjoy spending time at the local Cafe and have formed some good friendships there.  I go there for dinner on my day off and have all the kids of the workers there sit around my table, they’re adorable and are pretty funny how they will talk away to me in Turkish and I often just nod and smile!   I went around to their home one afternoon and was challenged by how basically they lived yet they were so happy and generous to me; it made me see how much I take for granted my home comforts.
 
Please pray for my health; I’ve recently been ill with a chesty cough and cold, however am out of the worst of it now.  Getting a decent night sleep in the heat can be difficult, however I think this will change as the temperature cools down a bit in September and I will not be sharing my room with two other girls.
 
Finally please pray for God’s direction for future for me. There is an opportunity for me to come back to Turkey in January with the New Frontier Church in Izmir for a year to study Turkish, the Bible, Islamic Apologetics, serve in the Church and be trained up to be part of a church planting team into Turkey.  Please pray for Gods guidance.
 
Much love to you all,
 
Rachel.
 
p.s. my blog: www. rachy4jesus.blogspot.com