I´m Back from Turkey, Falcon, and Caracas!! (FINALLY) ;)

WELL, IT´S BEEN A LONG PAST THREE WEEKS OF TRAVEL. :) After being in VZ only 2 1/2 wks. I was already off to Turkey for a Missions Conference and touring the 7 churches of Revelation for the next 2 wks. Then once I arrived back in VZ left the very next day to the state of Falcon for 3 days and then to the capital city, Caracas. Now I am finally "home!" Well, as close to home as I can be- my "home" in VZ. I will be here until Thursday (Nov. 8th) and then onto Merida to participate in language lessons for Spanish.

I have to say Turkey was such an awesome, great experience! Who would´ve thought I would be flying off to another country so quickly! :) haha... I enojoyed every bit of it, (except me having bad sinuses the WHOLE time). We stayed in a very nice hotel in Kusadasi, (right next to Ephesus). We learned a lot about the Turkish culture and the majority of their religion. Met lots of Latinos from all over South America and the Caribbean (the conference was for latino ministers/missionaries). It was so neat to walk the same places biblical people like Paul, Timothy, etc... walked. Stand in the same ampatheaters they stood in to preach. My two favorite places were Ephesus and Pergamum. They had the most ruins and you could almost feel like you were back in the day when they were. We learned a lot about these 7 locations around Turkey, and what it was like back then and how it is now. In a spiritual sense, not much has changed...They are still the same old, backslidden, God rejecting places. We were taught how the Nike sport symbol came about from an acient godess with the same name. And sooo much more. I have WAY TOO MANY pics. to upload on this blog, only a few sneak peaks. We experienced nice sunny days, to chilly ones, and a heavy down pour of rain!! What a day that was, getting all soaked. ;) We rode on a bus, that drove onto a boat to cross the Bosphorus canal-way. Got slapped in the face by the Hotel manager in Instanbul, who also tried to make me and my friend both his wife (oh not to mention he was probably older then my own grandpa AND married with lots of kids and grand kids)...Many, many experiences I know I will never forget. Well- I would like to forget that last one I mentioned! :) ha...

**To say say thank you in Turksish is pronounced like= tea sugar and a dream (real quickly). That´s your lesson for the day...try it! (And don´t forget to have fun while attempting).

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

(I WILL POST PICS. SOON I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO GO THROUGH THEM YET AND CHOOSE WHAT I WANT TO POST...BUT I WANTED AT LEAST GIVE AN UPDATE OF MYSELF.)

A Good Day Sunday

Yesterday Sunday October 14th, my sister in the Lord and I visited sister Miriam´s church, (a lady who works in the office here with us). From there we went on to visit her (Miriam´s) nephew at his house. Him and his wife cooked us a very nice meal and afterward we stayed and talked, sang sangs, and played the guitar. This was great ministry to this couple, for they are not currently with the Lord. I THANK THE LORD ALMIGHTY He was able to use me to bless this young family with the gifts the Lord has given me. We had a good time, and I was also granted the time to say a short word of encouragement to them. Today in the office sister Miriam said her nephew cannot stop talking about Fernanda and I´s visit. He wants us to come over again. He was touched TREMENDOUSLY! PRAIYZ GOD FOR THAT! For it was not by our might, or power, but by the Spirit that testified so great. Here are some pics from our visit:

schedule of what´s going down

I leave tomorrow morning (tues. Oct. 16th) at 5am to catch my flight, as I am leaving for Turkey. I will be there the next 2 wks. I will fly from Barquisimeto, VZ to Caracas, VZ, then onto Rome, and landing in my final destination of Instanbul, Turkey. Once I get back this is how the rest of my year of 2007 will look:

*Going to Falcon October 28th-30th (another state in VZ, the very next day I arrive back from Turkey)
*Then straight onto Caracas, VZ (the capital city, until friday November 2nd)
*Barquisimeto, VZ (my city of stay while here, until November 7th to do some translation work and also sing at a church on November 4th)
*Merida, VZ (November 8th-1st week in December)
*November 20th-23rd is a Missions Conference I will be participating in while in Merida
*Zulia, VZ to help in the School of Missions (December 7th-9th)
*Barquisimeto, VZ (December 10th-13th)
*Island Margarita for School of Missions (December 14th-16th)

And the rest is up in the air....! :) But that´s a good bit for now, don´t ya think???

RADIO TIME!!

Just a quick note: Today I will be speaking on a local radio station here in Barquisimeto (the town I am staying in). The pastor wants to interview Fernanda and I both, and to dicuss the topic of Missions. This is an EXCITING TIME, PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS!!!

A few pics from the office

Showing off pics of Homer (my fiance who makes me smile BIG) and my AWESOME Family to everyone at the office! Which they liked VERY much. :)



From left to right: Graciela (missionary and teacher from Argentina, Fernanda (my best friend and sister in the Lord, also a great minister of GOD!, Me (who am I???), Cook lady (forgot her name...my bad!), Miriam (a very sweet lady who will teach me Spanish), and lastly Eunice (pregnant chica who has a beautiful singing voice!)



A few extra christian ladies we met at the Salon (while I got therapy on my back= PRAISE THE LORD FOR THAT!)

Alo Folks!

On Thursday Fernanda and I left to travel to a different state to a small town called El Sombrero- The Hat. It took us 13 hours to finally arrive at our final destination, after having awakened at 5am that day. Being very exhausted and sweaty after taking 3 different buses to get there, Fernanda was asked to preach that night. In spite of how tired we were we could not refuse, so we hurried and got to our host home to shower and prepare for the service that evening. Showering in the bathroom was an experience I have felt and done before, but obviously not prefer. However, that’s the life of a missionary…never knowing what to expect and always be grateful no matter what! The house where we were at did not receive their water during the day, only at night. So at night they fill up a big plastic trash bucket of water, and then that’s all you have to use for the daytime.

So to take your shower you fill up small buckets of water, pour it all over yourself, and whatnot…sure you have gotten the point by now. The problem is that I have very long and thick hair. It would take the whole trash bucket just wet it!! So giving up on trying to wet it thoroughly I said eh, whatever- I just shampooed semi-dri/wet and rinsed as best as possible. Then to brush your teeth you use the same water from the trash bucket. I was kinda grossed out because when it got emptier you could see all kinds of dirt in the water when I would scoop it for my teeth. So what did I do?? Chewed a lot of gum that I bought before I left to come to VZ. Haha… Along with trying to use some of my mineral drinking water they bought me to do the job with my mouth.

Okay, so Fernanda preached that night at the church and the Pastor talked a little about me. Then the next night Fernanda gave her teachings on Missions to a packed church. Before starting with what she has planned she introduced me to everyone, and had me come up and say a short word of encouragement to the people using scripture. I also sang them a song on the guitar. This was interesting because all they had was an old out of tune classical guitar. The church was too big to play acoustically, so they could not hear me too well. Along with the fact I had to sit in a chair because I had no guitar strap to use. Then I had nowhere to place my music. So the setup was me sitting in a chair, with Fernanda holding my music in front of me, and the Pastor holding the mic in place. Heh..it was pretty awkward, but the people loved it anyways! The reason being-well a lot of things possibly, but for sure I know one reason is because I sang the song in Spanish. :)





So once the service was coming to a close Fernanda had me come up again to sing another Spanish song, that is very Missions oriented. This time however, the piano player came up and I have to say- he was incredible! He could play any song by memory and ear. So I said forget the guitar! I’m going with the flow of him. So I told him what song and key and he played so well along with me as if we had practiced or something. It was great! So I took the mic and led without the guitar, which I don’t do too often. My guitar oftentimes is sort of my safe guard. I enjoyed it so much. The Pastor liked it so much he asked me to continue into another song! So I led the congregation some more. I know God helped it come so naturally and thanks to Him He helped me learn those Spanish songs I have been rehearsing and studying over. If I hadn’t prepared myself earlier while I was in the States that night would not have gone so successfully the way it did.



Besides that being a major highlight to my day, the other one would definitely have to be the fact that all the pastors we were connected with had motorcycles and when we went to the church and back we got rides on them. And that was awesome! I love excursions like that! Totally my style… :) We left the town of El Sombrero on another early morning of Saturday and got to another state and town called La Victoria- The Victory. The same happened as last time. We showered got ready and Fernanda gave her lesson. This time I did not participate in the service really. I gave a short word saying hi to everyone, but I was fairly exhausted. :( After that we went to the host home, stayed the night and left again in the morning to head back home to Barquisimeto. It’s funny I haven’t even been here too long yet, and already while we were out of town I was missing “home,” and the people in the office we work in everyday.

I´M GOING TO TURKEY!!!!

WOOOHOOO I´M GOING TO TURKEY OCTOBER 16TH-27TH, PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!! Their will be a team of about 20 that will be leaving out of Caracas, VZ to a conference in Turkey. This conference will share about how to win the Muslim Community to Christ around the world. This is very important for us to attend so that as we are teaching others on missionhood around the world and training people, we can share the very important concepts about the Muslims and how to break down walls. We will also be touring the 7 main churches that the Bible speaks about in the book of Revelation. Turkey is an very, very old country that is mentioned in Biblical times. It will be a great learning experience as well as a huge time of ministry there. We will also be participating in a prayer walk around the city of our stay called (Istanbul).

One important factor to make this trip complete is that we will be able to gather enough dollars to afford everything. The Turks do not accept Bolivars, which is the Venezuelan cash currency, so we have to take hard routes to try and get U.S. dollars. Turkey will accept dollars and euros. However, the Lord has provided greatly so far and we know He will continue to provide!! I can use my credit card over there for things I do not need physical cash for however. So if any one would like to contribute in any way you can send checks, money orders, or cash to my home address:

Morris Residence
8344 Chatham Rd.
Medina, OH 44256

And my mother will gladly deposit any offering into my bank account for me, to be exchanged.

Gracias y Dios Te Bendiga
(thank you and God bless you!)
Servant to the Nations