We’re excited you’re here to follow our mission journey! Please remember to pray for God’s ministry in Turkey and the Republic of Georgia. Our team of 11 will be traveling in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, working with ministry partners, and sharing the Gospel. We’ll be away from May 27 – June 10. SUBSCRIBE below to get updates from this trip in your email.
With love, The Turkey & Georgia Team!
Wednesday, May 28
We arrived safely and checked into the hotel. We have already been blessed to meet Andy, our partner. The team is a little tired but ready to hit the ground running tomorrow. Here we are at dinner after 24 hours of travel:
Friday, May 30
The last few days have been a blur. Our team flew from Istanbul to Izmir and visited two ancient cities where John encouraged the 1st-century churches to remain faithful. Yesterday, we visited Ancient Ephesus, one of the most amazing world heritage sites in the world. Today we visited ancient Laodicea. What an amazing thing to learn about how God moved powerfully through his people into what is modern Turkey. Thank you for praying for us.
Team at the Grand Theatre in Ephesus.
The team walking on the ancient Roman main road through Laodicea.
Monday, June 2
Today we finish our time in Türkiye and head out to the Republic of Georgia. Our time in Türkiye (pronounced Turk-eee-yay) has been amazing. We have explored some ancient sites (everywhere in Türkiye is ancient) and we have seen how God’s hand has moved in history. We visited faithful friends to encourage and uplift them as they seek to make HIM known again in this place. Our hearts and minds are full of anticipation and hope for the future of the Gospel in these ancient lands. Thank you for your prayers!
Tuesday, June 3
We are on day 8 of our trip and enjoying the wonderful hospitality of the Georgian people. This is a beautiful country full of rich and ancient history. While the country is overwhelmingly Christian (Georgian Orthodox), there remains a need for a personal relationship with Christ. Pray for our team as we encourage our partners and their leadership networks. I have heard Luke 10:2 referenced many times in our 36 hours here. Pray that God would reveal Himself to these amazing people.
Sunday, June 8
Things are going very well in our team. We are on day 12 and are beginning to feel the pull homeward. Our trip has been excellent as we have traversed this small country from East to west. On Friday, we left Batumi near the Turkish/Georgian border, and yesterday we ministered in Tsnori near Azerbaijan. Praise God, we have encouraged many churches over the last few days. Yesterday we served at a small church in Tsnori (sen-nor-ree). We had a service, then male and female breakout groups, and finally a huge family dinner with our team and the church. It was a perfect setting and environment. As we were at dinner, one of the men in the church surrendered his heart to Jesus. His wife and son had been praying for him for years. It was wonderful to be there to witness his surrender! Today we attended Savior Bible Church in Tbilisi. It was a great time to worship with believers from around the world.
Wednesday, June 11
Praise God, our team has made it home safely. We praise God for on-time flights and no travel challenges throughout our trip. We literally traveled on planes, ferries, shuttles, subways, trains, and automobiles, and all of them worked well. We traveled over 16,000 total miles on this trip. We have many wonderful things to share in the coming days, but we are thankful to FBC for your support and especially your prayers. We were blessed by our friends and co-laborers in the Gospel from these countries. Here are a few pictures.
4:45am at the airport ready to make our journey home.
Pastor Gia with a new believer David, who followed Jesus for the first time while we were there. He now joins his wife and adult son in the family of faith!
Church gathering in Tsnori with our team. We had a wonderful time with the church last Saturday.
A house church gathering the mountains near Batumi. We were blessed to enjoy a sweet time of fellowship and prayer with this small body of believers.
