Three upcoming/last shows in Turkey!

So it happened that some shows were booked and we are planning to play at those shows! Last night, though, we saw how our plans got changed. The venue owners or operators in Istanbul look for ways to confuse things and make it impossible, unless an extra "fee" is paid, for the organization that we're working with and the Christian groups to play. There was a show booked for last night and only at 2 in the afternoon did they tell us that we didn't have the right permissions for such an international group to play there. So we didn't play, but we did do what we could with a guitar, drum and firespinning to draw a crowd and advertise for our show in Istanbul on Sunday.

We plan to have three shows in the next three days, the 11th, 12th and 13th. The 11th and 12th are in areas near Ephesus, the first at a five star hotel (a well known venue), and the second at an open air ampitheater. The third will be the one back in Istanbul, held in a church building.

Please be praying that God will reveal his truth and love to people as the god of Islam is a god without a father heart. Pray for people who come to the concerts to have had dreams and visions from God as that's one way that God has been reaching out to people here. And pray that our shows will remain in tact if that's what God wants.

Thanks so much for reading and for all of your support for this tour. These are the last few days, and it has been great to know that there are many of you who have been praying for God's will to be done in everything. Thank you very much.

Love,
Christa

The Last Polish Show and Turkey

God showed us his all-encompassing knowledge and provision through our pitiful cube! This year our curtain-holding cube was homemade frome square steel poles and corners of sheet metal which, in order to transport them to the last show, were bent beyond repair. 40 minutes before the show was supposed to start we had given up on the idea of assembling in properly and were hoping to find a welding machine which wasn't turning up. Then Nik and Jacek amazingly found pieces of scaffolding under the stage, scaffolding being something that is not possible to rent in Poland from our earlier attempts to do so, and began to assemble a cube from them. Everything was coming together and it looked like a cube but one more pole was needed to make it fully functional. Nik took one last crawl around under the stage and found found only one pole more at all and it was the size that was needed.

From our understanding, this was God clearly saying to us, "I know all things that happen. I have control over all things. Don't worry. My will will be done." This is exactly the understanding that we need to take with us in going to Turkey and throughout life.

As it stands now, our plans for four shows in Turkey have been bent. Because of changes in laws, three of the venues have cancelled our shows and we have only one confirmed show. Dave Wilson, the tour organizer in Turkey, has spent days looking for a "welder", trying to get us into all of the venues he knows with little results. We all know that God wants us to go to Turkey and we are all committed to going. There are different ideas about what we might be doing like encouraging the churches there, pushing hard to do our shows in whatever venue or even mosques. But right now we have to look to God's face and into his eyes and until he looks somewhere please be praying that we look nowhere else and that we have peace to do so. We want it to be as clear as the exact number of scaffolding poles right under our noses as to what it is that we are supposed to be doing.

So please be praying for clear guidance, unity, patience, and persistence. I'm so encouraged that God has used this cube crisis to speak to us and prepare us for Turkey, and I am confident that God will provide the scaffolding and his will will be done completely.

Thanks so much for reading, for your support and prayers. I will keep you as updated as internet allows.

Love,
Christa

Slot Art Festival in Poland

Every day of the 5 days at the Slot art/music/workshop festival with 5,000 people attending, crazy and great things happened. David speaks every year under a large tree in the center of the festival grounds to those who came to listen or who had been sleeping under the tree. Some of them are Christians who had decided to follow God under the tree the year before or three or seven and they told us about all of the things that God had done in their lives during those years. Some of the people listening weren't Christians or hadn't heard God's love being spoken about in such a real way. Over the five days we and a group of Polish people who made themselves available to talk and pray with anybody throughout the whole festival saw and talked with many of the same people and could see God bringing their hearts closer to his every day. Each time after David had finished speaking, he invited people to come talk to us, pray with us, and give their lives to do God's will and to be in a relationship with him, and many did. On the last day, all of those who listened got in a circle holding hands and David prayed for them.

Two examples of people searching their hearts and making that decision were Richard and Ewa. Richard is a guy who some of the Polish students met during the Steiger school in New Zealand. He lives and works in Waikinae where the school was held, and by "chance" met a few of the students and invited them to go deep sea fishing with his brother and him. That night they and Richard arrived at the prayer meeting and potluck with a nicely cooked lobster. After spending more time with him we conviced him that he should come to poland for the slot fest and he actually did! Every day at Slot he came and listened to David speak. On the last day, after thinking things through, and with the Holy Spirit's guidance, he made the decision to folllow God. When he returns to Waikinae, he will have the church there and Steiger folks to help him to grow in his faith and he hopes to come to a desciplechisp training school this fall in Minneapolis.

Ewa is a girl who came to David's speaking every day and talked with people afterwards every day, but something was holding her back. A few of us who talked with her saw that she wanted to take steps closer to God but felt a spiritual blockade in her and walls around her that only she was able to move. She said at one point that it felt like there were two ropes around her lungs pulling outwards. On the last day she prayed and asked God into her life and I could see the sweet gentleness and lightness of heart that had ovecome her darkness. Now she is in touch with the church in Wroclaw.

Also at the slot fest I was able to be a part of slot TV, using graphic design and motion graphics. Slot TV is an example of people coming together internationally to work on a project that can have an influence on many people, which is something that I am feeling God is calling me into. The only thing that draws everyone at the slot fest together every night is slot TV which is a media presentation of what has gone on during the day, interviews with festival-goers, silly animations and so on. I worked with my Polish feriends, Marcin, Ola and Rufio, who I will likely be working with in the future on media and print projects for Steiger. So this was a first fun and good trial run.

Thanks for reading and for your interest in what's going on in my life and what God has been doing in this time.

Love,
Christa