212 Degrees Turkey: A Note from America

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Note from America

Hello everyone, this is Mike Ahlers (Amanda's Dad) Hope things are going well for everyone, Thank you for the Blog updates it is so exciting to her how God is impacting your lives and the lives of the people you are interacting with over in Turkey. But I wanted to tell everyone the experience that we as parents go through with our children on a mission trip so far away, and how God is impacting our lives here at home as well.

Watching your children grow up sometimes requires a lot of faith in our creator because we have to trust in him that things will work out, like it is written in

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

As you know my daughter Amanda has been very sick on the trip which has been very stressful on Amanda's mother and I. When we first heard that she was sick we were saddened because we couldn't comfort her, then when she got worse we started to get a little restless, that's when we started to put a plan together to possibly get her home, we quickly realized that we needed to stop looking for flights for her to come home, and stop looking for flights for us to meet her half way and start to "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;" What we didn't stop doing was praying for her and we didn't stop believing that our God can do anything. All we have to do is trust in him for everything.

I also want to thank all of you for the continuous prayers, comfort and encouragement that you are giving Amanda.

Susan and I have comfort in the verse from

Psalm 112:7 They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

One last thing, to quote a very special person I know "You see, our mission field is wherever God calls us to be! Whether that be in Turkey, sick in a hotel, or at home in America... God has called each of us for a specific purpose! He is using us EXACTLY where we are for reasons we sometimes don't understand."

I found that my mission field is in America praying for the Turkey Team.

Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Can't wait to see you all home safe.

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2011 Team Mission

"To share Christ exalting truth by being light and salt for God through the passionate and humble pursuit of Christ, in hopes that the lost will be drawn to Him."

Team Verse: "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you" -Philippians 4:9

Team Motto: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

Discipleship.

Over 2000 years ago when Christ came to earth to bring the
message of His father, he didn’t have the ease of Google search and cell phones
to get the “good news” to every one who needed to hear. He relied on the mouths and lifestyles of 12
men, and when he left to return to heaven with His Father he gave us the same
charge He gave His followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

What does discipleship look like today? How can we live it out as Jesus and his disciples did in
the 1st century? As we walk this journey
together we will see the great importance of being a part of a community, studying
the Word of God, and being intentional with whom you pour your life into and
who you allow to have influence in your life. As leaders, we will live out II Timothy 2:1-2 and intentionally pour
into and equip you to be able to go home and serve God in whatever sphere of
influence he calls you to in life. We will also give you “spiritual” tools for
your ministry tool box so that you can pour into the people God asks you to
influence.

Evangelism & Missions

We will see the God of Christianity on a world-wide scale
as we work alongside the Turkish church and among the Turkish people. We study
various styles of evangelism (friendship, servant, lifestyle, etc.), and will
we learn how to incorporate the various styles into our ministry in Turkey, as
well as how they will apply to our lives at home. We will also discuss how to
share our faith cross culturally in a way that is sensitive while at the same
time clear and effective. We pray that
those we come in contact with will see our passion for the truth of the gospel,
understand the love of our God the creator and come one step closer to knowing
more intimately their Savior Jesus Christ.

Biblical Training

We will experience the atmosphere of the early church, see
the beauty of Christ’s love for His people, touch the rich history of the land,
taste the power of sin’s oppression in our world and hear the powerful message
of truth from the Word of God. We will
travel throughout Turkey to many of the 7 churches of Revelation and to many
parts of Paul’s missionary journeys. You
will rediscover God’s Word as you personally experience the cities, the sights
and the letters of the Bible by studying the archeology, the geography, the
history and the culture of 15 first century cities.