What a Year!
Top 10 Moments in 2013! Growing deeper in my faith and trusting God’s faithfulness. Getting the opportunity to follow my dream and serve in South Asia. Ending a great year at the elementary school, learning so much from my coworkers. Hanging out with Tuesday Bible Study girls and Youth Group. Teens+Jesus=GREAT TIMES Spending time with friends from road trips, to playing games, to weekly bible study. Going to Colorado with my family, including my new niece, and spending a week together. Getting baptized and having our multicultural group there. Living with my parents in the beauty and... Read more
Thoughts for a New Year
Happy New Year! Last night, New Year's Eve, my teammates and I got together to celebrate the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. After eating a lot of good food and joking around as usual, we decided to spend some time reflecting and sharing about what the past year meant to us, and what we were hoping the next year would be like. For many of my team members and I, 2013 was the year that brought the decision to come to Turkey and thus all of the transitions, preparations, goodbyes, and hellos that are part of such a big life change! What a year of beautiful chaos~ mountain top moments... Read more
A Rough Start
Ever wonder what a hospital is like in another country? Now I have an insider's peek. After being in country for two weeks I came down with a fever on a Friday night, and it hadn't gone away by Sunday. So we went to the Emergency Room to get some blood tests to see why I was sick (people here use the ER like a clinic because a doctor is always available). The test came back indicating that I had Dengue Fever, so I was admitted to the hospital that night. They wanted to have me in the hospital to monitor my fever and blood platelet count. My platelets dropped significantly, and we were all... Read more
Günah Yenelim!
Maybe its my warrior mindset. I grew up on Rocky, Karate Kid, Power Rangers, and NFL; now my favorite sport is UFC. But seeing the battle fought is so important to me. And the real enemy in the true battle is Satan. I may not be able to see the actual battle take place, since its invisible to me, but I can see the results. Frustration, impatience, complaining, anger. The battles start extremely subtle but they could have consequences. I’ve gotten in arguments with my wife that have started very simple. One time I asked her to tell me some thoughts and feelings she was going through. But as... Read more
Birthdays for Everyone!
The Pushkinistas (myself, Hope on the left, and Macey on the right) celebrated Rickie's birthday with Isaac (the tall kid in the GoCorps shirt) spear heading the project. Rickie was in St.Petersburg last year and had a really hard time, as he didn't have much emotional support from his team. So we were determined to come through for him on this special day! We surprised him by hiding one floor above his flat while Isaac called Rickie to ask him to run to KFC. While he was out, we four slipped into his flat behind him. He was very surprised when he came back to shouts of "surprise," cake, a... Read more
Christmas At Last!
Honestly, what didn't happen this month? Earlier this week, we had our students preform their Christmas songs for their parents (and teachers!). Precious? Yes, off the charts precious. I would like to publicly state that all of my students performed PHENOMENALLY. We also got to share the First Christmas Story at this event. Some people in Russia know the story, but we really found out this holiday season how few people have ever heard it. It was cool to be able to share that with people. We also had a smashing party with some of the Russians and the Brits in the area. See posted picture. It... Read more
My Story
In Matthew 28, right before Jesus ascends into heaven, he leaves his disciples with the command to "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." As a disciple of Christ, the Lord has brought me to Izmir, Turkey to make disciples in a nation where 99% of the population identifies themselves as Muslim. However, the form by which I am doing this is unique, and one that still makes me shake my head in awe at how the Lord works. I grew up a missionary kid... Read more
Home
Greetings from Turkey!! My name is Frank (which I'd hope you already figured out) and God has brought me to Izmir, Turkey to use my role as an American Football player/coach to reach Turks with the Good News of Christ. I'm a bit late getting into the whole blogging game, but I'm excited to get going with it and to share a little bit about what God is doing in my life! For my first blog, I just want to share a few brief impressions of my new home, Izmir, to hopefully put subsequent posts in a better context. Izmir is located around a bay of the Aegean Sea (which is part of the... Read more