Unique and Precious...

I wanted to take a chance to share some of my thoughts and experiences today on the unique and precious moments of life here in Turkey...

Last week I was on the bus and there was a very elderly man climbing on two people stopped what they were doing to get up and help him in. If any elder or woman with children gets on the bus people will give up their seats for them to sit down... it's nice to see kindness like that embedded within a culture.

Today I was walking home from the bus and passed by the back of a school tucked into a corner. It must have been recess because there was a large group of boys huddling together in the back. As I got closer, a smile crept across my face as I realized that they were passing around a cigarette, hurriedly smoking it down as I suspect they weren't allowed. I thought it was classic and hilarious all at once. Smoking is also so common here that I don't think it would be quite so big of a deal as it would be in the states, but it was still funny.

I recently moved from living 6 months in the village surrounded by greenhouses and orchards and fields of flowers and trees to the city where I am surrounded by tall apartment buildings.. that is except for one small field that sits directly across from my building. I smiled the day I moved in and thought that was just like God to give me a special surprise like that- because obviously I love nature so much. But then, to my chagrin I walked by today and realized that the beautiful field full of wildflowers and grasses and bushes had been bulldozed and leveled. Oh well, I should have known at the rate this city is developing... things change whether you are in the city or the village area each and every day here.

I watched an elderly woman get on the bus today with who must have been her daughter. The woman looked anxious and probably somewhere around 90 or older. She sat right up front behind the driver because she couldn't move back any further. Her daughter paid and then moved a few rows back as it was a full bus. I watched the woman look nervously behind her to glimpse her daughter and I could just imagine that she was thinking, please don't leave me on this bus- I don't know when to get off, or how I'll do it on my own. Now, I could see the daugther also as she was sitting just one row ahead of me and I knew that there was not a chance that she would forget about her mother or leave her on her own. She had her eye on her and was taking great care of her.

I thought this was a good representation of how I feel sometimes in my life with the Lord. I get nervous thinking He's not there, or He's not watching and that I'm going to miss my stop or worse end up somewhere in danger or that I can't handle. But just like the daughter that I described, I know that God is always there and never takes His eyes off of me for a second. He is always there to guide me and if I'm listening He will tell me exactly what to do and when. He IS fully and completely worthy of my trust. I like that, and it was fun to see it from a different perspective.