What I Have Learned so far...

• Magnum bars will change your life, or at least refresh you so that you have confidence to try and find the right bus to get home. They also happen to be the most amazing ice cream bars that I have ever put in my mouth. The ice cream here...not so much. Take my advice - stick with the magnum bars.
• You can buy orange juice from the vendors on the streets and I love it.
• They do not put ice in their drinks here. So sad :(
• My best friend is my fan that keeps me cool at night (p.s. no air conditioning here)
• Living in a city with millions of people all around you requires that you dispose of any personal bubble that may have made its way over here with you.
• The tile floor is the coolest place to lay for about 20 minutes when you get home.
• There must be at least a hundred ways to get from any point A to B here.
• The fruit is delicious and you can buy it cheap anywhere...I try everything.
• Yogurt is basically the equivalent to sour cream here.
• Other than water (which you can buy on the street for about $0.45 here), they drink cola and ayran (a yogurt, milk & salt drink) with everything

Update: Merhaba

Merhaba!!

I realized that it has been several days since I sent out an update so I wanted to take a few minutes this afternoon to share with you a few highlights since I last wrote!

First, I would love to encourage each of you to take a minute to read Isa. 12 when you have a few minutes.  It has been a great encouragement to me this week.  It reminds me where my focus needs to be and who it needs to be focused on.  There are so many promises in these six verses that we can trust in our Father because He has rescued and saved us from the path that we once walked on.   I am learning that His joy is sufficient for me each and every day.  His mercies are new every morning!

Each day is a new adventure...some are easier than others but I am thankful for each one as I learn so much...whether it is through frustrations or joys.  Just after I sent the last update, my partner, Sarah, and I left to go to an orientation with six other students for a week!  It was incredibly encouraging as we sat and discussed many issues regarding our work here over the next few months.  It was so refreshing as well as each morning one of the leaders opened up and shared from the Word for about an hour and really challenged us and encouraged us with what he has learned from living on the field.  It was a really great week to build unity among us all as students and between partners.  I am so thankful for my partner, Sarah, who has been a great encouragement to me and we are able to laugh at ourselves so much...which is definitely key to survival here when everything is so unfamiliar.

We also met a couple of girls that week that we are asking the Father if He would be willing to let us go further in those relationships and get to know them better.  Please ask that the Father would continue to bring relationships into our path that we may be able to grow and have the opportunity to share Truth with them.

This week, Sarah and I are being sent into different areas of the city to familiarize ourselves with the layout and to be p-walking as we go throughout our day.  There is so much to do and see here...living with millions of people around you is a bit overwhelming at times!

Please join with me in lifting up the following requests for our time here in central asia:

• Please ask that Sarah and I would grasp and understanding of the transportation system here.  It is very challenging and frustrating at times in such a large city to not know how to get places.  Communicating is challenging but all of it is a great way for us to learn to trust!
• Please lift up relationships that we have made and will soon make that our Father would receive all the praise from each conversation that we have.
• Please lift up the people of this region of the world.  There is so much darkness around us and opportunities every minute to be light - ask that we would be bold and shine brightly, reflecting the radiant light from our Father!

Thank you all so much for your love and support! It is so encouraging to hear from you - I really do love hearing from everyone at home and how you are doing!  Please let me know how I can be lifting you up as well!

Grace Brought Me to this Place

Objects of mercy who should have known wrath, we're filled with unspeakable joy;

Riches of wisdom, unsearchable wealth, and the wonder of knowing Your voice;

You are our Treasure and our great Reward, our hope and our glorious King.

First Few Days...

Life so far...

I have been in Central Asia for just over a week now (although some times it feels like much, much longer since we arrived)! We have done so much in so little time. I love it!!  To recap, here are some of the highlights from my first few days here:

• Arrived safely with all my luggage & had NO problems getting my visa or going through customs! I was met by everyone on my team at the airport which was so refreshing! I also finally got to meet my roomate, Sarah, for the first time face-to-face. She is wonderful!
• Our apartment is a blessing! I live with Sarah and two other girls on the 8th floor of our building (also happens to be the top) and we have a beautiful view of the city spreading as far as we can see in every direction. I still can't get over the fact that millions of people live in this city alone. We live near a highway and hundreds of other apartment buildings, AND if we hang our heads far enough out the window, we can even see water!
• There is constant noise all the time from the traffic on the streets. There are SO many new noises, smells, sounds, sights, etc...so different from the quiet Eastern Shore!
• Our first Saturday here, one of the ladies on our team took Sarah and I to our neighborhood pazar (like a huge flea market). Most of the neighborhoods in the city have a weekly pazar. It is an open-air market in the streets and ours is every Saturday. You can seriously buy everything you want from dresses to shoes to table linens to fans and EVERYTHING in between. It is also relatively cheap to buy things at the pazar - plus you can get a great deal when you barter. Shopping for produce here is a dream - it is big, beautiful & cheap!
• Currently we are most learning some basic language & transportation. These two facets of life seem to create most of the ups & downs that we have. It is exhausting to be trying to decipher everything in a new language. Needless to say, we have already gotten on the wrong bus more than once. We will learn.
• Every minute of every day is a very new and humbling experience as we struggle through language barriers and order simple meals.
• We spent most of this week on the other side of the city (which also happens to be on another continent) in an orientation with six other students as we prepared for our tasks this fall. It was a very encouraging time as we got to hear teaching from the Word and many topics related to our work.

Living here

Update: Life So Far

Merhaba (hello)!

As I briefly let ya'll know the other day, I did arrive here in Central Asia safely on Thursday afternoon!  Thankfully I had no problems traveling and all my luggage arrived together!  I got to sleep a little bit on the plane so am still recovering from a little bit of jet lag.  I have gotten about 10 hours of sleep the last couple of nights so that is helping a lot!  It is extremely hot and humid here so we shower a lot and a good breeze and electric fans are currently our best friends!!

I am living on the top floor of an apartment building (8th floor) with four other girls in a very nice apartment...we even have a dishwasher and a washer/dryer (many times a luxury here)!  We have a beautiful view of the city, which spreads as far as the eye can see, from our balcony.  So far, we have been able to meet and spend a lot of time with other members from our team as they orient us with the city and public transportation and beginning to teach us some language...it is definitely a lot to take in but they are wonderful teachers!

Tomorrow, my roommate, Sarah, and I are leaving to go to another part of the city where we will spend most of next week in some orientation training with other Hands On students (just like us).  It should be a great time to get to know them and become a little more acquainted with our city.  I do not plan on having Internet access during that time, so if you don't hear from me within the next week, no worries...I will have lots to share next weekend :)

As we are getting more and more settled in and beginning orientation next week, here are some thoughts that you could lift up to the Father:

• That relationships with my teammates would continue to flourish so that we can all be an encouragement to one another in our daily work.
• Lift up the people here who follow Islam.  For about the next month, we are in the month of Ramazan where they will fast during the daylight hours.  Typically a little drummer boy comes around about 3:30AM each morning (yes, it wakes us up but we go right back to sleep) banging his drums to wake everyone up so they can stuff themselves with food before the first call to prayer at sunrise and then they fast from food and drink until sunset where they eat another huge meal called Iftar.  This is a very integral part of their belief system as it is a work that they do to find favor with Allah.  Please ask that the Father would provide opportunities for us to share the Truth with our friends here and that the blinders that are built in front of their eyes would be removed.
• Ask for relationships that I will be building this fall that the Father would speak and that I would be intentional with opportunities that He gives to me.  Also, that I would learn to cling to the word in everything that I say and do!  Ps.119:116

Thank you so much for all of your pr/y/rs!  I am so thankful for each of you and could not be here without you!  I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Until all the nations hear,

Anna

Here

I am here safely.
I am exhausted, jet-lagged and barely know which way is up, but I love it.

Welcome to my new neighborhood!!

Update: Today is the Day

Dear friends,

Well, it is finally here...I am leaving in just a few hours for Central Asia where I will be spending the next four months!  I cannot believe that it is actually here!  It is a very surreal feeling and I am so in awe of the grace of the Father that He has provided and orchestrated all the details of this trip!  I look forward to sharing many updates with you of how His name is made great in the nations!

I will definitely be sending out updates throughout the four months that I am there, but I also plan to keep a blog during this adventure and will post pictures and various things that I am learning.  

I am so thankful for each of you and the impact that you have had on my life!  Most importantly I cannot do this without our Father, but I also cannot do this with you and knowing that God has allowed our paths to cross, I am blessed and encouraged to know that you are lifting up the work that God has already started!  Please let me know how I can be in prayer for each of you as well!  It would be an honor to lift you up!  I will be praying that God would continue to work in you to make you more like His Son each and every day!

Please pray that God's name would be made great!!  Love you all!!

Until all the nations hear, 
Anna

Taking Off

I am on my way to Central Asia!