If your a Georgia peach, I had to disappoint but that is not where I was. There is a country just to the east of Turkey that is called Georgia and a boarder city called Batum. One of our new friends was born across the boarder and so we took her home for her birthday. There was a two fold plan. 1) Show her a good time for her birthday while showing her the love of Christ. 2) Go and see this beautiful country while getting another stamp in my passport :). It only took us about 45 minutes to get there and maybe 20 minutes to get through the border. Those of you that travel will know that is an amazing time to get through the border.
This place was amazing. Everything was lush and plush. I thought to myself, someone has been pumping some money into this place, and then I saw all the American company names. Sure enough, it us. We, USA, have turned this place into a tourist attraction to say the least. It was truly beautiful. So we enjoyed the coastline for a bit and then went and ate some authentic Georgian food. "Wonderful!"
Now, this is the good part. We were driving around looking at the bay and then we saw a Church. We couldn't tell if it was a catholic or Orthodox church, but nevertheless we wanted to see inside. The front doors were locked so we went around to the back and found a man to let us in. My Armenian brother asked the man through the Russian interpreter, if he knew of any baptist Churches in the area. The man said, "Yes, we have a Protestant Church that meets in our basement every Sunday Night." So we gave the pastor a call and before you know it we are over at his house sitting in his living room. The reason why this is important is because he also has a heart to reach the Turkish people, and we happened to have one with us that was of the same tribe. Now we are freaking out as we're watching the Holy Spirit put this thing together. Then the Ukrainian asked if the Pastor would share his testimony and as luck would have it he had it on video on the computer. He was a former Muslim and drug addict and Jesus Christ. As our new friend sat and watch the video and heard the testimony she began to weep and at this point there are tears all over the room. After the video we shared the love of Christ with her and she said that she was not quite ready. I'm sure there are family issues that need to be worked out. (God will do his thing.)
This was a huge connection for the Armenians and a huge blessing for us as we were able to share our faith with no fear. As we took our new friend home conversation continued in the car and then she invited us in. Her husband and kids were waiting for her, because we had kept her out all day. We ate cake and had fruit, shared pictures and the kids played with my tablet. The husband told us that there was no need to stay in a hotel the next time we come, because they wanted us to stay with them. This is a big step, especially since we just let the cat out of the bag.
I stand amazed in the presence of the all knowing God that is at work around us all the time. If you could have just seen the look on the Georgian Pastors face when he had a surprise visit from other pastors with the same heart and vision. It was like we dropped out of the sky for him and he for us. This is our God: faithful, mighty, all knowing, all seeing, supernatural, great adventure God.
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