Saturday, April 4, 2009

In Instanbul



-----Original Message-----
From: fthgermany@aol.com
Sent: Sat 4/4/2009 1:52 PM
Subject: Update

Hi FTH Staff,

Thanks for praying. We are in Istanbul at the moment. I decided yesterday to take one day off. Two days full driving and two nights with only a little bit of sleep is enough reason for a break. We got a nice hotel at the airport for a good rate. We spend almost two hours at the Turkish border. On the Greek side the custom office called an inspector and gave order to examine the vehicle. The female officer that came to the car, thought we transferred an ambulance into a camper. But when Marcel opened the back door and when she looked at the orange stretcher and the medical equipment, she became very nice and she gave us all the stamps we needed. On the Turkish side it was difficult to find somebody who felt responsible to work on our papers. They all were not very friendly. Several times the thought came up in my mind, if they want to become a member of the EU, they need to change their attitudes towards foreigners, and should start to study at least a little bit of English. Not talking about German. Every officer refused to stamp our custom papers. I hope that this will not give us any difficulties to get the tax back when we return to Germany.

From there we went straight towards Istanbul. People were walking all along the highway. Can you imagine, driving 150 Kilometers an hour, and there is a donkey on the right hand lane. Well this is this part of this world here. At one point there was a big hole in the surface and I really was worried that this maybe did something to the ambulance. But praise God, nothing happened. Pastor Peter in Zurich had the vision, that our vehicle has a kind of protection wall or skin around it, like an army tank. I really believe that. We are in the army of the LORD and in a mission to bring the gospel, health and delivery to the hurting people of Pakistan. Sunday morning we will leave very early. I have the goal, to get as close as possible to the Iran Border. So we will spend the night from Sunday to Monday again somewhere in Turkey. Tuesday morning we will cross the border into Iran. And I believe we could be at our final destination on good Friday. It would be nice to park the Ambulance on Easter Sunday in front of the church. That would be great, but I will not put myself under any kind of pressure. This could become “unhealthy”, driving tired……Thanks for praying. I believe GOD for seeing you all in South Bend this summer. Any way to drive there…….
Jp, Marcel and Philipp

No comments: