Background and Vision/Tamara Lattin


Though I was originally born in Montana, I lived in New York city for twenty years. I was involved in professional theater there, first as an actress, then as a writer/director. When I was 45 years old I heard the Lord telling me to use my gifts for His glory alone, which I felt very privileged to do. Eventually I found an organization that agreed that theater is a wonderful way to bring the saving message of God's love to people who don't know Him and would probably never walk into a church to hear a sermon but would come to a play. (That organization is RMM, Rosedale Mennonite Missions.)


First I went to the Southeast of Turkey to a place called Sanliurfa. It is a very conservative middle-eastern town, as opposed to the more modern cities in the western part of Turkey. Theater was not a possibility there (especially Christian theater!). But I was there to learn language and culture. This was very important because I write original plays based on the bible and I need to be able to write them from the perspective of the culture they happened in, not from the culture that I came from. I was in Sanliurfa for one year, it wasn't an easy place to live for a single female foreigner, but I learned a lot.


After that I was able to move to Istanbul where I am now. The vision the Lord has given me is to create a Turkish theater company of believers who would do plays in western cities as well as take Christian plays on tour out to the rest of Turkey. For the first time Turks would be seeing Christian theater being done by Turks like themselves, instead of by people from the West. Christians here, Turkish or otherwise, make up less than two percent of the total population.

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you are all making it through another winter. Even though February is short in days it can feel like the longest month! We are experiencing an early spring here so I certainly am not complaining.

Just wanted to update you on what is happening. As I wrote about in my last letter to you, the Christmas play went very well. It was called “Waiting With a Promise” and focused on Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary. The theme being how they were waiting having received the promise and how we wait now having seen the salvation of the Lord “for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.” After that we did a play just last Sunday called “The Bon Dieu’s Birthday Party”. I described this play to you a long time ago. I originally adapted it from a short story, it is about Virtues being invited to God’s birthday party and while waiting to go in there is a lot of discussion and eventually they get into a fight and have to ask forgiveness before they can enter. The intern here, Emily, made name tags for them to wear so the audience knew who was who. There were 15 Virtues and an angel, so 16 people were in the play. To tell the truth I was dreading it because I thought it was going to be a scheduling nightmare, but the Lord really blessed it and it went very smoothly. People seemed to enjoy it and said it had a good message.

The Easter play is written and ready to go. I’m very excited about it. The “Waiting With a Promise” play has been translated into Turkish and I only need to find one more Turkish actor and we can start putting that together to be done in Turkish in the Turkish churches around Istanbul. And the woman I told you about a while ago, Evre, whose father wrote a play about John the Baptist and wants me to direct it has finally called me. I will meet with her on Friday. So I may be working on three plays at once. I don’t know how it will all come together but wanted to let you know and ask for your prayers. To do the plays in Turkish is the transition from English to Turkish that I have been working towards since the beginning so that is very exciting. Also, doing Evre’s play will put me in touch with many Turkish believers who can be involved in the Turkish theater company, hopefully. You can see that God is working everything out. I need a lot of wisdom, patience (and energy!) in the next couple of months, so if you think of it I would really appreciate your prayers.

Emily and I are also still trying to put the website together. We have figured out how to do it but it means that I have an awful lot of writing to do on top of everything else. When it is finished you will be able to see photos and read about the plays online.

Tensions are high here of course with demonstrations over the cartoons, and I think you must have heard of the priest in Adana who was shot twice while he was praying. There is also a Turkish film out now that you may have heard of (its called “Valley of the Wolves” in English) that is anti-American but also very anti-Christianity. Why they do not see that as being the same thing to us as the cartoons are to them is just ignorance and self-deception.

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope this finds you all doing well. Thought I would let you know how the performances of "Waiting With the Promise" in Turkish went, we did the last one on Sunday. All in all it was done in three different Turkish churches. It was received really well, there were a lot of "amins" (amens) after the lines. Just a reminder, this play was mainly about God being born into the world and how this news changes everything. It was told through the stories of Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary. This idea of Jesus being God incarnate is of course a huge stumbling block for anyone other than Christians. So the play quotes Gabriel as saying, "For nothing shall be impossible with God." Luke 1:37. In the course of exploring what amazing news this is and what it means to us one of the lines from Zechariah's song is quoted, "[He has come so that] we might serve Him without fear." Lk 1:74 I was really happy about that line in particular because the more I get to know people here I notice that they do seem to live their lives in a lot of fear. Towards the end of the play Mary prays, "Lord, thank you for working out your promises. We pray that you would continue to work them out according to Your will and not according to our wishes."

The churches prayed for us at the end of the performances and that was very touching. As I mentioned in the last letter three of the actors are not believers, I think it was quite an experience for them to see that there are Turkish believers and that they only have one head like other humans. It was just a great feeling all around, a really great experience. In the Fall I hope to do the "Homeless" play that I showed slides of and talked about (for those who were at MBF that day) with native speakers. Because of these performances more people will know who we are and what we're trying to do ahead of time. That will make it easier to find the people I need to be in it, and bring more people to come and see it.

Well, God has a plan and even though its not always easy, He works it out. I love to think about sitting in Seeley over four years ago with the Tuesday women's Bible study group praying this all into being. You've been there since the very beginning and now you can see God is doing it. I can't thank you enough for your patience and endurance in seeing this through.

This summer I will be re-writing the "Homeless" play to make it better, and writing more plays as well. Also working on my Turkish, which I think will be a never-ending task. I will continue to keep you up to snuff. Meanwhile I hope you have a really great summer!

Blessings,
Tamara

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you are all enjoying the summer wherever you are. It's in the 80's here and pretty humid. Still, its not bad if you stay out of the sun. I live at the top of a steep hill though so I work up quite a sweat coming home.

Just thought I'd drop you a line and let you know what's happening here since the last performance. I have signed up for an intensive Turkish course for the summer, which is a review basically of everything only crammed into a summer course. I want to do the Homeless play in the Fall with native speakers so I am trying to get the Turkish up another notch. Learning a language is a never-ending process, especially for me. I'm really having to work at it.

At the same time this is when I try to come up with new projects so I spend a lot of time just reading and researching, the Bible and devotionals mainly. By August I will be in a position hopefully to get some new plays down on paper.

Like a lot of people I am also using this time to get repairs done in the apartment. Also getting trips to the dentist and doctor over with while I have the time.

I get two weeks vacation but I don't have any plans yet except to go to my friend Ozge's wedding in a town about eight hours away in August. I didn't get the part-time job at Siemens (too computer illiterate!) so I don't really have the money to go too far for too long. It will be nice just not having to think about learning Turkish for two weeks!

Well that's all the news from here, not much to report this time of year. I am grateful to receive the prayer alerts from MBF so that I know how to pray specifically for people there. I do keep you all in my prayers in general.

And thanks to you for your prayers especially, and the financial support that enables this theater ministry to exist and keep growing. He is good!

For great is Your love, reaching to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Ps 57:10

Blessings!
Tamara

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from hot and humid Istanbul! I hope you are surviving the summer heat wherever you are. Hard to believe that August is almost over already.

Just thought I'd drop you a line and let you know what's happening on this end. To start with, I finished the intensive Turkish course that I mentioned in my last letter. It wasn't fun being back in class but it was well worth it. I learned a lot.

I also had a lot of meetings with people that I work with who came from the States, once-a-year type meetings, so that took up a chunk of time. They are very excited about what is happening over here and are thinking of putting together a prayer team specifically for the outreach play that we are doing next. It is the play that I described during my last visit to MBF for those of you who were there, only this time it will be done with Turkish actors in a larger space. It will be video taped and I hope to get a good copy of it so it can be made into copies to be given out. The people I work for said that their computer people in the States could then possibly take scenes from it and add English subtitles to it. If that happens I will make sure you get to see it.

Since school ended, I have been trying to continue writing. In another week I will go on vacation. I am not really going anywhere very far but I will be taking the phone off the hook so I can get some down time before the next big project starts. It will be like a silent retreat.

I will keep you posted as to how to specifically pray for this outreach play as it develops. Your prayers and support are what started this whole thing and has brought it to this point. I thank God for you every day, blessings to you!

"Now shalt thou see what I will do." Ex. 6:1

Blessings,
Tamara

Donna, thanks for sharing these messages with us. People like Tamara are to be admired and we should all pray for her and all the missionaries that give up their lives in the USA to take God's word to countries like Istanbul.

Dear Family and Friends,

Technically I'm on vacation (my last week) but felt the strong urge to get this letter out to you all now. As you know I hope to do an outreach play in Turkish with a cast of ten actors at the end of December. I will be doing other smaller projects in English but this is the main project that I hope you will be a part of with your prayers. I would like to keep you informed every month, or every few weeks exactly where we are in the process so that you know how to pray specifically. And even though its early days I want you to be in on the process from the very beginning. That is when some of most the crucial decisions are made.

I thought it might be interesting for you to read a summery of the outreach play so you know what its about.

The Magi from the east revisit the birthplace of Jesus, whom they had first seen over thirty-three years ago when he was an infant. As they pour over scripture to try and figure out what has happened, a homeless man with a large burden on his back enters the stable looking for a place to rest, and begins listening intently. Eventually people who actually met Jesus also come to pay their respects and tell their stories. The woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and a shepherd, in turn talk about how meeting Jesus changed their lives. Throughout the play Christ is present, watching and listening. Eventually everyone leaves, including the wise men who still don't quite get it, but the homeless man who is left alone in the stable does. He kneels at the manger weeping and asking Jesus if its too late. At that point Christ walks up behind him and removes the man's "burden" and leans it against the manger. The two then leave together.

Things to pray for at this point:
1) Choosing the performance location, we are going to be looking at places this month
2) The meeting with Evre which I hope to be having soon. We will be discussing the casting of the play and dates to do the play so it is an important meeting.

As usual, thank you for being there to turn to at times like this. I sincerely believe that God could use this piece in a powerful way with your prayers. God bless you!

In His Strength,
Tamara

Dear Prayer Team,

I hope this letter finds you all well. As I said I would in my last letter I am writing to keep you updated on how to pray for the outreach play.

It has been a frustrating few weeks, which is a good reason to contact you and ask for prayer. After three weeks of trying to set up a meeting with the woman who is going to work on this play with me (Evre), we set up a meeting but she did not show up, or call or email. Then a couple days later I recieved an email saying she was sick and lost my number. This is not the first time she has not shown up for a meeting or let me know she wasn't coming. Sometimes people don't want to say "no" so they say "yes" and then don't follow through and you are just suppose to know then that its not going to happen. At the same time, most things just require a lot of patience and flexibility, so the trick is to know the difference. There are many reasons I want to do this play with Evre. One big reason is that this play needs ten actors. I don't know that many people who have the desire and ability to be in a play, she does. Though I will find them on my own if I have to. Also, there are many decisions to be made. I don't want to be making all the decisions.

So these are the things I am asking you to pray for:
1) Wisdom to know when to be flexible and when to change tactics
2) Protection against frustration and discouragement
3) That the meeting with Evre actually happens this week
4) God guides us in making these decisions:
a) Casting the play
B) Choosing the location
c) Choosing the dates and times for performances
5) After decisions are made then implementing them
6) That we can get these things ready:
a) Ten costumes
B) Props
c) Begin to gather things needed for set
7) That as time goes on and more people become involved this can happen as a group effort

My pastor here came up with the idea that I should try to create a Board for myself. A group of three people or so to meet with and run things by. That is a great idea. I have no idea who they would be and because of my background I'm embarrassed to even ask around because I know that people are already too busy. Perhaps you could also pray that God brings those people to mind if that's suppose to happen. (Or that God temporarily give me a different personality!)

I know that this play is not going to happen without resistance, so I am relieved to be able to turn to you and ask for prayer. As someone once said, nothing happens without prayer.

Blessings,
Tamara

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope this finds you all well. I am sending an update to let you know how your prayers are being answered. As you know, I have been working very hard for awhile now trying to get the groundwork laid for the outreach play without much results. The person I was counting on to help was not coming through, but just a couple days ago she showed up with a friend at the church building while I was there waiting for another actor to come (who did not show up!). The long and the short of it is that we had a long talk and prayed together, she assured me that the problems she had been having that kept her from communicating or showing up for the last six weeks were over. We then proceeded to cast the entire play with people that she and her friend knew and we are all meeting on Wednesday. This to me is the equivalent of the Red Sea parting. I am not so naive that I think the problems with actors not coming and coming late, etc are over but it doesn't take away from the fact that this was a huge answer to prayer and I am very excited that we can just start the process of actually working on the play now. I will continue to let you know how your prayers are enabling this project to happen. If you could continue to pray, especially about this first meeting, and also about the choice of location (have chosen it but not gotten permission yet) and dates (again, chosen but not confirmed) and that God would continue to bring in the people He wants to be involved and that a schedule can be found that enables the most people to show up at the most rehearsals. Thank you!

Blessings to you!
Tamara

All agitation is destructive of good. All calm is destructive of evil. Only perfect trust can keep one calm. Abide in the secret place of the Almighty.
(combined sources)

Dear Prayer Team Family,

This will probably be my last update. We only have one week left of rehearsals. Things have settled down among the group and people seem to be getting along so thank you for your prayers concerning that. The three people who have missed the most rehearsals still don't know their parts perhaps you could pray that the work gets done in that area. I have been doing everything I can think of to advertise this play, please pray that God would reach the people He wants to come and that He prepare their hearts to hear.

On the day I wrote you last a neighbor called me while I was at rehearsal to tell me my door was broken open. I went home to find the apartment completely ransacked. The only thing of real value they took was my computer. I have been using Internet cafes ever since. In spite of that I am not discouraged. I only feel lifted up and very blessed so it must be your prayers! Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for this opportunity to glorify God in a very dark place. God bless you!

Blessings,
Tamara

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all sufficiency in all things, you will abound in every good work.
II Cor. 9:8

Dear Prayer Team Family,

I hope and pray that you had a really blessed Christmas and New Year's. Since the play ended it has been very quite around here so you would think I would have gotten this letter out sooner, but I'm just starting to get things done again. Sorry for the lateness!

I want to thank you again for your faithfulness in praying for the play these last few months. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I'm convinced the play would not have happened without your prayers. I'm tempted to go into all the gory details so that you know that I mean that literally, but suffice it to say there were many, many obstacles especially in the week before the play and the week of the performances. Including a group of policemen who were seen the night of one of the performances jumping out of a police van and running into the church courtyard. It was enough to scare away a small group of people coming to see the play who told me about it later. But we did not see the police inside the church that evening and the play went on anyway. Only God knows what that was about. I really felt His protection throughout this whole process.

Over the three nights about 300 people total attended. I heard from people that they brought neighbors, co-workers and fellow-students who they were trying to witness to. We offered tea and coffee in the basement, and there were interesting discussions happening afterwards. Only God knows or will ever know how He used it but there was good feedback all around, so praise the Lord! I am particularly excited that Cihan, the unbeliever in the play that I asked you to pray for, over the three nights brought his roommate, two friends, and a couple of people he works with. One of his friends, who is also an actor, came to all three performances and wants to work with us in the future!

One of the more practical things to come of this which is a huge praise, was the number of people who came up to me afterwards to say that they are interested in joining the theater company for future productions. Finally, I will know people to call on myself instead of having to rely on extremely unreliable people. Praise God!

Now shalt thou see what I will do.
Ex. 6:1

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
II Chron. 16:9

Our God is a mighty, awesome God who calls us by name. We are truly blessed to know Him and to be able to see His works. Thanks for being a huge part of what He's doing here. God bless you!

In His Beautiful Name,
Tamara

Dear Prayer Team Family,


I hope this finds you all well and not too effected by global warming. Actually, I probably shouldn't joke about that. Anyway, back to what I do know about. There have been some very important things happening here that I would like to share with you. Personally, I have just been on the computer for the last month. We have put together a DVD of the play that includes an overall slide show of it, followed by some scenes with English subtitles. It is in total 15 minutes long but required what felt like 15 hours a day to pull together. We also created a brochure about the theater ministry. Unfortunately, who knows how long it will take my company to reproduce them and send them out. I can at least send out copies of the DVD to MBF and some others who have asked.


I have forwarded an article about the court case against the two Turkish brothers who are accused under the "insulting Turkishness" law. I sent you the article about their initial court case so thought you might be interested in following that. Also, I have been trying to figure out how to even describe the impact the assassination and funeral of Hrant Dink has had on Turkey but I couldn't figure out how to convey it. Then one of my friends wrote about it and I asked if I could use it. He describes it much better than I could. It seems that a crack has opened and the Light has gotten in.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Now more than ever, now that something so significant has happened, your prayers are needed. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for this country.

Blessings,
Tamara


The last few days, we have seen some amazing events. In a very brief recap; last Friday, Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist was shot and killed outside the office of the AGOS newspaper, the bilingual publication of which he was the founder and editor. His accused killer, a 17 year-old junior-high dropout, was arrested 32 hours later at a bus station as he was traveling home. Mr. Dink had in recent times become a spokesman on the Turkish - Armenian issue as well as a fearless defender of democracy and freedom of speech. Last year he had been tried and convicted on the charge of "insulting Turkishness". In a very recent column, he wrote of the torture he felt in being pronounced an "enemy of Turkey" and the constant stream of threats he was receiving. He described himself as behaving like a pigeon; always alert, looking right, left, in front, behind, etc. But at the end of that article, he consoled himself with the words, "But I know that in this country, they don't touch pigeons."

The reaction of Turkish society has been phenomenal. Hrant Dink's funeral was held yesterday. It started with a memorial service in the street in front of AGOS'S offices. His widow gave a passionate speech, written in the form of a letter to her husband. Speaking of the killer, she wrote,"We know he was once a baby. Without questioning the darkness that can turn a baby into a killer, nothing will change." (personal translation) She also quoted John 15:13 "No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends." In spite of being surrounded by tens of thousands of people, during much of the service, a white dove stayed on top of the black vehicle which held Hrant's coffin.

From there, the coffin was slowly transported to the Church of the Virgin Mary for the funeral. The family, friends and a vast crowd, which according to some reports grew to over 100,000, followed the coffin on foot the entire 8 kilometers. There the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Mesrop Mutafyan preached a sermon, first in Armenian then in Turkish. I marveled as I watched the live TV broadcast at the clear and bold proclamation of the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ, directly quoting numerous verses . The patriarch said that he was pleased to learn in his condolence visit that Hrant Dink had placed his trust in Jesus as his Savior. As he finished his sermon, his voice broke as he prayed that God would "remove our hearts of stone and gives hearts of flesh so that we can carry out God's will."
Pray that God would use this tragedy in a mighty way in this country.
Pray that the "Dove" would always be seen among His People.
Pray that none of us would miss or soon forget the powerful message in these events.

Donna, this has been so interesting. I appreciate you taking the time to post that for us. We should all pray for our missionaries.

Thanks again for sharing Tamara's letters with us.

Wow, that's incredible.
And it sounds like the Press will allow more coverage and broadcasting of God's Word in that country than in my own.
Thanks for the post Donna!

I am so sorry I am late getting this posted. Tamara sent me this while I was on vacation and I just found it.


Dear Family and Friends,
Spring is almost upon us and we haven’t had any snow and hardly any rain here since Christmas. The last two winters it did one or the other almost every day for four months straight. I prefer this weather but of course then it means water shortages, they have already started rationing the water so we can get through the summer.
I thought I would send a note letting you know what’s happening here. The publicity packet I wrote about in the last letter--the brochure and DVD of the play--is in the hands of the company I work for. That was followed by coming up with a realistic budget for the theater ministry and also updating the website. We received good news that the website is finally going to happen but since it has been seven months since I put it together, it had to be updated. I don’t know the time-line on that but a few months is what I understand.
After all that I was able to get back to writing, and have written a new play for Easter. It is essentially the story of Peter beginning with his denial of Christ in the courtyard until his speech to the crowd in Acts 2. We see his transformation through the eyes of the woman who accused him in the courtyard. As she questions how someone could change as much as Peter did, the meaning of the cross is explored. A song that will be sung as part of the play is My Life Flows On (or, How Can I Keep From Singing?) written by Robert Lowry in 1869. There are several versions of it out there, but the version we will use is this one:
My life goes on in endless song, above earth’s lamentation.
I hear the real though far off hymn that hails a new creation.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.
It sounds an echo in my soul, how can I keep from singing?
What though my joys and comforts die? The Lord my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness round me close, songs in the night He giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes; the cloud grows thin; I see the blue above it;
And day by day this path grows smooth since first I learned to love it.

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am His! How can I keep from singing?
Blessings to you as you prepare for Easter and that great celebration! Thank you for your on-going prayers, which clear the way for all that God has planned.
In Him,
Tamara

thanks for the update, we are praying for her as well as all missionaries around our world

I just love reading Tamara's writings. Thanks, Donna, for continuing to post the letters that she sends your way.

Dear Family and Friends,

It is a really sad and difficult time, first the tragedy at Virginia Tech and then on Wednesday of this week three more Christian brothers murdered here in Turkey. I wanted to forward the article to you so you know what's happening and also to share a letter that my friends in Urfa wrote updating the situation.

Some key members of the Turkish government (and so the conservative media) claim that there are 10,000 m's here converting millions of Turks to Christianity. These figures are absurd, they are made to fuel paranoia and violence toward Christians and its working. Actually the total population of Christians (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) is less than 2% in the entire country, the number of m's are in the hundreds, not thousands. We are a small community so when something like this happens it hits us all hard. The body of Christ as a whole is hit hard. We thank God that our grief is not without hope.

Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.
Ps 48:9&14

Thank you for your prayers, which at times like these are needed most.

Love in Him,
Tamara

Greetings from Sanliurfa,
We 'd like to send an update of recent events. Yesterday we drove 3+ hours to Malatya to be with the survivors and the brothers and sisters who had come from all over Turkey. There were 40-50 people gathered in a hotel meeting room for a prayer meeting/memorial service. Tilman's widow, Suzanne, gave her testimony of experiencing the love of God in this very difficult time. Encouraging passages from the Word were shared by a number of brothers. We prayed together that these seeds which had fallen into the soil would bring forth much fruit. We prayed that the Lord of the harvest would send many more Necati's - the first Turk from Western Turkey who had moved to the East for the cause of Christ. We prayed for many more Ugur's - a warm-hearted single brother with a deep commitment to the Lord. We prayed for more Tilman's - people who leave their home country so that those who have not heard will have that opportunity.

As we looked around the room, we saw AG, a Turkish pastor who has repeatedly been hauled into court on various charges. We saw K, a young Turkish brother who was beaten and seriously injured by a group who tried to force him to recant his faith. There were others who have paid a price for taking a stand for Jesus. We wept with those who wept.

Here in Urfa, our armed and uniformed protection has continued since early February. Pray for the safety of our Turkish brothers and sister; pray for our safety.

May "his very own peace" be over us all.
Under his wings, L and J

Dear Family and friends,

Hi friends, thought some news from this part of the world was past due so am writing an update.

It's been a very busy few weeks here, culminating in a play this last week-end. The play was based on the idea of God's faithfulness and came about because the Union Church of Istanbul celebrated 150 years of meeting in the same chapel, also known as Dutch Chapel. It was a real joy to do a play on this theme and it went well, there were about 170 people who came. In doing my research for this play I came across an article written by a missionary for the Missionary Herald magazine of the American Board in 1851, which I thought was interesting. Here is an excerpt from it:

Whenever I look back to the year 1831, when my own family first arrived at Constantinople, and contemplate the great and wonderful changes which have taken place since that period, I always feel that I am not half awake to the reality and the importance of the work which God is carrying on here with such power… a few Protestant missionaries have come; and without power, or influence … and they have opened chapels in their own private houses, where the gospel has been preached without molestation in the English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Armenian and Turkish languages…And I know no other reason than this; that the Lord of Hosts was with us.

It's a comfort to know that the Lord of Hosts is still with us carrying on the work He began so many years earlier. Thanks to His faithfulness, and the perseverance of all those who went before us, we can truly have confidence in Him and in all His ways.

Now work has begun for the next play, which will be done twice on December 24th. The message that time of year is of course Jesus' birth but more specifically for those services--His grace. The play is the story of the hemorrhaging woman and Jairus the religious leader and how though one was a woman with no social status, in fact the opposite, and the other was a religious leader, they both needed Jesus and he answered both of them. Even the different ways He answered them was a lesson in grace.

In the meantime I'm also doing preparation for the Turkish play. If you think of it you could pray for that production; I need wisdom to make decisions, guidance about where to do it, and people to help with it. It is a play that really needs an actual set and professional lighting in order to work so it is more complicated than past plays we've done. There is a writer here who writes dramas for Christian radio and I am working with him as well. At the moment only with input on scripts, but that may lead to more involvement as time goes on. It's exciting to meet other people who are doing this kind of work.

Well, that covers most of it. I pray that this finds you all doing well! I hope that as we head into the holiday months you're not so tired from the preparations that you're not able to really celebrate! As things get more intense here, I am really grateful as usual that I can count on your faithfulness in this work, just knowing that you are there and that you are praying is a tremendous encouragement.

Love and Peace to you,
Tamara

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all had an excellent Easter celebration. It was a busy time here leading up to Good Friday as we did a ten-minute play as well as a dramatic reading. The worship director and I got to plan the entire service so it was a really enjoyable collaboration. Someone told the usher on the way out that it was the most meaningful and moving Good Friday service they had ever been to. Praise God! We offer up our our loaves and fishes and then see what He will do.

The play was called, Unexpected Love and was based on Isaiah 53. The question asked more than once was, "Who would have expected God's love to look like this?" His willingness to come as one of us and experience the worst of what we experience is more than we could ever expect, but we wouldn't want anything less. "He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed." (Is. 53) At one point the woman who suffered from hemorrhaging says, "When I touched him, he said he felt the power go out of him. I didn't realize it then, but as I was being healed it was like he was trading places with me. Later I understood that he actually was taking my place--and it cost him his life." Now life is in knowing Him, we are truly blessed!

The next play will be done in Turkish after furlough in November. It will be an hour long and the worship director will also be performing music in Turkish so it will be about an hour and a half-long outreach. So in the next month I will be getting ready for furlough and also doing as much preparation as possible for that play. If you think of it could you please be praying for this piece? Even though it's down the line so much has to happen before then.


I'm really looking forward to seeing you all soon! In the meantime, as always thank you so much for your faithfulness and support.

Blessings to you!

In Christ,
Tamara