"Should I stay or should I go?"

So I guess google or someone is making progress on restoring blogger service back to Turkey. It is accessible sometimes and then will be blocked other times. It seems that they can't quite make up their mind of whether it will stay or go.

Well, that was originally going to be the sum of this update, but as I think about it there are a few other things that seem to be debating about whether to stay or go.

The weather has been very Colorado Spring-like lately. Just a few hours ago it looked like monsoon season and now we are back to bright blue skies. There have been a few really nice warm days and then others that are back to really cold. We even had snow just a week or so ago. Warm weather has been making its appearances but hasn't quite decided that it is ready to stay.

For us personally we are torn right now about whether we should stay or go in Gaziantep. Our time here has been profitable in many different ways, but we are unsure of whether or not it is the experience we want to have again for another year. We are looking into other options trying to see what opportunities are available to us.

Needless to say we are in an interesting stage of the year. We are excited about what is next - but not really sure what that is or ought to be. It is teaching us more and more what it means to be dependent and to learn to trust. It is teaching us to be "actively patient," a lesson we thought we'd learned in the past but is still as difficult as ever.

Well, now I know one thing...it is time to go home! Ready for the weekend!

Spring has sprung

So it has now been over a month since we have last posted on here. While the actual reasons of neglect and busyness are probably truly to blame we do have another development that gives us a great "excuse." About three or four weeks ago a Turkish court ruled to ban blogger/blogspot.com in Turkey. This came just a few months after another court decided to finally unblock access to youtube in Turkey. Youtube had been blocked because of videos that were "anti-turkish" and so this caused the government to get upset and cut off access to the site. The ban on blogger came from a different reason - a copyright dispute. The television station Digiturk has the exclusive rights to broadcast Turkish Super-lig football matches, but there were people using blogspot to post live streams to the games. I guess they had made attempts to get them shut-down but to no avail and so they ultimately resorted to blocking access all-together (though obviously there are ways around it since I'm now posting anyway!). So, we are holding out hope that sooner or later they will get it figured out and restore the service, but for now it is just a hassle to post on here. So that is our "excuse" for delaying so long in writing.

A few news updates on what is going on for us:
Classes for the third term have finished. This week we have final exams. So it will be a change of pace and then we will get geared up for the final term. We are hoping many of our students will pass the exams and move up to level C. So for them this is a big week, but for us it is a little more relaxing. The term went well overall. Our students motivation as always would fluctuate from lesson to lesson. It's always a challenge on our part to come up with new ways for them to interact with the language and see how it is useful to them besides for an exam. So it was challenging but helps inspire creativity (at least for Kylie!).

I'm into the second semester of master's classes. I'm taking two more again this semester. One of them is on Islam and Politics and the other is Turkish Foreign Policy. Both of them have been really interesting and are pushing my thinking. I have lots of articles to read but am really enjoying it. The courses are really interesting from an intellectual standpoint but also practical as well with all that is happening in the Middle East right now.

We are looking forward to the summer. Everything will start getting very busy the end of May. It looks like the summer group from Northland will be coming out to spend a few days in Gaziantep. So it'll be great for us to get to spend time with them here. They'll be able to interact with the students at our university. So we're looking forward to that. Then we'll be leaving to go back to Senegal. We'll be helping with a group there. We'll be teaching an English course again, as well as visiting the university, doing camps and schools for kids, and lots of other things with a group from Northland. Then after that trip we'll be coming back to the States for some amount of time. I'll be attending a seminar on Islam and Religious freedom in early July. After that our plans are up in the air but are sure to involve travel and family (and Red Robin, Chipotle, and Dr. Pepper!)

Our plans for next year are not certain yet. We are strongly considering being back in the same place again next year but are waiting on somethings to develop before we will know for sure. What we want to or feel like would be best for us to do.

A couple of neat things from the past few weeks:
- Last weekend we went with a few students to the city of Mersin (about 3 hours from here). We had been there briefly at the end of the summer. It was a really good time with our students. We got to meet his family and get to know them. They were great hosts and it was a really good change of pace for us. The weather and walking along the Mediterranean was beautiful.
- Since we arrived in September, Arby's has been "Coming Soon" and then "Coming Very Soon." It finally opened about a week ago. We ate it for the first time last night. The roast beef was wonderful. The curly fries were great. Unfortunately they don't have "Arby's Sauce." They do have horsey sauce, but no Arby's. Highly disappointed! Now our food court is only missing Chick-Fil-A and a Chinese restaurant to be complete (we have Burger King, McDonalds, Popeye's chicken, Sbarro, and Arby's!)
- Most important about three weeks ago we were able to get in contact with some believers in the city. It has been great to meet with them. They've been such an encouragement to us. Even though most is in Turkish and beyond what we grasp (though it helps us learn more) it is still so good for us. We hope that we've also been an encouragement to them as well. So that has been a major blessing to us recently.

Well, I apologize for how long this is...and also for going so long between posts. We'd love to hear from you and how you are doing. We are excited for what the future holds and reminded to look ahead because of the hope that we possess.

(We'll add some recent pictures to facebook and you can check them out over there!)