TURKIYE TURNOVER

We were in charge of FHE on Monday night. Since we are responsible for emergency response for the Europe Central Area, we chose the theme of Emergency Preparedness. We told everyone about some of the emergency projects in the Europe Central Area in 2024 and what was donated.

Türkiye Earthquake: container camps, water filters, mobile hospitals, school rebuilds

Valencia, Spain Flood: water, food, clean up equipment, generators

Switzerland Flood: clean up equipment

Refugees in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Canary Islands: food, clothing, sleeping bags, blankets, hygiene kits

And then the senior missionaries assembled 72-hour emergency kits for themselves. We all have a years supply of food and 72-hour evacuation kits at home but that will not do us much good on our mission. We feel more secure now. “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” (D&C 38:30)

On Tuesday we traveled to Türkiye for perhaps the last time on our mission. Elder and Sister Thayn now support Türkiye and are living in Izmir. If all goes well with their visas, there will be no need for us to travel to Türkiye again.

We were there during Ramadan, one of the most sacred times for Muslims. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam and for 30 days they abstain from eating and drinking from dawn until sunset. It is a time of introspection, prayer, and reading of the Quran. It is a time to feed the poor. On Tuesday evening at dusk in Gaziantep, we saw throngs of people lined up for a free meal. We share a similar practice. In our faith we fast on the first Sunday each month for two meals. We give the money we would have spent on food to the needy.

We honored their fast by forgoing lunch each day, but we made up for it at dinnertime. As always, we enjoyed fabulous Turkish food with the best people ever. Their fast is usually broken by eating dates or dried apricots. There was a date in our Ramadan airline meal.

Gaziantep is known for its baklava

We will miss shopping for and eating roasted nuts in Türkiye

We spent three days with our dear friends in a variety of tasks.

We visited Gaziantep Hospital to have the legal documents signed so work can begin on finishing 14 operating room suites there.

We took the Thayns to see one of the container camps our church provided. We were greeted by grateful, humble people who thanked us repeatedly with such sincerity. Of course we visited the handicraft shop the women have organized. It was sweet to recognize some of these women and to feel such a connection despite the language barrier. Spirits speak heart to heart.

We took the opportunity to do an evaluation at one of the schools that was inaugurated last October. What a joy to meet the children and see how 400 little ones are thriving in their new environment. The space, filled with light and excellent teaching materials, was a joy to see. We met with teachers while the children were at recess. They marveled at the new school and said they never dreamed they would have the opportunity to work in such a place in their rural village. The only change they suggested for the future was to install Turkish toilets instead of western ones. They feel the squat toilets are more hygienic.

We met with the local ministry of education officials to choose new school sites for the humanitarian project we hope will be approved. They prioritized according to the most urgent needs of schools that were destroyed during the earthquake. Yves Bonnamy, a church engineer, flew in from Lyon, France to join us. Our two builders had their engineering teams on the ground to give us their opinion on soil condition, utility access, and existing infrastructure removal. Burhan, a government employe from AFAD was with us and we were honored to have Elder Picard join us. His church calling is Area 70 for Türkiye. His day job is our area security manager, so we always feel safer when he is with us.

We arrived at a rural school that needs to be demolished just as the children were going to recess. We were mobbed by loving children who marveled to see foreigners for the first time.

We drove about 350 km and visited nine different sites. Several of the possibilities for new schools are on the Syrian border.

We drove by acres and acres of orchards with olive, almond and pistachio trees. In Adana orange trees lined the highways.

BRAUNFELS
We arrived back in Germany late Friday night, just in time for a Saturday field trip to Braunfels. Towering on the crest of a rock, Castle Braunfels has been in the hands of noble lineage for 800 years. This stronghold overlooks the spa town of Braunfels. This name was familiar to us from when we lived in Texas. New Braunfels, Texas was settled by a member of the family who lived in this castle. We always enjoyed visiting this German town when we lived in Corpus Christi. This castle was begun in the 13th century. Its present towered silhouette is mainly a product of the 1880’s. We saw 14 of the 204 rooms. The in-residence family occupies 70 rooms today. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside.

We ran into five other missionary couples who had the same idea we had of how to spend a chilly Saturday morning. (Giffords, Nelsons, Muellecks, Southwicks, Silvesters)

We learned where the expression “Were your ears burning?” comes from. In most of the castles and palaces we have visited there are beautiful stoves in many rooms. Servants fed the stoves from interior wall passages. If they wanted to eavesdrop on their employers, they would put their ears against the stove to try to hear the conversations in the adjoining room. If the stove was too hot, then their ears were burned.

We visited the Easter market in Braunfels and watched two different artists creating beautiful Easter eggs. One woman was hand painting eggs with beeswax. The other eggs were dipped in color, and she was using a tiny tool to scrape off the color to create a design.