Dear partners in intercession for Turkey
and the earthquake crisis,
We entered the new year with cold and
snowy weather here in Turkey. Our friends in the tents are brushing off
snow from their homes and we are glad that we at least could give them
good winterized tents and heaters.
The project in the Hamidiye village is finished. We raised 35 tents, 30 prefab houses, a prefab school building and furnished all accommodations. We provided tables, chairs, heaters, stoves, beds, and some tea tables.
The school building project is also about to be finished. The constructing company had some delays and the roof was leaking so we have to follow up that the job has been done properly. We hope that the children will be able to move into their classrooms this week.
The Christmas basket project was a big
success. We handed out 100 baskets.
From Southafrican children we received 1000 teddy bears. We got permission
from schools and parents to hand out these teddy bears to smaller children
and girls and soccer balls for bigger boys. With each basket, teddy bear
or ball we were also able to give a little booklet with the "True
Christmas Story" and a booklet about love. With this project we tried
to show the people that we are trying to share more than just material
- also hope, love and faith.
In the town Gebze (between Istanbul and Izmit) still a lot of families are living under blank plastic sheets. Seeing this we decided to start "tent raising business" again.
We feel that we should help those families we have given shelter to to take responsibilities for their lives again. Therefore we are planning to help them set up their businesses again and we thought we would stop the tent business now, but the urgent need in Gebze made us get more tents for 12 families.
Thank you for help and prayers.
Greetings from cold and shaken Turkey
Operation Mercy, Earthquake relief work Project Coordinator