Frustrating Logistics

This trip has turned out to be very frustrating. Our time with the people has been great, both the Roma and the Turks have been wonderful and warm to us. But the organization and logistics have been awful. I got about half the time I needed in Vizuresti and in reality, only trained 4 or 5 men. Edie had only one evening with the ladies, about 6. We had a lot of problems with translation as well. We have to find new ways to organize our training, but I was not able to discuss this with the leader because he speaks no English. He obviously does not understand what we are trying to do. I hope to be able to communicate with him through his son by email once I am home. 

Here in Germany we have the same situation. The men are great and Edie has enjoyed the women. But I have only had 5 regular men to work with and two of them have been out of class for some of the time. A few others have come in part way, which makes it difficult since they do not know what we are doing. They are constantly checking their phones and going in and out. Hopefully we can get that communicated today. One blessing is that I have a great translator. It is hard work since most of the men speak Turkish but one or two speak Bulgarian. The problem has been worse with Edie as she had 7 women and the translation went from English to German to Turkish to Bulgarian and all of the transitions were sketchy. 

Right now, I think we are only dealing with two churches, which is way below what we want. For the whole trip, all three weeks of training, I have only reached 5 churches and less than 15 men. We have to figure out how to change that. All these men need what we are offering but we have to reach more churches more efficiently to make the trip cost and time effective. What is needed here is for someone from the Turkish church to get the vision for what we are doing and to become a strong coordinator. We will work and pray to that end.

Al