Thurman Update #3 (Written July 6th, 2005)

In Cyprus

Nols sent out an email the other day but it appears to not have made it

We are here in Cyprus! Ethan did a great job on the flights it was amazing how well he did he slept on the floor and ran up and down the aisles making friends,

Cyprus is amazing today Nols and I were just praying about how we longed to make more contacts with the locals God answered our prayers today we were taking Ethan for a walk and we wanted to show him some horses nearby where we were staying On our way to walk across the open field where the horse was tied up a dog came strolling our way and a man about a hundred yards away was waving his hands at us. I assumed it was his dog coming to sick us and he was waving in irritation because we were on his property. We quickly turned around and decided to walk a different location, on our way back from about a 25 minute walk the same man came pulling up to us in his car. We came to find out that he wanted us to come meet his little grandchildren that were similar ages to Ethan.

He ended up taking us to his little orchard where he let me sty on one of his horses with Ethan in my lap. He then allowed us to help water his animals and then gave us a tour and lesson on the difference between the trees in his orchard...He runs a restaurant I think we will try to eat there an continue to build on this friendship... please pray for him and his family his name is Cemal he is a Turkish Cypriot....

We are doing well overall finally adjusting to the time difference and diet difference we are spending much of our day seeking God in prayer solitude and corporate worship our team consists of Turks from Turkey Kazaks from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz from Kyrgyzstan, Canadians from Canada and good old Americans from the U.S. and Mexicans from Mexico. We spend the late afternoons and evenings prayer walking on the Universities and through the different towns here in N. Cyprus

We will send more out later

Trust all is well with you all

We are grateful

Thank you for you prayers and support

Love Ryan. Nols and Ethan