Hey everyone! This is a big update on everything that has been happening in the past 3 months! We have been in a few places in Türkiey and Nepal! Both of these countries are so beautiful and the people are amazing!

In Turkey, we stayed in Istanbul for a week and then we broke out into our teams and went into ministry. My team lived in Çanakkale, little college town by the water. It was really sweet there. We worked with our Bulgarian host who was a church planter,  with him we helped do an English club, youth ministry, evangelism, prayer walks, helped prepare the church throughout the week for services, and prepared for Easter.

While we were in Istanbul, we did a lot of ATL and exploring the city. One day we went to the blue mosque and we got some flyers at there info desk about what is Islam. Then I saw some young people sitting on the floor talking with a guy and they had the flyers all over he was giving them an explanation. So we sat next to them eventually we end up sitting In there convo and joining the circle. We talk for like 2 hours about Muslims and how we compare it to Christians and the whole time these other people are there listening and super interested. Finally they're like we have to leave so we get there Instagram and say let's hang out. We end up going the next day for coffee and we have a great time so we invite them to dinner. So our squad cooks dinner for 20 people because they have six friends and they join us for dinner and we start having amazing gospel conversations and it was so sweet and they kept saying there was something different about us. We are able to show them that you can have fun with no drinks no smoking and worship music in the back. This was only the beginning of our time in Türkiey and it had us so excited!

Another time in that week, 3 of us were sitting getting coffee and we went to leave and some man ran over to us and said "wait, I need to talk to you but I need to hang up the phone" so we wait and he hangs up the phone comes over and he sits down and starts asking us about college and he thinks that we are college students here in Turkey. we say no, and we start just talking and he asked us how we have so much joy and basically we were all really nervous to say anything but he just wanted to know so much about us so we got his contact. We ended up going to coffee with him again and it was such a good Convo. I ended up sharing my whole testimony with him. He was so fixated on marriage and what we thought about marriage and how we viewed it and we got to tell him that God created marriage and tell him that we view it because this is how the Bible says, and he kept saying how we're so different than other Americans and it was really cool to be able to have him listen to our stories and share the Gospel through all of our answers to his questions.

While we were on our smaller city Çanakkale, Ramadan was happening. Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide as a period of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. During this time Muslims are calling out to allah asking for dreams and visions. So our whole squad decided to also fast and be praying for God to give them dreams and visions of Jesus. For God to encounter them while they are crying out. We got to fast for our family's back home, for Iran, for our friends, for more revelation and more dreams and visions for ourselves. It was so amazing to be able to do this same time as our Muslim friends because it was an easy way to talk to them about Jesus and explain why we are fasting too if we don't believe the same things.

One of the days we had a theology class come and observed the Church and it turns out it was 15 Muslim collage girls. They got to sit in the whole church service and take notes. This was such a cool opportunity because after church, we all sit around eat cookies, and drink tea, lots of time to build friendships. We ended up making really good connections with two of the girls and they became our friends really fast. We got coffee with them throughout the week they came to our English club. We had so many amazing talks about Jesus and asked a lot of questions about what they believe and they had a lot of questions for us too! We never agreed on most God topics but they love to talk about it. We talked about all the similarities and all the differences. And at the end of every conversation, we still were able to laugh and smile and be good friends. Always after hanging out with them we would pray for them to start to question more and for them to have an encounter with Jesus. Truly, it was so beautiful getting to make these connections.

We made a lot of friends from English club to our Muslim friends at church to our barista at our coffee shops! The best part about meeting all these people was we got to invite them to our Easter service we were putting on. Our whole squad was at our Easter service and we sang Turkish songs, danced, did a skit and did a flag dance! Our friends were all so excited to come and watch us preform. While they were there to see us sing terribly in Turkish,  they got to hear the gospel and be around all of our friends who loved the Lord. It was such a special time to get to do this Easter service and invite all of our friends.

Türkiey was really good and we definitely saw the Lord moving there. He grew our hearts so much for Muslims in that small time and lit a fire in us. I'm so thankful for the time we had on Türkiey. But our team was very excited about it Nepal... finally a warm country!! We have been in cold places the past 6 months and we were so ready to feel the heat!

Nepal!!! 🇳🇵🇳🇵

We have been in Nepal for 2 months now and we have been to a few parts of Nepal so far. We have gone to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, Gorkha, and a few villages in the mountains. We got to lay eyes on Mt. Everest, so insane. It's so beautiful being here in the nature and the culture is so rich here. Nepal is a mostly Hindu and Buddhist country. 1% of people in Nepal are Christians and even tho it's not illegal to be a Christian, persecution still happens. Nepal is so different than the places we have been so far, getting to be here and switch it up is so sweet!

While being here we partnered with a church called new Jerusalem, where we helped with kids ministry, evangelism in the city, went to orphanages, and to be apart of the church family here. The church was truly on fire for the lord, you could feel it when you walked in. While being with this church as a team o think we learned a lot of being in tune with the spirit and being willing to speak up and pray and prophecy over each other. We saw people come to salvation on the street while evangelizing and we saw people be delivered from things they were being oppressed by. Everything that happened in Nepal truly has built my faith!

My favorite part of Nepal was the last 2 weeks. We left the city and went to a small village in the mountains. After a 12 hour bus ride and a 2 mile hike into the jungle, we got to our village. While there we came alongside local believers and encouraged them and pray for them. We got to help with physical labor to local pastors, pray for the sick, and share testimonies to the locals.

We also got to hear testimonies or the people who lived in the village. The one that stuck out the most was from the pastor that was traveling with us. This village was his home village we grew up in but no longer lives there. He became a believer as a teenager and a few people around him became believers too. The persecution in this village has gotten so bad. They burned the church down three times, and tried to kill him and any other believers. Finally they said deny your God, leave your faith or leave the village, so he fled to another village with his family. 30 years later we are standing in the church that was rebuilt for a 4th time being welcomed by the people who tried to kill our friend. Truly an amazing story of Gods love. God loved that village even when they hated him. The pastor came back to that village because he knew God loved them. He knew God loved them so he came back and gave them Jesus. Wow! This testimony really makes me question my heart and ask for more of Gods heart and love for his people. I don't know I would go back to people who tried to kill me and burn all my stuff down. But Jesus would! And he did! So insane!

So much happened in this 2 weeks! So there are other villages close to this one so we hiked to those areas to go to believers's houses to pray for them and encourage.  Some of these urges were two hours away uphill… That's how long it takes them to go to church. Crazy, in America we decide if it's raining we're not going to church but these people hike 2 miles uphill in their 80s to get to church! After we left that village we trekked for 2 days to Chitwan, where we stayed at another church. We went to a lot of believers houses to pray and encourage them too. Chitwan has a national forest so that means the elephants and rhinos in the street are very normal. We had big culture shock seeing these on the road! In Chitwan cars done cause traffic it's the rhinos that walk slow in the road that cause traffic!

So basically now we are back in Kathmandu for a few day before we go to India!! So excited! It is officially 1 month and 8 days until we get back to America! 🇺🇸 with it being so soon, I have had some time to spend praying and asking God what is next. When I get back to America I will be spending 2 weeks in Georgia serving the next team as the train before going out on the field. Then in October I will be moving to Dallas, Texas! I am so excited to be moving there, I have gotten a lot of vision about my time in Texas and know this is where the Lord wants me next! There is an amazing church there called Upperoom I will be attending! It is going to be a big transition from being back in America to moving so soon but I know the Lord will provide! Please be continuing praying for my next steps and for us to finish the race off good! I will also be adding my Venmo in if you would like to donate to help my transition back to America and moving to Dallas! Definitely be praying! I'm so thankful for everybody who follows along with my journey it means so much to know you guys are at home praying for me!

Venmo- @Kayla-Pollard-13