Operation Elam

My wife and her mom and sister left today (Monday)for London and Instanbul to visit and meet those involved in Elam College and ministries to develop leaders for reaching into Iran.

Here's the Elam Ministries site

"Elam was founded in 1988 by senior Iranian church leaders with a view to serving the needs of the church in the Iran Region. From the beginning, Elam's passion was to train and equip Iranian Christians for the ministry. In 1990 the first six students arrived from Iran to begin their fulltime training. They lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment and used the kitchen as the classroom.
An elderly Scottish lady sent a cheque to Elam's leadership for £50, noting the money was for the 'Iranian Bible Training Building Project'. No request had been shared with anyone, and so Elam's leadership believed the Lord was directing them to the next step. In 1992 Elam purchased a disused and semi-derelict Salvation Army eventide home."

Wednesday Update: We did get an email to my father in law that they are safely in London and spent yesterday at Elam College and are in London for sightseeing today. We hear rumors that they may get to go to Mary Poppins!

Interesting article today about Istanbul and Turkey and religious freedom, protected by the Turkish constitution but not really a possibility until this first Christian church in years opens.

This is the hotel they are staying at in Istanbul starting tomorrow, wow!

Wednesday afternoon update: Julie emailed "we leave for istanbul in 6 hours --have been in london all day and night. saw mary poppins tonight and had a really nice day. learning lots here at the bible college and the people are great1 give the kids my love. love ya"

Looks like London was a success ... Now on to Instanbul in 6 hours.

Thursday Update: Found this verbage on Flickr post of some great photos of Istanbul .... try it yourself www.flickr.com and do a search for "Istanbul"

"Istanbul ,one of the great historical cities of the world, is the only city in the world located upon two continents with one arm reaching out to Asia and the other arm to Europe. Through the city's heart runs the sea channel called the Bosphorus which reaches north to The Black Sea and south to the Marmara Sea. Istanbul is located in the Marmara region of Turkey and is a major seaport city as well as an industrial, commercial, educational and financial center and trade center. Manufactures include ship building, glass, textiles, shoes and cement. The city's inhabitants is Officially about twelve million.The city is divided into three parts - the old city , the new city and the Asiatic side. The old town and new town which encompass the greater part of the city are located in Europe. The Asiatic side can be reached from the European side by two bridges, the Bosphorus Bridge, one of the world's longest suspension bridges and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. The Old City and the New City are separated by the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus. It is a natural channel seven km long and is connected by two bridges, the Galata Bridge and Atatürk Bridge"

I talked to Julie yesterday. They had just landed (our morning, their late afternoon) in Istanbul and were headed to dinner in the market quarter of the city. She said they had a great time in London going to Parliament, Big Ben, attending Mary Poppins, and spending some real quality time with these students at Elam College. Hopefully I'll get a report today on their stories in Istanbul. Remember these students are all being taught in Persian so they can head back to Iran and teach the gospel in a country that isn't too free or tolerant. I asked Julie to send some pictures too, hopefuly she can get them emailed so I can post.

Friday Update: Email from Julie

"Thıs place ıs beautıful!!!! lookıng out at the sea of marmar and the hıstory ıs amazıng: We are tourıng wıth