Cleaning out my inbox

Őzur Dilerim! I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the lack of my posting lately. I also have been horrible about answering e-mails. I keep e-mails in my inbox until I respond, some have been in there way too long! Just wanted to let you know I'm renewing my effort to keep up better.

It's really warming up here. I don't need my heavy jacket most days. Generally it's still cold into March. We have not had any snow and barely any rain. Pray for some form of precipitation. The drier it is now, the worse things will be this summer. Only a few apartments have reservoirs. Last summer the city did not have running water for over a week; which is not good if your apartment doesn't have a reservoir. They also will cut off the water every other day to conserve water sometimes in the summer. So pray for rain! :)

Starting this month I'm going to bi-monthly newsletters. Please pray for our school and especially Ross (our principal) as he is currently trying to fill positions for next year. Our organization is growing, which is great, but there are a lot of open positions around the world and not enough applicants. Ross also had to expel a student this past week. We hope that we can continue to maintain our family atmosphere. He is traveling in Cameroon, Africa this week, helping them through the accreditation process. I have a huge praise, one of our parents became a believer. PTL! We have several other unbelieving families who have been visiting our church.

I have bought my tickets for this summer. I'll be home from the middle of June to the end of July. I'll be returning to Turkey for the month of August so I can take intensive language lessons. I'm looking forward to visiting with you this summer. Our third quarter is almost over, June will be here before we know it!

I would also like to encourage you to write your Congressmen. Currently there is a bill in the House of Representatives (H.RES.106.IH) that would not bode well for the relationship between Turkey and America. I'm not sure if you are aware, but in the early 1900s there was a mass genocide (about 1 million) of Armenian Christians in Turkey. This happened during World War I under the Ottoman Empire. Typically under the Ottoman Empire there was religious tolerance. During the war though, they believed Armenians were aiding and spying for the Allies. They were called out into the center of their towns with promise they were being relocated and then killed. This was a horrible thing. Unfortunately, the Turkish government's official position is that the Armenian genocide did not happen. You will find no mention of it in Turkish textbooks. It's not something you talk about here. [Of course I talk about it in my classroom. I just covered it in two of my classes.]

Troy went to a meeting at the America Embassy where this was brought up. The bill has hit the press. The bill wants American foreign policy to state that they do not support Turkey's position on the Armenian genocide and wants American foreign policy to reflect that. [Go here http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/110search.html to see details of the bill, you can search by Armenia. There is a smaller similar bill in the Senate.] It does not look like the bill really does anything, but this type of bill leads to things like sanctions. It will also make life more difficult for Americans living in Turkey (that's me!). For Turkey to enter the EU, one of the many conditions is acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide. So I do not see why American needs a law stating our official position. I encourage you to write your Congressmen. Here is a link to send an e-mail. http://www.house.gov/writerep/

I believe what happened was horrible, but I think this is a sad, sad, waste of taxpayers' dollars to pass this bill. I'm praying it will die in committee. It's currently in the Committee of Foreign Affairs.