Travis Snode’s March 2011 Prayer Letter

St. Patrick’s Day Festival
We had a great day on yesterday at our St. Patrick’s Day Festival. We opened up the church for the public to come in.  We had games, prizes, refreshments, a Bible film showing, Christian literature, and a place for people to rest and talk.  Our church is located right in city centre, so it was a good opportunity to invite people into the church.  We had around 50 people come today with at least 16 first-time visitors. All of our faithful church volunteers did an amazing job.  Sam Quinn was also a huge help overseeing all the games for the outreach.  Thank you for praying for this outreach.  Many seeds were sown that we believe will bring forth fruit.  Below are a few photographs from the day.

Rope Holders – Prayer Partners Thankful for Your Faithful Prayers Over the years, there have been unique individuals and churches who have communicated with us and showed a great interest in our ministry.  These people have visited, called, wrote, and been committed prayer parters with us.  We are thankful for every person and every church that has been so faithful to support and pray for our family since we began on this road nearly ten years ago, but we are especially thankful for those people who have communicated with us time and time again and held us up in faithful prayer. Where Did the Rope Holder Idea Come From? We want to give these faithful people and anyone who is interested the opportunity to be a part of a special team of people – the Rope Holders.  The idea for this group comes from the life of William Carey, who has been called “the Father of Modern Missions”. William Carey was a shoemaker in England in the mid 1700s. Even though he was not a missionary, his heart broke for missions and the dying people of the world. He kept a map of the world on the wall in front of his work bench that as he made and repaired shoes, he would weep over the world and for the Gospel that could save the world! In a meeting with the missionary society in London, the leaders asked, “Who will go down to the Heathen and take them the Gospel?”  Carey spoke up and said, “I will go…but you must hold the rope for me!”  Carey went as a missionary to India and made a huge impact, but no doubt much of the credit belongs with those who “held the ropes” back home. How Does the Roper Holder’s Group Work? For those who desire to be rope holders, we will do our best send you a list of prayer requests and answers to prayer every week via email.  Initially, I will try to send these requests on Monday. The rope holders will agree with us in prayer for those requests, and we will continue to communicate with you regarding how God answers.  There is no pressure to join the group, but if you would like to be kept more up-to-date with what the Lord is doing in our ministry, we want to give you fuel for your prayer and praise.  If you want to join the group, just reply to this email and let us know.

We are serving the Lord as church planters in the British Isles, but we have a burden for the whole world and a heart for the continent of Europe especially.  I am going to try to periodically post some information about some of the largest cities in Europe to raise awareness of the need, generate prayer for laborers, and stir the hearts of God’s people to go and take the gospels to these key cities.

According to this website, the second-most populous city in Europe is Istanbul, Turkey.  Wikipedia has this to say about Istanbul:

Istanbul

• Historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople
• The largest city in Turkey and 5th largest city proper in the world with a population of 13 million
• The largest metropolitan city proper in Europe and the second largest metropolitan area in Europe by population
• Istanbul is a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial centre of Turkey.
• The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province.
• It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country.
• It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents.
• During its long history, Istanbul had previously served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330-c.395), Byzantine Empire(c.395-1204 & 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922).  Thereafter, the newRepublic of Turkey, moved their capital to Ankara during the Turkish War of Independence.
• Istanbul was chosen as aEuropean Capital of Culture for 2010 and European Capital of Sports for 2012.The historic areas of the city were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
• The rate of population growth in the city is currently at 3.45% a year on average, mainly due to the influx of people from the surrounding rural areas.  The population has doubled from from 6.6 million in 1990 to over 13 million in 2011.
• Istanbul is one of the most important tourism spots of Turkey. There are thousands of hotels and other tourist oriented industries in the city, catering to both vacationers and visiting professionals. In 2006 a total of 23,148,669 tourists visited Turkey, most of whom entered the country through the airports and seaports of Istanbul and Antalya.
• Religion in Turkey:  The best I can tell, it is similar to the rest of Turkey – Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians, Jewish population).

Would you please pray for God to raise up missionaries to go to the city of Istanbul and to the country of Turkey?  There has been some pretty bad cases of persecution in the country i the past, but they need Jesus there.