Let me tell you, it’s not easy being a three-year-old kid in Turkey. Everyone here speaks really fast like they have been speaking Turkish their whole life. I listen hard, but they speak harder than I can listen.

I love pointing at things and then watching people run to get them for me. It’s my favorite game. When they bring me something, I point at something else behind them. They think they brought me the wrong thing, so they run back for something else, asking, “Ne istiyorsun?” which means, “What do you want?” What I don’t tell them is that all I want is to see them run. For about five minutes, it’s fun for everyone. Then it turns a bit sour.

Mama made me eat grapefruit, and now I like it. We eat a lot of oranges here, too—big, fresh ones the size of our cat’s head! I also like fresh figs. When Dad puts me on his shoulders, I can pick them straight from the tree. We found one tree whose fruit had been in the sun too long, and all the figs were dried up like you find in the store. But they were still sweet like jam.
Do you ever wish you could come here? You ought to, because we have wild pigs here. One day when my dad and I were driving, my Dad shouted, “Look at that!” I couldn’t see because I was strapped into my car seat. Dad pulled over and then opened the back door so I could see. There sleeping on the side of the road was the biggest, blackest, hairiest wild pig I had ever seen—big as a baby hippopotamus. I wish you could have seen him.
Hey, did you know that my big brother preached at church? He is five, which is really old, and he knows the Bible really well. Dad was getting ready to preach one Sabbath, and my brother said, “Dad, why don’t you preach the beginning, I’ll preach the middle, and then you can preach the end.” Dad hadn’t thought of a middle for his sermon yet, so he liked the idea. When my big brother stood up to preach, everybody got really quiet. My big brother got really quiet, too. I think he must have been thinking really hard. Then he talked about loving everybody. He said, “David killed the bear. But when we get to heaven, the bear and the sheep will be friends because God is going to make it so that we all love each other.”

I was really proud of my big brother. Next time, I’ll sing after he preaches. Dad says that’s the way the Wesley brothers worked it out. I asked Dad if the Wesley brothers ever saw a wild pig. He didn’t know.

Then my big brother hit his head on a screw. He had blood running all over his face. I ran straight to Dad for help. My chubby legs can really move when there is trouble.

I never got poked by a screw, but I did break my collar bone once. They put a lot of stiff white stuff on my shoulder and belly, and I was like a turtle in its shell for a month.

One time when we went to visit a man who Dad was teaching the Bible to, a dirty street lady came out of an ally and kissed me right on my lips. I survived.

Now for the interesting part. Dad and mom made a new friend who really loves Jesus and wants to know the Bible. I like her because she lets me jump on her bed. Daddy says I can’t do that at home. She and her husband live far away, so I nap in the car on the way to their house. Mama had Sabbath School with their littlest girl and my brother and me. When we sang, we had shakers and made a great noise unto the Lord. I like to sing, “The wise man built his house upon the rock.” While we were at their house, Dad taught their oldest girl a whole lesson in Turkish. She said it was the best lesson she had ever heard. Dad was really happy. That day we prayed, and Dad preached, and the people asked lots of questions about the Bible. I love the Bible too. I also like a book called Humpy the Moose.

Please pray for me so I can grow up wise. My brother prayed for wisdom, and God gave it to him. Now it’s my turn. I was born in Turkey. That will be to my advantage. Dad met an old missionary who was born in Iran. He said everyone worried because he didn’t talk until he was three years old, then he burst out speaking three languages—Arabic, Farsi and English. I am coming near to my bursting-out time. I want so much to talk, but right now the main thing I say is, “Num-num.” That means, “Time to eat,” which, in my opinion, is the best thing anybody can say in any language.

Pray for us, and we will pray for you. And, when Jesus comes and we meet, we will smile at each other and say, “Oh, you’re the one who was praying for me!” Then we will fly off with the angels and play together.

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