Just another day at the office

I thought it might be fun to give you a glimpse of what Joe's day was like on Tuesday. To say that every day is like this one would not be correct, but at the same time, he's had many days similar to this one!

Joe is a night owl, so this means that on the flip side, he's not generally an early riser. While the rest of the family was up around 7:00, Joe snoozed a bit longer. After his completing his normal morning routines, he began to get ready to head to the office. In doing so, he realized he'd misplaced a paper he'd written in preparation for discipling one of his friends. So....he spent a while searching for the elusive paper and still came up empty handed. Thus it was back to his BibleWorks computer program to record the information he wanted to be able to share with his friend.

In the meantime, Armand called from the office (Armand has language lessons in Joe's office now) to say that the folks scheduled to arrive at 11:00 AM for their appointment were already there and waiting for him (at 9:45 AM). Joe scrambled to finish getting ready, took the bus to Kizilay, and then sped the rest of the way to his office on foot. (I can't say he walked there as anyone who has seen Joe in action will attest to the fact that he often tries to squeeze too many things into one day and is forced to almost run from point A to point B as he's already running late!)

The three fellows met with Joe concerning their cases with the UNHCR and also shared with him that due to their lack of jobs and money, they were just kicked out of the place they were staying and were now on the streets. This necessitated in some phone calls to verify their story (which was true), and then he explored some ways to try to help them.

He had several other meetings that day, such as a visit with Pooya, along his mother and father-in-law who had come for a visit from their own country. They spent several hours with Joe, and he was able to share the whole Message with them and answer many of their questions. He also met briefly with Arash, who came just to say goodbye. (Arash is bound for Los Angeles, and while we will miss him here, we're praying God will use him mightily there and perhaps some day bring him back short term to serve here as he says he'd like to do.)

Throughout this whole time, there were also lots of phone calls. One worth mentioning was from his friend Siavash, who leads a group in an outer city, to say that he had some great news for Joe and wanted to talk later that night. Another was from our friend Safi who called to inform Joe that our friend Mohammad was just robbed at knife-point by four people he knew. Safi was hoping to use the relationship we have with the UNHCR as leverage to get them to return the money. Basically, he asked Joe to tell the 4 men that he'd personally report them to the UNHCR if they didn't cooperate. (Mohammad couldn't go to the police for help as he's not supposed to be here.) However, Joe was wary of using this method to try to get the money back. Joe had already been in touch with these men at his office as they discussed their UNHCR cases with him. He was concerned that making such a "threat" to them might anger them in such a way that they'd try to come after his family. So while we began to discuss how we might proceed, Safi called back to say he learned there was "bad blood" between Mohammad and the 4 men, and perhaps the story of the robbery was not completely true.

By this time Joe was ready to head home for the evening, but upon looking at the condition of his office, he realized some tidying was in order. Once that was completed, he dashed out the door to catch a bus home.

Once at home, he went to work to help cook some yummy fish and potatoes for dinner. (I do most of the cooking, but there are a few meals that require a little extra assistance!) Throughout this time, his phone was not silent. Several calls involved our friend Mohammad. In the end, Joe became 99% convinced the accusation of theft was honest, and the 4 men also reported they'd return all the money except the 300 lira they'd already spent. Joe relayed this information to Safi, who was satisfied to wait and see how it would turn out.

Then Joe got to spend a little time with the family. Due to our recent adventures in potty training, the kids got to bed much later than normal, and so before they were in bed, Joe was back at the computer to talk to his friend Siavash via a yahoo instant messenger phone call. Siavash did share great news concerning restored relationships in the fellowship and of the decision of several to cross the line. Joe also had to arrange some of the logistics for his friend Dick's upcoming trip to that city. The call lasted until after 10:30 at night, at which point Joe switched to working on preparing his lesson for the prayer meeting the next day.

Some time later, Joe was ready to relax - eat a midnight snack, surf the TV for something to watch, and read his book. You'd have to ask him about the particulars, though, for at this point, I was already fast asleep!!