For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed of serving in the Middle East. And Turkey is the main reason I chose this particular route of the race.
It turns out that it’s just as exciting as I imagined!
The incredibly rich biblical history in this country is amazing, and we have the privilege of living in Galatia! Many times when we leave our home, we run into mobs of protesters who are sometimes being tear-gassed. We hear the call to prayer resound throughout the city 5 times a day from the loudspeakers posted on every mosque.
It’s pretty surreal and every day is an adventure. I sometimes can’t believe how blessed I am to be serving here!
We’ve been working with an organization that does so many things to reach the Turkish people, and we’ve gotten to help out in a variety of different areas.
-This org has been working on becoming self-sustaining and to not have to rely on support to keep it running. And by His grace, they’ve achieved it! They run their own coffee roasting & packaging business and the revenue from that keeps all of their outreaches and projects going strong. We’ve gotten to help out with the renovation of the new building for the roastery; sanding, staining, and cleaning to get it ready to open up!
-Once a week we help at soup day! We whip up a massive pot of soup, pass out flyers, inviting people to come to the church for a free meal and to come inside to visit if they’d like. We then serve up hot bowls to the people of the community and sit and build friendships with them. My new friend, Negi is there every week, and we usually sit and visit almost the whole time! Sometimes we have a translator, but most of the time not. But it doesn’t stop us from truly enjoying each other’s company and becoming bffs! It was sad to say goodbye this last time!
-Another weekly job we get to do is help distribute chick peas and rice at the local bus station. People line up waiting for us to arrive, and get their bellies and their hearts filled every week when we pass out meals to these really friendly Turks. Every warm smile and “tesekkürler,” (thank you) is always so sweet as they show such genuine gratefulness.
-Another weekly event to look forward to is when the whole community of Americans, British, Chinese, Korean and every other worker that Papa has sent to this nation gets together for fellowship, worship and prayer. It’s a great time to share testimonies of how He’s working in everyone’s different projects, or hear all prayer requests, and come together to lift each other up in prayer.
But my favorite part of this month has was our weekend trip to NE Turkey. Our contact and his organization has heard a calling to pray fervently for this city and has done so for the past 5 years! This is a city that is truly unreached, and currently has only 5 native believers and zero ‘workers’ serving there for the kingdom. And amazingly, we were given the privilege to visit this city for a weekend.
When we arrived, we held prayer meetings in coffee shops, did prayer walks around the city, had worship both on the outskirts of the city, as well as in the heart of it, perched on a hill overlooking the landscape riddled with mosques. We also got the change to meet up with a couple of the only believers who live there. We got to hesar their testimony of how they came to know Jesus, which was probably the most incredible testimony I’ve ever heard!
One day, someone shared the gospel with this woman, who had never heard of Jesus before, and that very same night, Jesus visited her in a dream and told her the importance of a personal relationship with Him, and was also told her to share with everyone she meets about that Him! It was absolutely mind-blowing to hear! Even in the most unreached places, where it’s hard to send workers, the Lord is still very much at work, reveling Himself to people in miraculous ways that may never have gotten the opportunity to learn of the importance of His son. It’s so amazing!
And then of course we have the sometimes random, but always exciting other assignments that our contact throws our way. Like our first day, letting us loose on the streets of downtown Ankara and giving us 1 hour to share the gospel with a stranger without a translator. Setting up, tearing down, and making flower arrangements for a friends wedding. Helping move a friend’s apartment at 10pm on a moments notice. Working as a barista at the coffee shop in the Korean Cultural Center. And my personal favorite, lugging a coffin up the stairs to our apartment and cleaning it out.
But yeah, whether its traditional serving, or doing something totally new, I’ve loved every minute here in Turkey, and I feel incredibly blessed to end my race with such awesome experiences!
PS: I fly home in 7 days!!! Can’t wait to see ya’ll then! Thanks again to everyone who has been praying for me and supporting me throughout this journey!
