IMAGINE…
The alarm goes off at 6:30 and James, your husband, groans and rolls out of bed to prepare for work. You begin going through the normal motions, waking up Luke and Lisa, your two children. Luke is in 6th grade and is discovering girls aren’t as gross as he thought. Lisa is in 3rd grade and is a quite the little artist. You live in Nagasset, in a 2 bedroom apartment in a rural city of 100,000 people. It’s a small town in the Bible Belt of America and most people keep to themselves, but are amicable and kind-hearted. The afternoon is going as planned when suddenly seven people dressed in odd clothing come walking up the stairs and move into an apartment across the way. It’s being rented to a young man named Rajeb and his seven friends. You overhear that they are from Turkey and they are celebrating Ramazan – a holy month of fasting in devotion to Allah.
Later in the day, Luke comes home super excited! He met the new neighbors – “the tourists traveling around the world.” He was kickkng a soccer ball with Rajeb, then he heard him mention “Allah.” Your husband James walks through the door and overhears Luke say, “Who is Allah?” Surprised he asks you what’s going on.
As James casually redirects the questions and ushers Luke off to do his homework. Then, he looks up to the television and sees that Brussels has been bombed by terrorists… Looking back at you he says, “Why was Luke hanging out with those guys today? Why is he asking about Allah?”
You explain that he met Rajeb outside on the way home from school. They enjoyed some harmless fun kicking a ball around and that Luke asked some questions when he found out they were Muslim. James is a little perplexed, but decides to not be too concerned. However, he doesn’t want James playing with Rajeb and his friends.
A few days later, James heads off to work a little peeved. Rajeb and his friends were making noise until midnight because they were celebrating the breaking of the fast at 8:30PM. Everything seems fine, but you look out the window and notice the kids in the neighborhood cul-de-sac swarming the travelers. You’re not sure what to think. Rajeb is super friendly to the kids. His friend Elena even allowed one of your neighbor’s daughter, Tina, play her guitar. And she came back raving about how cool they were! She hasn’t met such nice, older children before.
Could they simply be nice Turkish people? Or are they proselytizing Tina? You’ve seen what’s happening in Turkey strewn across the and you’re concerned… what to make of it all?
Now FLIP the role. The Muslims are Americans. The rural city is in Turkey. And the group of loud foreigners who moved into the neighborhood is my team.
THE REALITY
WE are the weirdos. The women on my team must take extra precautions to be conservatively dressed. If they make eye contact too long, it may be perceived as sexual interest in the Turkish men. We cannot speak about Jesus to children under the age of 18 without risk of being thrown in jail. We are fighting the stereotypes of the American media and sexuality. One of my teammates, who was born in Korea, is constantly pestered with questions about her ethnicity by men tugging at their eyes to imitate an “Asian-looking person”. And children jokingly scream, “Hey, F*** YOU!”, giggle with laughter, then grab your arm and hold you like a trophy to show their friends how cool they are… In Sprite of all these constraints and negative interactions
GOD IS SHOWING UP!
Our Father has used the smallest acts of obedience to lavish us with his love.
We have been approached by English-speaking University students in cafes and the invited into their homes to learn Turkish dancing.
We have been invited to cities goes away, near the Iranian border to meet their families.
We met then hosted a “hamburger party” for a college professor, his wife, and his friend in our home. And had conversations about our faith.
We were invited to a farm 20 minutes outside town for a traditional Iftar meal (the meal that breaks the day-long fast).
And the best part is we are just being ourselves. Not the “Christians” or “Evangelists” or any other label. We are simply being people loving other people be being ourselves.
I don’t know if God plans to plant a church here in this city. I don’t know if anyone will chose to follow Jesus and confess that he is Lord. But I do know that these Turkish people are seeing something different. And that God will send laborers one day for the harvest here in Turkey, even if it isn’t us. He is faithful.
