I’ve been in Turkey now for the past 3 weeks. I spent 1 week in Istanbul with my squad for a debrief and the past 2 weeks in a small city called Kars. It is located on the far Eastern side of Turkey, close to Armenia, Iran and Georgia.
The team I am with is a full of people with loud and funny personalities and it makes for a fun time. We have gut wrenching laugh times nearly every day. When we were sent here, we were told that there were 2 known believers in the city that is mostly Muslim. There is no Christian church in Kars and we were the 8 young, rambunctious, 20-somethings who were going to plant a church here in 3 weeks. We heard stories of other Racers plant churches in a short amount of time, so we believed it could be done. We went expectant, willing and excited for what God was going to do through us in such a short amount of time.
Each day looks different. We usually go to the city in the afternoon and evening to build relationships with people who speak English. This is difficult because there are not many who speak English here. This month is Ramadan, so everyone is fasting from food and water during the day, then at 7:45pm, they are able to eat. We join locals in this to eat with them and try not to eat in public during the day to show respect to their culture. We go throughout the day trying to live a normal life and just be. It’s cool how this has been working because we have had many people approach us in cafes or on the streets who speak English and want to talk to us. We get to pursue these people throughout our time here in hopes of getting into more spiritual talks about Jesus and His saving grace.
We also play soccer and basketball with locals in our neighborhood. Here, we are communicating mostly by our actions. We hug, high five, fist bump, smile and love these kids and teens with everything we can without verbally communicating to them. They call out our names when they see us in on our balcony and yell at us to come play football (soccer).
We can easily get discouraged by the lack of productivity we’ve experienced so far. In 2 weeks, we haven’t seen any one come close to wanting Jesus. We came to plant a church, and what have we got? A handful of mediocre English speakers and a bunch of kids who we haven’t been able to share the gospel with?
What was the point in coming?
Could we have been used more effective somewhere else?
Is short term missions even effective?
Is is even God’s will to plant a church here?
Are we doing something wrong?
I believe every World Racer and Missionary have a lot of these same thoughts. Especially if they come from a culture like America and Canada where we desire productivity over the relationships. We like to measure our results with something. If we give money to a missionary, they should be fruitful in what they are being sent out to do, right? That sounds fair, but who determines what is fruitful or not? Man or God?
In Turkey, most people are Muslim. They don’t have a good view of Christianity. There has been a history of powerless and loveless religion here for centuries. In Europe, the church forced things upon people and Christianity seems like a not so pleasant religion. Now, we know that the church is learning and growing in power and love, but the Turkish people haven’t had anyone tell them this or show them. The Turkish people also don’t have the best view of Americans. Their worldview of Americans is what News/Hollywood shows them, and it is not the most accurate view. We are told that people in these countries view American women as people who are ready to have sex at any time, because that’s what they see in the movies.
We are bringing a perspective of Americans and Canadians to the Turkish people that is probably very new to them. We are also bringing a perspective of Christianity that they knew nothing about. We are showing them a love that they may have never experienced. We are planting seeds of what true lovers of Jesus looks like.
We are some of the first Christians to come to this area and we are tilling the land for the next missionaries who come here. We are planting seeds of love and not of religion in their lives. We don’t have a church building or a body of believers who profess that Jesus is Lord. But there are seeds in the ground. More workers will come and plant more seeds. More workers will come and water them. More will come and reap them. And they will multiply throughout the city of Kars.
As for my team and I, we have planted the seeds. We have planted a church in Turkey and God is so pleased. We have nothing to show for it because the seeds are in the ground. But come check out this city at a later date and you will be able to see the fruit. As for now, just trust that seeds have been planted and His Kingdom is growing daily.
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