Our time in Turkey started out a little strange, but we soon found ourselves with the freedom and liberty to serve anywhere and everywhere. Here are some highlights from our time as the utility team.
All three teams had the same partner in Turkey – a man we’ll call “The Thug” (because he was one and he knew it). The Thug was the senior pastor of a government-registered church in a town pretty popular with tourists… in the summer. Just about everyone we ran into that wasn’t part of the church thought it was odd we would visit in the winter when it was only about 20 degrees some days and 30 degrees on others. Each team had a set partner and location once we arrived, but the Aspenators learned that plans for us had changed. Originally, The Thug had wanted us to work in a different city and drive ourselves to and from the site each day. Days before our arrival, however, he learned that due to organizational insurance policies, we are not permitted to drive ourselves so he moved us into the same town as Save Our Souls (S.O.S.; no called River). This meant he had more than twice the manpower (because our team is bigger than theirs) as originally intended and there just wasn’t enough for us to do; we became the utility team.
Here are some short stories of cool things we got to be a part of. As always, this is not the exhaustive list because there just isn’t room or time.
Serving the Family:
– The Thug, his wife and their two kids lived in an apartment building near where we were staying. The first thing they had us do was help repaint their apartment. At first, we struggled (some more than others) – this wasn’t ministry, it wasn’t what we came to Turkey for. Through conversations within the team, we decided that was an immature perspective and that we were here to serve the family and the church as they deemed appropriate and if that meant helping accomplish things they normally wouldn’t make time for, then painting the house is what it was going to be. A few days and a few sessions of painting went by and The Thug used our exact phrasing when he explained that they had needed to paint for over a year now, they just couldn’t make the time and never had the help.
English Class:
– A couple of the girls were in town one day and met a man that spoke really strong English. Generally, when people that speak English meet us, they’re excited at the opportunity to practice. His English was some of the best we’ve encountered, though. Turned out, he was an English teacher at a high school! Next thing we knew, we had an invitation to spend half a day with the English department and their students – kids that found native speakers and American pop-culture fascinating. We spent a couple hours meeting the staff and faculty (sharing sweets and tea with the headmaster), and opening up what we could to anyone that would listen, but more significantly, allowing them to open up whatever they could and we would listen. The music teacher played piano and sang us Turkish opera, which Sarah and I loved. We (mostly Sarah) supported the church’s worship services but couldn’t understand Turkish music – it didn’t follow any of the rules we were accustomed to. The piano player had sheet music so we got to check it out and read what our brains couldn’t deduce.
Basketball:
– For some reason, basketball was really on my heart again, and Aspen’s too. She showed up one day with an outdoor surfaces basketball and presented “when are we gonna ball?” as a team idea that no one really jumped on, but I tucked it away. It was only about 30 degrees most days, but there was a nice municipal court right on the water next to the Trojan horse (used in the movie Troy and donated to the city of Canakkale) in the center of downtown. The team rotated in and out of the cafes and coffee shops for warmth and to get some work done, but a few of us stayed on the court most of the afternoon. It was a great time – we played what was passably called basketball, H.O.R.S.E., and had a sign that said “practice English” to announce that we were English speakers and wanted to talk to people. After about an hour and only a single interaction with a university student that wanted to film us for a school project, I noticed a man that had been watching us for some time. I chased down an(other) errant ball near the man and stopped to say hi. He had spent some time trying to figure out what our sign was intended to mean. I explained we didn’t speak Turkish but wanted to meet people so we made a sign to help people meet us. In more polite terms, he told us the sign was dumb because Turkish people aren’t outgoing to strangers like that. I didn’t tell him it was our dumb sign that kept him there long enough for me to start talking to him. We spent probably an hour hanging out learning about each other – he hadn’t spoken English in almost 30 years (since high school) but was excited to practice; he moved to the city when he retired and began taking care of his elderly mom – he met us during his daily mom’s-naptime-walk. He met the team and shot some baskets with us and after a while, went to check on his mom. We exchanged contact information, said good-bye, and I promised to see him again.
English Club:
– Because The Thug had native English speakers available, he began an English club where any members of the community could come and practice. It was usually a pretty strong turnout. We taught people new words, things to do around the house, and activities. We invited our basketball friend so he could continue practicing English and gain some community to spend his free time with.
The Body:
– Possibly the best part of our time in Turkey was that we didn’t have a set ministry; we did whatever the Thug needed and spent a lot of time with the members of the church. S.O.S. was staying at the church, which meant they were always working, always had people over, and were always entertaining. We got to relieve our friends and tag them out whenever we were at the church – it became an opportunity for us to serve our American friends and provide them some rest. We all did a good job to integrate the community, though. We enjoyed the relationships we shared but promoted and encouraged relationships among themselves. We helped build bridges with a bowling night! Almost 30 people showed up, including our basketball friend. Not everyone played, but the night was full of laughter, stories being shared, and relationships being born.
– The church body was a lot of local Turkish people, but was also home to refugees from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda, and Uganda. It was a tremendous mix of people all with unique stories that would leave you dumbfounded. One man’s story translated to a word that meant “fugitive”. After some careful questions, we learned his family was pressured by the Taliban and he literally ran for his life. Others left their home countries only to be displaced up to three more times because where they found themselves soon became afflicted by warfare. One man was a former drug addict that became an officer in the Iranian army only to be imprisoned for not being Muslim, then dismissed and unwelcome by his community. Another woman we call Ava (who you can read about in Sarah’s blog here) came from a prominent religious family; she denounced her family name, gave herself a new name to reflect her new identity as a Christian, received a Masters degree and is pursing a PhD.
Independence Day:
– On the recommendation of our host, we attended a “country music concert” which we knew meant folk music, but what we got was so much more than we could handle. Three of us showed up in typical Race attire (now ill-fitting, outdoors gear that was a little dirty) expecting a community fair style music performance – maybe some high school groups, community choirs, etc. Wrong. It was a black tie affair hosted by the Governor of Canakkale (who we met at the museum of Troy so we boys and its all good now). We walked up right before the red carpet reception of some famous person in a convoy of black SUV. We listened to the traditional folk music and tried to participate as the crowd waved their Turkish Flags back and forth and sang with the music. When we left, we met a man working the event that offered to take some pictures for us. I took that opportunity to ask him what we had just celebrated. We learned that it was a very important day in the history of the nation – during World War I, the Allied nations were storming through Europe but were unable to achieve victory in Turkey and were forced to leave the region… then he asked where we were visiting from… It was pretty tough not to respond with “the Allied nations”. We said we were from America and he found it interesting and continued sharing different perspectives of history with us. It was pretty cool.
All in all, we had a great time in Turkey but really can’t explain where our time went. It seemed the relationships had existed forever, our involvement in the community was effortless, and the sadness that came when it was time to leave was only made worse by the entire congregation coming to the pier to see us off on the ferry. We truly found family in Turkey and I think I speak for the team when I say we’d go back at a moments notice; back to the many warm hearts and open arms that received us with as much love as when we left.
P.S. Immanuel gives the best hugs.
