A few days ago my team decided to do a prayer walk through the town we are staying in here in Turkey. We walked up this hill next to a big castle over looking the city.
There we sat and prayed. Then an elderly man walked up to us. He didn’t speak any English, and we certainly don’t speak any Turkish or Kurdish, but he said “chai” (the Turkish word for tea) and pointed down the hill towards a house and motioned for us to get up and come with him, we looked at each other, said yes and followed the man down the road into his house.
We went into his house and he motioned for us to take a seat on the rugs on the floor (there were no couches, just rugs on the floor and pillows against the wall). We tried to communicate by motions and we did the best we could to figure out what he was saying…but most of our communication was smiles and head nods. He turned on the TV and we just sat with him in his lovely home. He came out with Turkish tea and kept on filling up our glasses (I had at least 6 cups of tea!).
I was blown away by his hospitality…he walked up to 6 foreign strangers who didn’t speak his language and invited us into his home and fed us countless cups of tea. He was such a blessing and such a sweet man. We sat with him for a couple of hours just being with him and doing the best to try to communicate…even if we didn’t understand what was said, I will never forget the love, kindness and hospitality he showed 6 strangers. I learned a lot from him that day…
The man so greatly touched us, my team decided that we wanted to do something for him, so today we made cookies for him and planned on stopping by his house to deliver them to him. We knocked on his door and a young woman answered the door. She is quick to invite us in. Inside the young woman, her two children and her mother were inside, none of them spoke English, we handed them the cookies (we also had a Turkish bible and the Jesus film in Turkish with the cookies), and they of course offered us tea, and we accepted. So there we sat, once again. The elderly man was not home, unfortunately, but we got to enjoy the company of the women and children. We sat and tried to communicate with motions and drank tea.
They ate some of the cookies and seemed to really like them! After a while they grabbed the Jesus film and put it in the computer…the next thing I know, I am watching the Jesus film in Turkish in a room with a muslim family, drinking Turkish tea.
And as if amazing tea and their time wasn’t enough, all of the sudden they had dinner set up with extra plates for me and my teammates! So we sat on the floor around the table and ate dinner with them.
It was an amazing meal! We sat by the furnace and watched some TV with them until we said our goodbyes. I found it hard to leave as I was so touched by their kindness, their warmth and hospitality towards us!
Would I have been so welcoming? Would I have invited strangers into my home and offered them something to drink? What would I have done if I was in their situation and was presented with the Koran? Would I have brushed them off? Would I have sat and watched a movie about Muhammad? Would I have turned on music and taught them how to dance after watching the movie about Muhammad? Would I have invited them to eat with me? I sure hope so.
Today I got taught a lesson on how to be Jesus by a wonderful Muslim family.
