My time in Adana, Turkey has been spent working alongside Huseyin and serving at his church. We have done various works from helping with a Women’s conference, cleaning in and around the church, attending prayer meetings, prayer walks, and loving on his family. The work we have done here has been very fulfilling and I have thoroughly enjoyed every second I have had in Turkey. I have learned a huge life lesson from Huseyin, which is how to love like Jesus!
Learning to love like Jesus is something I continue to strive to do more of daily and I want my life to reflect Christ-like love. My idea of loving like Christ means loving without expecting anything in return. Being able to pour myself out to those around me without desiring them to give anything back to me. When I pour myself out to serve those around me, I can only find strength and fulfillment in the Lord. Knowing that He will meet my needs daily from physical to spiritual needs. My encouragement to serve comes from knowing God will give exactly what I need when I need it.
From my first days in Turkey I could see how Huseyin loved his family so well. The Lord has blessed him and his beautiful wife with 4 wonderful children that are 18, 16, and 5 years to old, and the newest addition is 7 months old. He is so patient with how he interacts with his children and very loving to each of them.
An example of this is when their 5-year-old daughter decides to get a bit sassy and get an attitude. He will grab her little hands, get down on her level, listen very clearly to what she has to say, and respond with kisses and a soft voice. There has been numerous times during my time in Turkey that I have seen his patience when speaking to her.
Loving like Christ means being completely in love with Christ and giving your whole life to His service. He does this very well in shepherding the community of believers around him and pouring his love onto each of them. The Lord has given him a huge heart for prayer and I believe he truly believes and understands how powerful prayer is. All the time he is encouraging us to pray and spend time praying for specific requests. Even while we are driving a lot of times he is praying over where we are or situations. I will hear him saying something but very quickly realize that he is praying and spending time with the Lord while driving.
The love that Huseyin is consumed with is Christ-like and just oozes from being in his presence. This is demonstrated in how well he takes care of my team, always insists on paying for everything, his phone is always open to whatever we need, and how he has opened his apartment for us to hang out there anytime. Something I have learned from him is the uttermost importance of loving all those around you. This includes your family, friends, and everyone who you pass by everyday rather on the streets, markets, or near your hohme. Loving like Huseyin is the best way to be Jesus to someone, by offering His love to everyone around you. All we really have to offer to people around us is the love of Jesus and to pour ourselves out onto them.
Selfie with Huseyin in the car with his daughters for the month! Photo credit to Huseyin
