Hello! Greetings and blessings from Izmir! I hope this post finds each of you not only doing well, but comprehending through the Spirit the "breadth and length and height and depth" of God's love for each of us, which was demonstrated in Christ's blood being sacrificially spilt on the cross. It's been a while since I last posted, and while I should maybe be catching you up on what daily life is looking like, I'm going to take this oportunity to share about a highlight of my past year, an outreach trip.
The form of ministry I am doing daily here in my city is very much incarnational. It is all about living in this community and being a light. It's about developing relationships and the love and trust that should accompany those, which, in turn, then allows me to share Jesus in a very real and meaningful way. I love this form of ministry, and believe this is type of ministry best fits my strengths and giftings. However, during the first few weeks of August, I had the opportunity for a bit of a changeup as I joined about 15 other people on an outreach trip with another mission organization along the Black Sea (Northwest Turkey). In my city, I have an intentional, slow-burning, focused aim, while this trip was straight up machine gun spraying; it was pure proclamation to as many people as possible in a short amount of time.
After nearly a week of team time in Istanbul preparing ourselves to share the Gospel, we caught a bus heading East, which was, at that point, the extent of our plan. Each night, we would gather together as a group to pray and listen to the Lord, and then, based the Spirit's leading, would roll the next day into a new town, split into smaller groups, and then disperse through the town, handing out Evangelistic pamphlets, New Testaments, Jesus films, and a few other materials. We would also look for people who were willing to talk with us and then, if they allowed us, present the Gospel.
This area was obviously still Turkey, but it had a very different feel from the other places I've been here. I get the sense that my city is, in the eyes of many Turks, the heathen city of Turkey. While I have a few friends here that will say they are Muslim, that is in name only, as I do not know a single practicing Muslim here. Rather, the majority that I know here will say they are actually Deists and that they don't believe Mohammad was a Prophet or the Quran is divinely inspired. Not in this area of the Black Sea, as it is as unreached as it gets; there was not a single church, missionary, or known believer for that matter, in the entire area. There, every person I talked to, even youths, said that, of course, they were a Muslim and that, of course, they believed in Mohammad and the Quran. Furthermore, many people's reaction to us as foreigners was very different. In my city, people hardly give me a second thought as there are so many foreigners here, but up in the Black Sea, we were met with tons of suspicion, and many were not happy that we were there. In one town, an old man, upon seeing the word "Jesus" on a wristband I always wear, began yelling at us and demanding we leave town. The police were called on us in a few towns. A young Imam student (Imams are the Muslim equivalent of a priest or pastor) whom I was talking with freaked out when I pulled out a Bible in order to show him a passage of Scripture and begged me to put it away while he ushered a couple young boys out of the room. Every instance of rejection or opposition to Jesus and the Gospel was a hard thing to deal with, as Jesus makes it clear that He is the only way to eternal life spent with Him in the Father in Heaven. It's tragic really.
But while there were tough instances such as the examples I gave above, there were also moments of incredible joy and encouragement as we did encounter people who were open to the message. With my level of Turkish, I personally could only share as simple Gospel message, but there were others in our group who spoke fluently, and many people heard the Good News. Furthermore, countless others received literature and films which point them to Jesus and gives them an invitation and avenue to explore it further.
A highlight for me came while I was walking through a poor neighborhood in a mining town. Neither of the two guys whom I was with that day live in Turkey, which meant that I was the Turkish speaker of the bunch. As we were getting ready to turn back, a couple young men came up to us, intrigued as they had never had a foreigner walk down their street before. Yet, here were three young foreign men, each from a different country, standing before them. They invited us to join them for coffee, and we headed over to their home, taking a seat outside around an old, rickety table. Soon, more people began to join us, and before long, we were surrounded by 15-20 men and boys, and behind them, about ten women. The conversation, which at this point was being led by a 25-or-so-year-old young man who was clearly the leader of their little community, quickly shifted to Jesus, and between the Turkish I know and a few of the materials we had brought along, we were able to share with them that Jesus, who is God, loves them so much that he died for them, and not only that but is alive and desires to have a relationship with them. Every now and then we would be interrupted by some young boys who wanted to touch my blonde hair or ask the South Korean if he knew Jackie Chan, but the young leader always brought the conversation back to Jesus, asking more questions, and closely and thoughtfully listening to our answers. At one point, an older man came over, and upon realizing what we were talking about, got angry and said we needed to leave, but the young leader told him to be quiet, apologized to us, and told us to pay any attention to him. None of the others did. When the time came to leave, we were able to leave them a Bible, a Jesus film, and two brochures, one that tells who Jesus is and another that answers some of the basic questions Muslims have about the Bible and the God that is found there.
As far as we could tell, none of these 30 or so people had previously heard the Gospel or had had any real exposure to Jesus. It really was an eye opening and humbling experience to be a part of this trip, and to have a hand in introducing people to Jesus for the first time ever. The hardest part for me was not when people rejected us or the message, but was leaving people, like the group I wrote about above, who expressed interest in the Gospel. One of the things I really love about my ministry in my city is I get to walk with people, and can continue to share Christ and answer questions. Sharing Christ with someone, and then saying goodbye and going on my way was hard! But God really is in control, and the way He works is just insane. One night as I was really struggling with leaving and trusting God for these people, one of the girls on our team, who had done a similar trip in this area two years ago, shared that she had ran into one of the people she met on that previous trip, and now upon hearing the Gospel again two years after hearing it for the first time, she declared that she believed and gave her life to Christ. These people live in one of the most unreached places on Earth, but God has not forgotten them. They are in His hands now, and, though I need reminding of it sometimes, that is the best place to be. Please join me in praying for these people, that God would bring Salvation to many!