Turkish Delights

For those that don’t know, that is the name of an actual dessert here in Turkey, so I promise that the title is funny. It feels as though our time here in Turkey has just flashed past. Already, we’ve moved on to the M.E. and it has just blown me away. Our schedule has quickly filled up, but I’d be remiss to forget those that we met in Turkey.

One of my favorite connections we’ve made has been with a guy we’ll call Merlot, because that’s what I want to call him when I forget his name. Merlot is a very passionate Muslim student with whom we’ve been having amazing discourses in Starbucks. Normally, these conversations are facilitated on Google Translate on the World Race as English isn’t commonly learned at a conversational level and we are very much not familiar with Turkish; however, I’ve jumped at this opportunity because Merlot, being from a former Soviet Bloc nation, speaks Russian. Evangelizing through my Russian which granted, is not perfect, has been such a blessing. In our discourses, he has fervently pushed on several themes such as the sinlessness of their prophets, that the bible is flawed, and that Muhammed is the greatest prophet. Yet in spite of all that, we have convinced him to read some of the book of John and pushed him to confront the contradictions of the Quran, but most importantly, we have had the chance to show him what it looks like to live as a Christian. We have shown him that we aren’t tied down by the religious doctrine of man, we have a hopeful assurance of what is to come that isn’t uncertain or based on works, and we have this overflowing love that comes not from us but from Christ.

While we are still striving to see fruit in our relationship, we’ve seen a lot of budding fruit in our connection with Tucker (another nom de plume). He is another student who has been curious about religions and has attended numerous meetings of Islamic, Buddhist, &c. origin, yet he never felt at home with any until he did a bible study with us and attended church. Not only did he accept Christ into his life, but he brought friends to the second church service and one of them converted as well! It’s also amazing because this happened during a Palm Sunday service at which our very own Elijah Pequeño preached!

Then finally, in our last few days of ATL as we rounded out our time in Turkey, Kara and I had an interesting time playing checkers. We joined some older men playing Turkish checkers – (where you apparently make up the rules until your opponent gives up. As we were sitting with them, some rained pushed a group of three guys to join us under the rain cover and we quickly got into a lively discussion. Upon finding out that we were followers of Isa al Mesih (Christians), one guy launched into the arguments that we’d run into several times. In spite of countering his points, he merely argued that we would only understand when we became Muslims. Excusing himself for a prior appointment, he left but two of his friends stayed with one turning to me to ask where Jesus affirms that He is the son of God in the gospel. After showing the conversation between Him and Caiaphas, he said that he believes me. Taken aback, I clarified to him, “Are you saying that you believe that Jesus was the Son of God, sent to die on the cross as a penalty for our sins and was raised on the third day?” He simply responded yes and asked where churches were where he could find a bible. After getting him set up on the bible app we unfortunately had to go.

Turkey was an amazing trip and so many of us in P-Squad praised the Lord for all His goodness and the fruit that we got to witness in Turkey. As I continue my time in the M.E., I ask that y’all would pray for those above, for our ministry here, and for my continued fundraising as I still have $1230 left to go before I’m fully raised. So thankful for y’all and your support and I’ll see you on the flippity flip!