These brothers are new members of our church. They came to Christ in last couple of months and have been studying our doctrine classes. Man in the middle is Levent and on the right is Ahmet. They are both married and have kids. Their families are not believers yet. But we pray often for them to hear the gospel and come to Christ. I just have had 2 hours study with these two men on baptism and church, hopefully I will be having another one on marriage next week. Unfortunately Christian values in life (especially in marriage) is rare to find in Turkey. It is also extremely hard to become a Christian, especially if you are settled middle age person with family. You get criticisms, jokes and slanders. People thinks that you are going thru some kind of midlife crisis. We would be appreciated if you raise your prayers to our Lord for these men. Pray that these man grow in their faith and be light to the people around them. Their baptisms also coming up, so please remember that day would be not just a blessing to them but also blessings to many other who plan to attend. As you might heard, we are having some serious terrorist attacks in our land. These terrorist attacks have been pretty scary. We have not have any major problem in our city but since Antalya is a touristic city, we have heard many time that ISIS might take Antalya as target. Praise the Lord nothing have happened yet. But lately we decided to be more careful. We have heard that there might be a major explosion again (just before Ankara bombing) 3 weeks ago and decided to cancel our sunday service at our church. But we didn't want to cancel the entire sunday. So rather we worship at our home. It was a different sunday, a bit unusual but things were OK. We glorify our God, learned from his words and enjoy the fellowship. Unfortunately security issue became so big that we contacted by the police and they told us that we will have police protection every sunday from now on. Now we have police guard every sunday at our service. We are appreciated for all your prayers. Please also remember all of the churches around Turkey. There are churches in the east side that they worship under the gunshot voices. Another lovely day here in Antalya Turkey. When a turkish people finds a weather like this, they don't miss these opportunities. They go to a beach and bbq. Well I personally am not a picnic guy but some of our church members put this wonderful day together and it was a lovely time.
This kind of times not just teaching about the beautiful creation of God but also great time for people to get to know one another. Because we often forget what the church is all about and we are people of God and a family of most amazing creator. I reminded our church the think on 1. Cor 10:31 'So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.' Every aspect of our life should bring glory to our King. We pray that these times build us We were preparing for Via Christus Academy launch for a long time. Though we have had our first lecture last year, it was more of a test than a real lecture series. It was short and few people joined. But this lecture is for 5 days straight. For this lecture my friend Pastor John van Eyk came to Antalya. He is from Canada, he now currently serving as Pastor of Tain/Fearn Associated Presbyterian church in Scotland. John is married with his wife Lucy have been blessed with seven children.
Greetings to you from mountains from Antalya. Here is a lovely picture to you from our 11th anniversary. We are so happy to have one another and pray the Lord for many more years together before the glory.
Thank you for your prayers and support to our Refugee Effort SHARE, especially the Acts 29 Churches which has a crucial role in this. I want you to know that this is not just our effort but also a hard work of many others here in Antalya and generous churches around the world. Last Thursday we have distributed 1530 cold protective pieces (includes blankets, duvets, linens). Winter is getting cold over here and we are happy that hundreds of families will sleep warm... For more info and pictures please check sharerelief.org
- Pray for our staff members and their labors as they serve the church and our ministry of mercy and outreach into our community. Pray for the financial provisions to meet our salary commitments. We are so blessed by their hard work and faithful service.
- Pray for upcoming Via Christus Academy lecture. We will have a study between 8th to 12th and many people will be coming from different cities. Our teacher Rev. John van Eyk will be coming to teach us for 5 days on Hermeneutics. - Pray for our family and especially for our kids as they grow. Pray for us as we seek to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. - Praise for our Acts 29 conference, it was a successful meeting and so many people enjoyed this time. Already many interested CP out there. - Praise for our newly formed refugee ministry, Syrian Humanitarian and Relief Effort . We have just distributed 1530 pieces of bedding stuff (linens, duvets, blankets) Check out here for more SHARE - Praise to our Lord for the expansion and growth of our publishing ministry. We are thankful for our strong and faithful publishing partners, translators, and editors. They are helping us publish and provide, free of charge, Bible centered books in our language. Acts 29 Turkey have finally been launched. We were praying for a long time about that, and we have had a wonderful 2 days conference with so many CP's and Pastor's attended. Our Europe Director Philip Moore and Mike Gunn has shared about what Acts 29 is and how can we be a network in Turkey. Unfortunately Turkey didn't have any network solely focus on the Church Planting. But now we are happy to announced that there is one. Actually already so many interest out there to join the network. After the conference so many people came and talked to me about how could they learn more about Acts 29. We are excited and looking forward to get in touch with these men so that we can collaborate with them on the gospel centred church planting.
Our New Ministry... SHARE
SHARE is a group of expats and Turks in Antalya whose aim is to provide assistance and relief for Syrians who have arrived in our city. SHARE is continually identifying and assessing the locations and needs of Syrians in Antalya. We have begun our efforts with a pocket of refugees who live in a slum at the north end. There are 85 Syrian families in this slum, with an average of 8 people per household. Today in the town of David
a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord. ~ Luke 2:11 May your heart be lifted in praise this Christmas for the wonderful gift of Jesus and the joy He brings to our lives. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Blessed New Year We greatly appreciate your prayers for the congregation and ministry of APK. Here are some specific prayer requests that we would like to share with you.
- Pray for 2 families that recently moved away. One family relocated to the UK and the other to the USA. Pray that our Lord will bless their lives in their new locations and continue to use them for his glory. - Pray for our staff members and their labors as they serve the church and our ministry of mercy and outreach into our community. Pray for the financial provisions to meet our salary commitments. We are so blessed by their hard work and faithful service. - Pray for our upcoming Acts 29 conference and Via Christus Academy lecture series. Pray for those who will lead these meetings as well those that will attend. Pray that it will be a time of encouragement and enrichment through study and prayer. - Pray for our family and especially for our kids as they grow. Pray for us as we seek to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. - Praise for our newly formed refugee ministry, Syrian Humanitarian and Relief Effort (SHARE). Many people have expressed an interest and desire to support this ministry. We are so thankful for the funds that have been given allowing us to reach out to them with much needed food and clothing. - Praise to our Lord for the expansion and growth of our publishing ministry. We are thankful for our strong and faithful publishing partners, translators, and editors. They are helping us publish and provide, free of charge, Bible centered books in our language. By the end of January we hope to have completed and distributed two new books. We are finally experiencing some cooler weather in Antalya. Yes, even in Antalya the weather will eventually get cool. Some people are sad to see the cool weather arrive but I love winters. Before the arrival of the cool weather, we decided to gather together for a church picnic. For Turks, a picnic means lots of food. We prepared a barbecue along with an abundance of home made Turkish food. This will probably be our last picnic for the year. It was such a nice time together and enjoyed by all. We have welcomed a few new visitors and the church picnic was a great opportunity for us to meet and get to know these new people.
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About This BlogPictures and News from Archives
October 2019
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