The dynamics of events in Turkey these last few months have been one of the greatest struggles for Turks. Starting with an inconclusive election last June, followed by a declining Turkish economy, things seemed really bad. Finally, last Sunday the new election results changed everything once again. AKP (Islamic Party that ruled the country for 13 years) was elected again and will continue to be the ruling party. All of these events have created a sense of division in our country. We really don’t know what effect this election will have for the church. We hope that the government will pursue mild political steps and not separate people anymore.
Among all these troubles, the Kurdish separatist group and ISIS have been active and many attacks have occurred here. Unfortunately, there have been few steps taken between the Turkish government and the Kurdish separatist group for peace. The results of the election have not helped to bring peace between these two groups. Obviously, ISIS used this opportunity to bring about many attacks in Middle East. This caused many people to flee from Syria and to enter into Turkey. Millions are entering Turkey in order to save their lives. In this environment their life is not settled in Turkey. Many people are hungry and live on the streets. It is difficult to share the entire Middle East problems in two paragraphs. But one thing is clear, we need a lot of prayers. Pray especially for the Syrian refugees. There about 10,000 of them living on the streets in Antalya. They are not allowed to work and they have no shelters to go to. Our church has been trying to help the poor in this city. Our mercy ministry efforts have now expanded to include the homeless Syrians. If you are interested in assisting these efforts please let us know. As we evaluate the situation here and determine what our efforts will be, we will continue to provide updates on what we are doing and how you can help.
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If you are not a friend with us on Facebook, you probably don't see much of our faces. So here are some photographs from the last few months. Well, yes we still do not need sweaters or jackets. Perfect weather in Antalya!
While many people around the world celebrate Halloween, we don't acknowledge it in Turkey. For several years in our church, we have celebrated Reformation Day on October 31. We usually have a big dinner and have a bit more classical atmosphere. It was surprising that on Reformation Day this year a few of my Islamic theology students joined us. Some of these young man struggle with their faith. Some of them desire to learn more about our church. One of them came to the church with the purpose of declaring Islam to me and to show me the errors of my Christian faith. We are now good friends with all of them. Just last week seven of them came to one of our weekday gatherings. Many of them expressed incorrect assumptions about Christian faith. However, as they continue to come, they better understand who we are and what we believe. Recently one of them said to me smiling, 'Kerem, I didn't go to Friday prayer but I came to church this Sunday. That should count, right?' These men don't know Christ and this is a great opportunity for us to share about our faith. Remember these men in your prayers. Here are few prayer updates from our ministry.
- Pray for security of Turkish Pastors. Many Turkish pastors have received threats from ISIS. - Pray generally for Turkey. In the last few months we have experienced chaos in our country with the election of the Islamic party, conflict with Kurdish nationalists, and with ISIS. - Pray for Hakan. Pray for continued growth in his faith and development of his leadership skills. Pray for wisdom as he seeks to serve our Lord and function as a church leader. - Pray for Cagatay and Tugce. As they move to Houston, Texas this month they face many challenges with language, housing, and employment. Pray for God’s provisions for them and for encouragement. - Praise to our Lord book publishing ministry. We are thankful for our strong and faithful publishing partners who are helping us publish and provide, free of charge, Bible centered books in our language. Pray that we will be able to respond to the increasing demand and meet this need. - Praise the Lord for opportunities to share the Gospel lately. We have experienced repeated visits from Islamic theology students. During informal conversations we openly share with them the Gospel. Pray for the work of the Spirit in their hearts and our dialogues with them. We hope that they will give their life to Jesus. There is good and bad news from Manavgat. As you can see from the photograph (on the left), we continue to go Manavgat regularly and encourage brothers and sisters there. This meeting was held in the home of the Ornekoglu family and was very encouraging. We studied the Word, prayed, and ate together. But there is bad news as well. The Ornekoglu family (Cagatay and Tugce) will be moving to Houston, Texas this November and we will miss them very much. There are few believers in this small town and it will be difficult to lose some of our members. We are encouraged for this new opportunity for Cagatay (green t-shirt) and Tugce (black t-shirt). Join us in prayer that they will both be blessed and be a blessing to those with whom they will build new relationships in their new home. Please continue to pray for the Manavgat Church plant and the challenges they face. Here is more info about Manavgat.
If you would like to learn more about our church, Antalya Protestant Church, this is a great video made by the Acts 29 Video Crew. It shows many aspects of our church and our lives.
Acts 29 is a Church Planting network that we have been part of for a year. This summer, Acts 29 appointed me as the director in my country to establish a network of pastors and church planters. This is an enormous task. In order to function effectively it is critical to develop an efficient network between churches. The entire team of European directors (pictured on the right) work collaboratively to build networks in their countries in order to serve each other better. This photograph was taken during a leadership meeting in which we actively discussed strategies to help church plants in Europe and made preparations for future trainings, conferences and church planter assessment meetings. Acts 29 Turkey plans to hold its first event this January 18-19th in Istanbul. As you know one of the greatest aspects of our ministry is Via Christus Ministries (VC). Through Via Christus Ministries we concentrate on publishing books, providing online materials, and developing a bible academy. This photograph is from a Via Christus Board meeting. This two-day meeting allowed us to establish most of our future plans and stimulated conversations of how we will accomplish them. It was such an important meeting for us. Due to the unexpected and rapid growth of VC, we have been provided additional opportunities to publish more books and articles in our language. To fulfill the bible academy component of VC, we have made plans to provide a Hermeneutics course this February in order to equip Turkish leaders. |
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October 2019
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