With five volunteers, a Turkish believer and myself drove out to one of the larger Tatar villages in the area to see if we could connect with some of the locals. After giving our greetings to the village leader, we sat down outside at the local tea house to see which way the Lord and local hospitality would lead us. We had short visits with a few of the locals, before Jeremy* came riding up on his bike and sat down to see what was going on. He was quite interested in our group and we had a good conversation with him, at the end of which he invited us to his house for lunch. During the conversation, we learned that he had been a truck driver before retiring to the farm, but because he had been gone so much over the last 25 years, his wife was divorcing him and his 2 daughters, 17 and 24, did not want anything to do with him.

While he left to prepare for lunch, a friend of his showed us around their town. We talked and prayed that we would have an opportunity to share with Jeremy when we went to his house. When we returned from our stroll around the town (which included a stop for home-made ayran, a popular local yogurt drink, while another farmer proudly showed off his farming equipment), Jeremy was waiting at the tea house to take us to his family home. He was staying at the house he grew up in with his mother and father, who were both in their 70’s, since his wife did not want him at their house anymore. They had prepared a wonderful meal for us and they served us while insisting that they would eat later. After the meal, they gave us a tour of their house. While the rest of the group followed on a tour, Jeremy asked me what I did in Istanbul. I was able to briefly share about my work with the Turkish churches and Christians in Turkey. He didn’t ask a lot of questions, but overall his demeanor did not change much. We all settled into another sitting room on the floor for tea with Jeremy and his mother and father. We had a nice time visiting with them, but the topic finally returned to Jeremy’s separation from his daughters.

The pastor who was on the volunteer team shared through my Turkish believer friend of his own relationship with his own daughters and the pain and sympathy he felt when he considered Jeremy’s situation. It was a beautiful act of empathy, and as the pastor shared, the 74-year-old grandfather of the girls began to weep. We asked if we could pray for them and the pastor prayed for the relationship to be restored and the love of God to come again to this family. All the time, the grandfather was crying next to me. After we were done praying, they were very grateful and expressed their thanks to us as we thanked them for their wonderful hospitality. We left knowing that we would have an open door to go further the next time someone from our team was able to visit the village.

Continue to pray for Jeremy and his family and that this open door will continue, not only into this household, but in their entire village.

One night, I hung out with my closest national friend, *Natalie. We went to dinner then out for coffee. While we were eating, the topic of religion came up. She said “I am not a Christian. But, I am not a Muslim.” So I asked, “but do you believe there is a God?”, trying to re-evaluate where she is spiritually. Natalie said, “yes i do believe there is a God.”
I asked her, “what are you then? If you are not a Christian or a Muslim?” She replied, “I guess I am a deist. I believe there is a God, but I do not practice any religion.” So I asked her, “well if you had to pick a religion, which would you pick? Christianity, Islam, Buddhism?” She quickly responded, “Christianity”. I said “oh, why Christianity? What do you like about it?” She said that she likes going to Catholic churches because she feels safe there. She feels peaceful. She said, as she has told me many times before, that she does not like mosques and the way she feels there.
I asked, “so, what about the belief Christians have that Jesus is God’s son? Do you believe that?” She said, “yes I do believe that. Even the Koran says that God told Mary to conceive, they just don’t believe that made Him God’s son. But it doesn’t make sense to me how he could not be God’s son if God told her to conceive Him”. So I said, “well you believe some things that Christians believe, so what do you not like about Christianity? Or what do Christians do that you don’t think you could do?” She said that they read the Bible every day and pray every day and she just prays when she feels like it.
I told her about a time a few months ago when I had very little desire to read His Word and pray and how I started reading through Psalms and that it really helped because of how raw and honest some of David’s prayers are. I said that I looked for and charted all of God’s characteristics I found in the Psalms so that next time I am not desiring Him, I can be reminded of who He is. She seemed to understand what I was saying.
Then, I asked if she believes that Jesus died and rose from the dead because that is a hard concept for some people to believe. She said, “yes, I believe that too. I did not explain how you become a Christian or what it really means to have a relationship with Him. I did not ask her if she believes that Jesus is the Savior. But I know I will be able to re-explain that to her some other time. I left her with all of that to chew on until next time.
The whole conversation was something I had wanted to talk to her about again since I have never quite been sure of what she believes. And it flowed so naturally. She seemed pretty comfortable talking about it. So, I am praying I will be able to clearly explain the gospel to her very soon.

One of the volunteer groups that came to work along side us sharing the Gospel among the lost of our city found themselves in an industrial area with many blue collar businesses. A man from an auto parts store called out to them and asked who they were and what they were doing in the neighborhood. They told him that they wanted to get out of the tourist areas and meet genuine Turkish people. He called for a table and chairs to be brought out to the sidewalk and asked the team to sit down and have tea. They sat and immediately tea was ordered. He also asked a young man to act as translator as they sat and shared tea. After an hour of tea and conversation, the group offered the man a Pisidian Packet with a Bible and 2 evangelistic DVDs. The man gladly accepted. As they were leaving, the man thanked the group for coming and thanked them for the gift.
Another volunteer group was riding on a tram talking when one of the group members noticed a young man staring intently at them. After a few minutes he asked the Turkish man if he understood English. He replied, “Yes, I speak English. I just returned from an English camp in Greece where I represented Turkey in a debate club.” They began talking with the young man who was headed to Spain in a few months. The volunteer asked if he knew anything about Christianity. He said no, but that he would like to learn more. The man shared a Pisidian kit with him and told him to watch the videos and read the Bible before he went to Spain. He promised that he would read the entire Bible and watch both disks before his trip.
A volunteer team who was participating in their eighth Pisidian Project trip asked to return to a restaurant which they had visited on a previous trip. When the group entered the restaurant, they thought the recognized one of the waitresses, but were not sure. After the meal, the volunteer and a female worker went up to the waitress and asked if she was there a year ago. She said no, that she was new, but that her sister worked there before. They talked with her for a few minutes and soon there were 2 waitresses and 2 cooks gathered around them. They asked if the former waitress had talked about receiving a Bible from some Americans before. “Yes, she did tell us about it, and she showed it to us.” The team asked if they would like Bibles also. All four of them replied that they too would like a Pisidian Packet. All together the two groups distributed 137 Pisidian Packets.

It has been a great experience to be involved in the lives of a few believers here. They are so young in the faith and have so far to go. *Mark has been a huge help to me as I have worked to get housing set up for the new team.
We were talking one night about the differences between us, as Protestants, and Catholics. He asked me why do not we go to a priest and pray? He said that sometimes he thinks he needs help in his prayer. I smiled and said, “Brother, remember we have a high priest that is greater than any priest”.
We turned to Hebrews and read about Jesus the great High Priest and then we went to Romans 8 and read how the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers and intercedes for us straight to our heavenly Father. Mark threw his head back, slapped his hands together, laughed and said “YES! That is beautiful! YES! YES! Sometimes I forget these things”. I replied “Me too. Me too” God is good!

*Derrik and I got together one day and decided to walk the trails behind the thermal area near where we live. As we traveled up the trail towards the dam, the conversation turned to spiritual things. Derrik is open to a point, but as so many muslims do, he struggles with the issue of accepting sin and Jesus. Since the trail to the top of the hill was 5 kilometers, we had plenty of time to talk and reflect on two issues.
I explained to Derrik that Jesus really did die on the cross for every person, including him and me. He did this because we are full of sin and we have no way to overcome that sin debt except through the man Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who took our sin debt upon himself. I explained that on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, His promise of forgiveness and eternal life was for all who call upon His name, confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness, turning away from the sinful nature towards Jesus.
Derrik said that he did not understand and asked, “do you mean if I say I believe in Jesus I can go on sinning with no penalty?” I said, “look ahead of us, you see this wide road were traveling. It represents the road of sin and destruction. When you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Spirit of God comes to you and your desire is to turn away”. As I demonstrated the turning away from our sinful nature and turning towards the light of Jesus, he said he could understand that.
We continued to walk and as we approached the top, we sat on the edge overlooking the dam. I asked Derrik if I could pray for him and his family, he said “yes, please do.” I prayed that the light of truth would penetrate straight to his heart, and with his ears he would hear and his eyes he would see. We both agreed it had been a beautiful day to take a walk. I reminded him that we may have arranged the day’s events but God had His own very unique and special purpose for all of this. We agreed to meet again and continued the walk. He agreed to come to our house with his wife soon.

I moved across the city recently, having to say goodbye to some of my dear neighbors and friends I have made. A couple of nights before moving, my neighbor, Samantha*, came downstairs to visit. One of the Muslim holidays had just ended, so Samantha quickly started sharing how it had been a difficult time because it was the first holiday since her husband died.
After talking for a while, she finally said that the only reason she continued to live was for her daughter. I asked her if I could give her the dvd, Magdalena, and explained what it was about. She said she would like to watch it, and then asked me about my Bible that was on the table beside her. She wanted to read it, but it was in English, so I quickly grabbed my Turkish Bible. She flipped open to something in Jeremiah and started reading out loud. I asked her if I could show her my favorite part. So we turned it to John 3.
She grabbed it from me because she wanted to read it out loud herself and proceeded to read chapters 3 and 4 aloud. When she finished, she asked if I really believed this. I said that I do and that it changed my life, which gave me an opportunity to also tell her my testimony. When I finished she asked me if I wanted to be a Muslim. I said that I did not and asked her if she wanted to be a Muslim. She said, “I am a Muslim”. So I asked her why. She said she didn’t really know other than she was supposed to be. At this point, she must have decided we had talked long enough, and stood up to leave. She did not want my Bible, but she did take the dvd with her.

We invited Matt, a young single friend, over for dinner. He had called several times asking if he could come visit me, since I had not been able to come to our weekly English conversation group because I had a surgery recently. We had a good time of visiting at dinner. After dinner my wife went to the kitchen to clean up, and Matt and I spent time together in the living room.
Matt claims to be an atheist; however, not to the extent he will not listen to a witness. He told me the reason that he was an atheist is because every person claims that the way they believe is the correct way to heaven, because of the way they were brought up. So that is why he is an atheist. Who knows the right way?
I told him that I was not brought up as a Christian. My parents weren’t Christian. I then explained to him that while I enjoyed high school and playing sports, many times after losing games and walking home I would feel depressed. I thought that there must be more to life than this. I also told him that a friend of mine and I would sit in his car after an evening at the movies, etc, and wonder if we would go to heaven.
Then after moving to Minneapolis from my small town, I met my now wife and began attending church. The young people at the church had so much joy, and I realized I did not. Finally, I chose to believe in Jesus. I had a dramatic change in my life from that point on and never questioned again whether I would go to heaven. I shared with him that the Bible tells us that God wants us to “know”’ that we will go to heaven, and that is written in I John 5.
My wife said that Matt was telling her he was going to take a test in order to go to Australia. She told him she would pray for him. Then she said “God is going to show Himself to you one of these days.” He responded with, “I hope so”. Pray with us that Matt, a dear friend to many workers here, would come to know God and the joy that comes with a relationship with him.

   Several local Muslims came to faith over the summer.  Even though some of the new believers are struggling, one man, “Abe”, is doing really well.  Abe has been very bold about his faith. The Muslims in his village hold “the holy places” in high esteem and are considered places of spiritual power.  

   The villagers live in great fear of these holy places. One man in the village, either in a moment of ignorance or outright disregard, defiled a holy place near them. As a result of his actions he became an invalid. The man is still alive today and serves as a constant reminder of the power of these areas.

   Even so, our brother Abe speaks out against the holy places. The villagers told Abe to be quiet or else the same thing that happened to the invalid would happen to him. But Abe’s belief was so strong that he told the people he could even defile the holy place just like the other man had and that Jesus would protect him from any harm.

   Soon after, he made his way to holy place, defiled it, and returned home.  The villagers waited to see what would happen to him, but nothing did.  Abe boldly responded, proclaiming that Jesus was more powerful than the holy places. Abe has taken an amazing stand against the darkness in our area.

   Wouldn’t it be amazing if Abe shared the gospel with the invalid man, this man came to faith, God healed him, and the village was left speechless over the power of God? I’m not sure what God is going to do, but I pray that he does something great for his name’s sake.  

Please pray – right now! – for Abe’s continued growth in Jesus and for God to bring more Muslims to Himself, specifically the invalid man in this village.

Two workers joined a volunteer team in a city where several of our people group live. We began the day by praying through the market, and trying to identify our people. We then walked through the streets of the city while praying, identifying and meeting our people. After lunch, we headed into the mountains to pray over other villages and to try and establish relationships with those that lived in them.

On several occasions, we tried to find our people but could not. We also tried several times to find the roads that led to some of the villages that we had been into previously, but we could not find the road. It was then that we understood through prayer that the Holy Spirit was leading us elsewhere. There were two other villages that we began to pray about and God led us into a village that *Al, the leader of the group, had never been in before. Upon arrival, with many men gathered around staring, Al quickly began to look for a person of peace and to engage the men that were gathered. Immediately a man pushed through the crowd and took charge. The very first question was if Al was a Muslim. Al told the man that he was a follower of Christ.

The man said that this was not a problem, and Al was able to talk with him and ask him if the team could walk around the village and to learn what it was like to live there. The man quickly agreed and also agreed to show the team around the village. After lessons in mining, tobacco, Ramazan, honey, hardship, toil and poverty the man asked the team if they were interested in coffee or tea. The team was then taken to a little shop that was owned by the new friend.

A soccer match was on the television and the discussion quickly turned to sports. From there the topic of family life in the village was discussed. With time growing short, the team decided that they must return to their hotel. The man invited Al and his family to return to the village, and Al was also given the invitation to come back and help plant tobacco. One of the most amazing things is that Al, in his very limited language, was able to speak with this man, translate for the team, and to develop a friendship with someone all in Turkish.

Al sensed the Holy Spirit the entire time as he was given the ability to speak and understand in ways that he had never previously experienced. God receives all the praise because He led the team to the village, to the person of peace, and for the invitation to come back into the village even knowing that Al is a Christian and the village is entirely Muslim.

*Heath is like so many men and women living throughout the western Black Sea region – little pockets of people who are actively participating in the Bible Correspondence Course (BCC) classes and still waiting for a visit from someone who can explain the basics of the Christian faith. A co-worker and I traveled up to a village to meet with Heath on the 2nd Friday of Ramadan to do a face-to-face meeting and to assess his spiritual interests. We were pleasantly surprised to find a man who daily takes care of orphans and handicapped children at the state-run orphanage.

Heath had completed 8 BCC courses and had yet to receive a Bible! He seemed to be genuinely interested in Jesus, but simply had no idea of what the Bible says about God’s Son. Over a glass of tea, I asked, “Heath, how did you become interested in Christianity?” He answered, “I watched that film The Passion of the Christ. Does the Bible actually say that Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the dead?” I reassured him that indeed the Bible discusses, in detail, Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection from the dead. I then asked Heath, “Who is Jesus to you?” to which he replied, “Jesus is one of Allah’s prophets. He is in heaven as the Savior.” I was flabbergasted! He was giving me the classic Islamic teaching about Jesus and the cross and then saying that Jesus is the Savior!

Pray with us that Heath will read the Bible that we gave him that day. Ask that our conversation that afternoon will sink deep into his heart and that the Truth will set Heath free to worship the Savior who truly died on the cross for sins and was raised to eternal life!