Truth That Brings Healing
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.
