Turkish News

(Due to technical difficulties, we weren’t able to post to this blog while we were in France this last week, so this is a summary of what God did during the time we were there.)

Team Members:  Gary & Tammy Bailey, Tim & Adrienne Terrazas, Woodie & Shelly Blakeley, Gary & Nancy Peevy, Leyla Sagdich (Turkish partner/translator from Belgium) and Matthias Knoedler (German partner/translator/missionary from Germany)

To God be the Glory!  Again, we had the privilege of seeing Him at work .  This was probably one of our most fruitful trips over the last three years of working with the Turks in France!!!

God allowed us to share the gospel with three muslim men who had contacted us through the ad in the Turkish newspaper.  All three are very interested in Jesus.  One of them, Alan, is reading through the Bible and was unfamiliar with Jesus because he hadn’t gotten that far yet!  We encouraged him to continue reading in Genesis, but to read the gospels at the same time.  He agreed and, after we told him about Jesus and how he could follow him, he asked to be given time to read the gospels.  As he put it,  “How can I follow someone I do not even know?”  Please pray for Alan… that Jesus will speak to him through His living Word and draw him to Himself.  Alan is very interested in knowing more.

We met with two other muslim men at a restaurant and both were very interested in Jesus and knowing more.  We believe that if our teams build a relationship with them, that they will eventually accept Christ. 

Two other Armenian-background Turks are already believers, Kaspar and Kirkor.  Both came to Christ simply by reading the Bible and realizing that it was the truth.  Kaspar has an especially compelling testimony.  He was imprisoned for murder and while there, he saw evidence that God was working in his life and was revealing Himself to him.  During this time he was given a Bible and, through reading it, Kaspar realized that he was a sinner, but that if he accepted Jesus, God would forgive him of his sins.  He did this and became a true believer.  At present he is the only one in his family who truly follows Christ.

We are prayerful that God has also given us a new Turkish partner in this ministry.  His name is Sabak and he speaks 4 languages, including English and French!!  He is of a minority Turkish people group, not muslim, and is originally from a town very near to where Leyla’s family came from.  He has much in common with her.  He grew up in the Catholic church, but through a dream and through reading the Bible, came to realize that he needed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  He and his wife and two small children live in Garges-les-Gonesse, a suburb of Paris.  The day we met him he had been to Strasbourg, a town about 2-1/2 hours outside of Paris.  He’d been there to visit a muslim friend and had spent about 4 hours witnessing to him about Jesus.  He said the friend came right up to the point to accept the Lord, but something held him back.  Because of our conversation, we believe that Sabak has a great heart to share his faith with all peoples.  Sabak is thoughtful, soft-spoken, educated and seems to be spiritually mature.  He told us that he would be willing to help us with our mission in any way!  We believe that he may be a huge answer to our prayers!

God’s timing was perfect in us reaching Sabak….  On the train going back to his home from Strasbourg, he received the call from Leyla at just the right time to be able to get off the train and meet us in Paris.  If she had called just 15 or 30 minutes later, he would have been past Paris and could not have seen us. 

Again we visited with Hassan and Nermin in their tailor shop and, through them, met a young Turkish woman named JoJo who is from Holland and spoke English quite well.  We shared that we were followers of Christ and she was amazed that we would come all the way from the U.S. and from Germany to visit with Turks.  She was especially amazed about Matthias, because as she said, “Germans hate Turks!”  We gave her the Jesus film and other materials and exchanged email addresses with her.  We believe that we will be in touch with her again, although she is leaving Paris at the end of the month.

We also had good, indepth visits with the Antioch family and with Shukru.  One group visited with the Antiochs on Sunday afternoon and had a wonderful time of Bible study and encouragement.  The other part of the team had Bible study with them on Wednesday.  The women among us especially enjoyed their sweet wives and beautiful children!  Their exciting news is that Charlie and Ellen are expecting a baby in January!

We were extremely encouraged because Yusef, the leader, asked us for the names and contact info of the people we’d met.  He wants to follow up with each of them.  This is another huge answer to prayer. 

Shukru and his family were unable to come in to Paris and so the Terrazas and the Peevys made the 8 hour round trip to see them.  It was worth every kilometer and every minute of the time!  We had such a joyful time with them — the most comfortable time yet.  We spent time in Bible study, in prayer, eating and fellowshiping together, walking through their town, and a lot of time just laughing together.  We found that Elif is a very funny woman (comik kadin!).  She is feeling much better and was much more personally open with us this time.  Shukru also shared more of his story and experiences from Turkey.  To say that their life there was difficult is an understatement. 

Shukru continues to work as a laborer and was granted a work permit for one year.  It expires July 15th and then the government will either give him another year’s permit, give him permanent citizenship or could send them back to Turkey.  Leyla believes the odds are good that he will soon be granted citizenship. 

Shukru and Elif asked for prayer that they would grow in their faith, that they would be godly parents to their children (Hayriye, age 4 and Ali, age 2) and for the health of their children.  Ali has something wrong with his legs and needs to go to a specialist in Paris.  They do not have the means to do this.  Hayriye has a “weak heart” because she doesn’t eat enough meat.

They also continue to need prayer that citizenship would be granted quickly and that they could move from the small town where they live.  There are no other Turkish people living in this small town, so it is very lonely and difficult to share their faith.  Neither Shukru nor Elif speaks much French.  Please pray that he will find work wherever they move.

Having Leyla and Matthias with us to translate Turkish was such a blessing and so helpful to the work there.  We had a great time with both of them and love them so much, and we can’t thank them enough for joining us.  Americans… Turkish… Germans…. all working together for the Kingdom!

Thank you for praying for us, for keeping kids so we could go, for giving money to finance the trip, for encouraging us, for loving us.  This trip would not have been possible without our wonderful friends, family and church family.

Thanks be to God for allowing our church to be a part of this wonderful mission and for going ahead of us to prepare the work.  It is His work, he just allows us to receive the blessing of being on mission with Him!

(These are just highlights of the trip…. if you’d like to hear more, just ask one us!! )