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Story and photos by ‘Grace’
A MUMBLED thank you as a coin is dropped into the hand
of the paraplegic selling Kleenex at the train station. A disapproving
shake of the headscarf from the pious old lady on the bus as the girl in
the short skirt sits down beside her.
The clatter of a tossed glass bottle as the ragged
little gypsy boy, despised for his race, trudges down the alley with
his trash cart. A whimper of fear from the lips of the young girl who,
having been caught talking in the street with a boy from school, now awaits
her enraged father and the pistol that will restore the family honour.
The blind beggar. The Pharisee. The Samaritan. The
woman caught in adultery. Present in every culture, their need is
universal. Each one longs to be seen and known, for their voices to be
heard and their hearts understood.
They crave pure water to wash away the shame which was
caked on their souls the day they entered this world and has grown thicker
every day since. Their hearts cry out for a Saviour to step down from
heaven and snatch them from the prisons they find themselves in.
God lovingly wove together this colourful tapestry
that is the nation of Turkey. He knows the intricacies, the longings, the
private grief of every heart.
He has deposited in each one a piece of his own
likeness, and each one bears his signature on their soul.
He is not a God who is far off, but he has gone to
unimaginable lengths to make himself known to them and to enter their
individual worlds.
He speaks the language of the man pressing his
forehead to his prayer mat at the mosque, as well as the mother of 12
slaving away in her kitchen. And he longs to fill each heart with his
overwhelming love.
It is for this purpose that he has called our team
here to bring the good news of his Son.
Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, with fewer than 3,500
followers of Jesus from a Muslim background.
Our mandate is to plant house fellowships where God
will be worshiped in spirit and truth – with a form and flavour which
is distinctly Turkish.
As local believers are trained in leadership and
evangelism, these groups will then multiply out across the nation –
as Jesus wins over the beautiful bride he paid for so dearly.
Each day we seek his wisdom on how to communicate his
message, in a way that will connect with the needs and worldview of our
neighbours – so that it is understood and embraced.
Casting off our cultural preferences and crafting our
lives to blend into our environment, we seek to do as Jesus did: to don the
flesh of those he came to reach, and to live a life so utterly opposite
that it stirred the hearts of all he encountered.
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For some, this means tying on a headscarf before
leaving the house; for others it means adjusting the family schedule to
match that of the cow-farmers next door.
For all, it requires learning an unfamiliar tongue
– and perfecting the art of brewing a proper pot of Turkish tea.
As a relatively new team, we are all up to our ears in
language study – forever whipping out flashcards on the bus,
listening to the Turkish Bible on our iPods and watching local sitcoms in
an attempt to pick up the latest slang.
Besides learning to share from God’s word in
Turkish, we are also seeking to use the Qur’an to point people to
Jesus. Many are unaware that their holy book, which they revere and trust,
points the way to him as the perfect blood sacrifice, the rescuer they are
longing for.
More than anything, we are learning to be dependent on
the Holy Spirit to reveal his plans and strategies – to fill us with
his deep love for this people, and the power with which to pierce their
hearts.
As a photographer, my particular passion is for
capturing the beauty in the ordinary, the glory of God in each face and the
creativity of the Father in the subtle nuances of the Turkish
culture.
This country and its people abound with evidence of
the imagination of God.
Isaiah 45:3 speaks of the “treasures of
darkness” and “riches stored in secret places.” Under the
layers of shame and the weight of false religion lie treasures waiting to
be unearthed, hearts created to worship Jesus.
With each click of the shutter, I long to impart value
to the soul on the other side of the lens and to honour the image of
God beheld there.
May the unseen, the veiled, the discarded and the
despised know the love of the Father – who sees each of them as so
much more than just one face in 70 million.
Grace has been doing language study and church
planting in Turkey since 2006.
Summer/Fall 2008
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The Lord bless you.