Hoşça kal ... or Görüşürüz?

The first word means "Goodbye"...the other means "See you later." Both seemed appropriate today, and I couldn’t quite tell which one I felt most comfortable saying…and I did say them both. As I write this I am packed and ready to go except for the few morning items that once used, will take their place in the suitcase with everything else.

We finished our time in Antalya worshiping with the Turkish church one last time, making one last trip to Paşa Bey for "lunch", and enjoying one last home visit before packing up and preparing to leave. We had an opportunity to say a few last words to the congregation when we were called up during the service to say goodbye. I could have talked for a half hour easily, but I simply said that we were profoundly grateful for the time we shared with them...and that though I came out to teach them, I was pretty sure that I learned much more from them than they learned from me...and that we would take them back to America in our hearts. Then I asked if we could send greetings from Antalya Evangelical church back to our churches, and they responded with a rousing "Yes!" Then I took a picture. After Hans preached on Jesus’ prediction about his death and the call to follow him, we sang "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" – in Turkish, of course – but we knew exactly what we were saying…and meaning as we did. There was something extra-connecting in the singing of that song with brothers and sisters in Antalya, for we are all followers of Jesus. We are all in this battle for the kingdom of God together. That much was clear in the short time we spent with them.

The Congregation on the last Sunday we were there.

Faithfully…and joyfully anticipating our return home.

Charlie

From Water to Wine

In one of my earlier posts, I commented on the first sermon I preached here about the story of Jesus turning water into wine, in which I said it is our job to fill the jars with water - it's Jesus' job to make the wine. Well, after two weeks plus a couple of days, there is little doubt that Jesus has been in the wine business. Tonight we finished the Teen parenting class, which has been a delight from the start, and tonight was no different. Lots of learning, sharing, laughing, "confessing" - a real community of parents seeking to be better at what they do. Two parents brought their teenage daughters with them which made for a real interesting dynamic, as they were the subject of more than one example during the evening. But they seemed to be good sports about it all, even contributing their thoughts along the way. A testimony, I suppose, the the health of those families. Besides, what we are doing is no "secret strategy," but principles that our children eventually figure out eventually anyway...and respect us all the more for wanting to do our jobs better.

Friday PM Teen Parenting Class, with one couple missing

However, my greatest moment today was stumbling across a small group of folks from the Turkish church in St. Paul's courtyard when I stopped by to purchase a small item from the gift shop. The cafe was closed, but the group, which appeared to led by Hans (one of the pastors) invited me to come and join them for a time of prayer. I readily agreed, and found out that they had been meeting with a young man who had been attending the church for some time had reached the point where he wanted to receive Christ into his life. I had actually sat across from him at lunch after church the two previous Sundays. I knew he was not a believer, but had been told that he was "close." Well, today was the "day of salvation" for him, and by pure "chance" I was able to be present when a young man from a strict Muslim family made the truly life-altering decision to become a Jesus-follower. As we went around and prayed for him, I added, in English, my gratitude to God and intercession for strength, protection, encouragement and power from the Holy Spirit as he begins his new walk of faith in Christ. (I would love to post the picture I took after we prayed, but was asked not to post it on a website.)

A good time debriefing with Pam and a wonderfully delightful visit with a single mom and her family rounded out a truly blessed day of finishing our work here. Tomorrow we simply worship with our brothers and sisters and friends in Christ from both the International and Turkish Churches and then pack up and prepare to leave early Monday morning.

God is good.

Charlie

Beginning of the End

Today we finished the two sessions of Active Parenting Now in 3 - the class for parents of children ages 5-12. The classes finished smaller than they started, which, given the make-up of the classes in the first place, was not entirely surprising, though still a bit disappointing. Part of the challenge with this class was that we had a number of teachers from the community that did not have children, so there was this "tension" of making it applicable in the home and classroom at the same time, which was hard. In addition, none of the teachers were involved in the church. We had 4 teachers in our evening class, and none attended this final session. Both the morning and evening class had a small core of committed parents who were doing their best to understand and apply what they were learning.

We met with one woman after the morning session who had attended all three and was very interested in the church making this available to more people in the community. She is a trainer of teachers and brings in teachers from the United States all the time and puts on seminars for teachers in public education. She had ideas on how to improve the material to make it more applicable in Turkey. She may be a key resource for the future of this program as an outreach of the church into the community.

Tomorrow we will finish the last Teen class session and debrief our time here with Pam. It hardly feels like we've been here long enough to be almost done!

Charlie

AM Class from L to R:

Hans, Tan Şule, Ron, Burçak, Charlie, Nurcan, Pam

PM Class, from L to R:

Anne, Ron, Ruslana, Pam, Eda, Karen, Charlie

Pisidian Antioch

We spent 8 hours on the road in order to spend 2 hours on the ground in a place called Pisidian Antioch. Pisidian Antioch (or Antioch in Pisidia as it is referred to in the Bible) was the first place Paul went on his first missionary journty after he had saild from Cyprus and landed at Perga in Anatolia (present day Turkey). It was here that he preached is first sermon, or at least the first recorded sermon at the synagogue in Antioch (see Acts 13).

I would surmise that for one who lives in or near such historical and spiritually significant places, it feels less "special" than it does for one who will probably only spend two hours of his life there. Granted, I walk on dirt that is just as old as the dirt in Antioch, but the Apostle Paul never preached on the dirt where I live. Something rather sobering takes place when you walk on Antiochian dirt. Especially when (as it is believed by archaeologists) that I was standing on the exact location where Paul preached. Below are the remains of the "Central Church" (one of three in Pisidian Antioch) which is believed to have been built on the site of the synagogue where Paul went to first proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead. (Acts 13:1617) It also happens to be his longest recorded sermon.

Ron and I sat on the semi-circular stone structure in the center of the picture (called the apse) and took turns reading the story of Paul in Antioch, and his sermon in particular. It struck me that in the simple proclamation of the gospel, there was a response. People wanted to hear more. In this age of skepticism and cynicism and relativism and all the 'isms that accompany a post-modern world, it is easy to lose confidence in the inherent power of the gospel...and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring truth to bear in the hearts and minds of even those most hostile to the gospel. Not that we don't bring every tool we have available to the task of mission, whether at home or around the world, but in the end, it is NOT about our cleverness or our strategies but about "...the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation..." (Rom. 1.16) And it is THIS gospel about which Paul says he is NOT ASHAMED.

It was not lost on me that there were three churches in Antioch...and no mosques. Again, I could not help but come back to the hope and vision that God is about re-planting his Church in the land where it was first preached. It was also not lost on me that I live in a land that is losing its grip on a faith that once undergirded the very freedoms that define us. So I found myself in this intersection of time and space in which I was two thousand years removed and seven thousand miles away from home, and yet one in Christ with both Paul and the church built on the spot where he first proclaimed the gospel, and Hans (and Erkan and Metin and Pam and Eda, etc.) and the Antalya Evangelical Church. Their mission was and is my mission.

Charlie

The three of us on standing between the Temple of Augustus (behind the person taking our picture) and the Central Church of Antioch (in the far background).

Apostle to the Turks

The two on the left; not me. :) We had dinner and spent the evening with Hanspeter Tiefenbach and his wife Anne.Having met in a Bible School in Switzerland, it was in 1989 (give or take a year) that they felt called to plant a church in Turkey. So they packed up and moved to Antalya and began to have meetings in their apartment. For two years it was just the two of them - faithfully worshiping and praying. No Turks. For 104 Sundays the Turkish house church was just them. He bought, sold and repaired rugs and motorcycles to earn a living. Even shined shoes. In fact, there is a typical shoe-shine box one sees on the street every day sitting in their entry room that is still ready to be put to use in the event extra income is needed. Then, after two years - one or two or a few Turkish people began to show curiosity, interest, or simply have a need for the company of two caring people. A strange lot of folks comprised the 'church' at the beginning, not the kind of people two struggling missionaries would like to showcase to the Muslim as a "city on a hill," but they persevered, amidst all the fluctuating, ups and downs of attendance, commitment and visible transformation of lives.

We saw the scrapbook. It starts with just pictures of Hans and Anne, then has one or two Turks, then a handful, eventually it actually looks like a small group (you know, the size of a group we would expect to show up to a meeting for us to feel like it was successful on the first night of some program...only this was after YEARS of faithfulness and trust that they were, indeed, doing what God called them to do), eventually, near the end of the book, we saw a fully-worshiping congregation.

Seriously - I'm sitting there looking at this simple, unpretentious, godly couple and thinking, "This is what the book of Acts was like...except Paul and Barnabas and Mark and Silas and Philip and Peter and all the rest didn't have to wait for two years before a single seeker responded to the gospel." I was embarrassingly convicted of my ridiculously feeble faith in the power and trustworthiness of the gospel in comparison. I whine (silently to God, of course) when I don't see immediate fruit from my efforts, and am reluctantly faithful to living out the truth of my convictions in a culture that is only mildly offended by the gospel in comparison to Turkey. Just sitting in the living room with these people was a phenomenal lesson in what love for Jesus and loyalty to his mission looks like. And there are people like Hanspeter and Anne all over Turkey.

In addition to everything else Hans is doing, he stands next to me for three hours every time I teach the parenting class and interprets my every word, and every word in the video that is not sub-titled. Plus both my sermons. And English is the least fluent of the three languages he speaks, including German and Turkish.

İsa'nın Rab olduğunu. (Jesus is Lord.)

With dubious faithfulness,

Charlie

Hoş Geldiniz

That means "Welcome" in Turkish. We hear of lot of that, and it aptly describes how we feel: Welcomed. It feels very comfortable being here among the people - not a stranger or foreigner (though in some ways we definitely are), but included as part of the body of Christ in this particular expression of His body.

This morning Ron and I attended the Men's Bible Study for the International Church. I gave the devotional, which was fun to prepare for, as I used it as an opportunity to think out loud about some thoughts regarding our imitation of Christ and passionately pursuing the will of God. The rest of the day was spent preparing for the parenting class for children, with a long lunch break in which the three of us broke bread with Jim and Renata Bultima, founders and directors of St. Paul's Cultural Center. It was great to hear the story of how it came to be, the vision for its future, and how they are committed to supporting the Turkish Church that worships there.

In the evening we had a wonderful visit with a couple of the church who are taking the parenting class for teens, though their daughter is only 7. This was the couple that had a devastating miscarriage when the IMPACT team I was on was here in the summer of 2010. Now the wife is 5 1/2 months pregnant and things seem to be progressing well, though there is a chance the child will come early. So we spent time praying for a healthy baby, an uncomplicated delivery, and one that comes in God's good time. We were also treated to a mini-concert as the husband played a couple of instruments and sang for us.

As the couple shared their journeys to Christ, and to each other, it was interesting (an moving) to hear of the special ways God would speak and lead them into his will. It is as if, lacking the many support structures that we are used to in the churches and well-developed ministries in America, God involves himself in more "miraculous" ways. We've noticed this several times in which the timing of answered prayer, the nature of the prayer experience, and the circumstances surrounding their coming to Christ bear unmistakable signs of direct activity and intervention by God. It is as if the Holy Spirit functions in ways reminiscent of the book of Acts when the gospel was penetrating the pagan culture of Rome, remarkable things would happen. Anatolia was fertile ground for the founding and growth of churches - Antioch, Ephesus, Colossae, Galatia, the 7 churches of revelation, etc - it is tempting to hope for just such an inroad of the gospel in Turkey again.

Charlie

Yilmaz playing the Saz

Day of Rest

Today was a Sabbath of sorts for us. I slept in, for the first time since arriving in Turkey, which felt good. A relaxing breakfast, team time and then lunch at St. Paul's Cultural Center. The afternoon was "free", which I used to do some reading. Ron and Peggy returned to St. Paul's later in the afternoon and struck up a conversation with Turkish man who had been a radical Muslim, but had since embarked on a theological search for the truth - studying the Koran, the Bible and the Torah. He was looking for either Ramazan, Erkan or Hans, but none of them were around, so Ron and Peggy stepped in to fill the void, sharing, among other things, that one of the unique features of Christianity is that we are called to love our enemies...a definite contrast to the theology of an Islamic Radical.

Tomorrow Ron and I will attend the weekly Prayer Breakfast at the Cultural Center, and I was asked to give the teaching/devotional, which I readily agreed to do. We have lunch scheduled with the founders and directors of the center, Jim and Renata Bultima, and we're looking forward to that. Later in the week we plan to take a trip out to Pisidian Antioch and see the ruins there. Pisidian Antioch is one of towns Paul visited on his first missionary journey.

Below are a few random pictures to round out this post.

Charlie

Street on which St. Paul's Cultural Center is located.

The circular, green sign for St. Paul's can be seen above Ron's head.

The ladies of the St. Paul's kitchen - Belgin, Ayşeh, Ayah

View of our Pansiyon from the street.

Ron and Peggy's room is the top corner room and Charlie's is right below it.

View from the end of the street just around the corner from our hotel.

Atalya harbor is just out of view to the right.

Snow is still on the mountains in the distance.

A Long Day's Obedience in the Same Direction

With apologies to Eugene Peterson for stealing the title from one of his books, I couldn’t resist what feels like, at least at this moment, a fair description of the day. I was up before 6:00 AM to finish re-casting my sermon for ease of translation, followed by breakfast and a brief team time with Ron and Peggy, and further work on the sermon. We then attended the International Church worship service which began at 11:00 and concluded at 12:30. I spent the next half hour getting access to a printer to print out my sermon, and figuring out how to hook up my computer to the projector so I could show an image which was central to my sermon, which was then preached at the Turkish Church worship service that began at 1:00 PM, also lasting 1½ hours. By 3:00 we were off with members of the church for a time of fellowship and lunch at Paşa Bey restaurant. It’s a bit of a walk to the restaurant, and by the time we had eaten and walked back to our hotel, it was after 5:00. I plopped down on the bed and promptly feel asleep, waking up 30 minutes later to the alarm on my cell phone in order to set up and lead the 3-hour parenting class beginning at 6:00 in the Cultural Center. After cleaning up and a one-on-one parenting consultation, it was almost 10:00 before we were back to our hotel.

A long day…but a good one.

I was given the privilege to pray over the children during the International Service as they were dismissed to their class time, and I enjoyed that. Then I discovered that the guest speaker at that service was preaching on the same scripture passage as I was – Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4. What are the chances of that? Clearly 'water' was the theme of the day for the congregations at the Cultural Center! The picture above at the left is actually of the children gathering to leave for "Sunday School" at the Turkish Church service.

My efforts to think through translation issues paid off in the Turkish service, as the give and take with my translator went smoothly, and even dynamically at points. Except when I said, “Then it hit me,” which meant that I received a burst of insight when I tossed a stick into a river. There's no such idiom in Turkish, so the translator gave me a “What?” look, knowing if he translated it literally it would mean the stick flew out of the water and whacked me. I quickly offered a synonymic phrase, and the point was made.

Tonight’s class (actually last night’s class at this point) was probably the best so far. It was the Teen class and the parent’s were very involved and motivated to learn. It was also a class in which I could tell that I’m becoming much more adept at managing the time and flow of the material in this cross-cultural context – knowing what to spend time on and what to skip. It felt good to finish a class knowing I made the right decisions along the way and we got the most out of the time we had together. Also, Ron and I have developed a good system of preparation ahead of time and communication during class time, so that the power point slides are right on the mark and keeping the class moving along well.

In many ways, this was a day in which God was in the details. So many positive things happened as a result of careful, lengthy preparation ahead of time. It wasn’t that our preparation caused the responses in the people that were there, but those responses would not have happened had we not prepared. We could have put all that preparation in…and given all kinds of things over which we have no control, nothing may have happened. We only have control over our part in what we do. What happens is a result of those things over which only God has control. So...harkening back to an earlier post, let me put it this way: We filled a couple of water pots today…and Jesus made some sweet wine.

Faithfully,

Charlie

It's the Thought that REALLY Counts

Yesterday (Saturday) Peggy attended a baby shower for the wife of the part-time pastor. (see photo on March 13) Baby showers are not a custom for expectant mothers in Turkey, but Özlem had heard about them and wondered if that might be something fun to do here. Pam proceeded to take the hint, planned one and asked Peggy if she could help prepare the food. Of course, she readily agreed. She left our Pansiyon early, took the 'tram-by' and headed over to Pam's house to prepare the fruit salad.

Well, the shower was a hit...and so was Peggy. She won the first game, which was to guess the circumference of Özlem's tummy by cutting a piece of yarn to the size it might be. Having measured fabric for years by the length from her nose to her fingertips, Peggy knew precisely what 36" was, added another 12" and voila! She was just an inch shy of perfection, besting every one else by nearly a foot. She was then disallowed from winning any further prizes as it was determined they had a foreign baby-shower veteran in their midst! (Actually, they just wanted to spread the prizes around.)

The best was yet to come when the gifts were opened. Having been to Özlem's house earlier in the week, Peggy noticed that the baby's room had Winnie-the-Pooh curtains. Clearly a theme the new mother enjoyed. Well, again, applying well-developed shopping instincts, Peggy walked for MILES and took the tram for even more, sniffing out baby shops out and about in Antalya...until she found exactly what she was looking for: a Winnie-the-Pooh blanket. When Özlem opened it she was ecstatic. Not only had Özlem tried to find such a blanket and failed, she was struck and touched by the fact that Peggy had picked up on the theme and made what was obviously an extra-effort to find something that would be uniquely applicable and special for their eagerly anticipated son. Any baby item would have been appreciated, and would have fulfilled the socially-expected etiquette of the occasion, especially for someone just visiting from another country. Instead, the extra-mile (literally miles!) effort to bless a new-found sister-in-Christ was not lost on the mother-to-be. It was just a blanket, yes...but more than that it was a simple, yet powerful expression of our ministry...and one more way of seeing God at work in our daily interactions with the people here.

I have a feeling that this first-ever baby shower will not be the last.

Faithfully,

Charlie

Cost of Discipleship

There is no romanticizing the cost of conversion. It is alienating. You lose respect. You lose friends. You lose jobs. Islam is not just a religion - it is synonymous with the culture and politics of a nation. It is part of your identity as a citizen. When you become a follower of Jesus - a Christian - you instantly become part of an exceedingly small minority. There are maybe 5,000 Turkish Christians in a population of 70 million - 98% of whom are Muslim in one sense or another. That translates into seven Christians for every 100,000 people. Or one every 14,000. That means if you lived in the north county of San Luis Obispo (where I live), and were a family of five (2 parents and 3 children), you would be it.

Tonight we spent the evening with a family of six - two parents, three daughters and one son - with only the mother and daughters at home. Where will those daughters find husbands who love Jesus? Just finding a Christian man will be hard enough...much less one who is truly compatible, that you genuinely love, and with whom you want to spend the rest of your life.

The oldest daughter lost every friend she had when she confided to one that she was a Christian. She spent the rest of her high school years ostracized. I can't even imagine what that would be like for a teen-ager. How critical it is for believing children to grow up in strong, healthy, families with parents who raise them modeling the unconditional and grace-filled love of God - with the character and courage and faith and values to endure and overcome a climate of persecution all around them. I left tonight convinced even more of why I am here.

We spent time reading the Word and praying together, sharing our journeys of faith, laughing, eating baklava and drinking Turkish tea, trying out both our Turkish and English on each other, and probably most important of all - affirming the unity of faith and love that we have for each other that spans half the globe. We REALLY DO BELONG TO ONE ANOTHER. That is not just a theological truth - it it something I heard and saw and touched and felt tonight.

Sevgi reading from Isaiah 9:1-7

Selin with Ron and Peggy

Bahar and the family cat

A sign of the Incarnation over the family photos.

"God with us."

A burst of light (flash reflection) where Jesus is...

Faithfully,

Charlie

Pieces of the Puzzle

One of those days where you just felt like a piece of whatever puzzle God is putting together in people's lives. From spending time in the morning over breakfast with a young couple from Georgia who are traveling in Turkey seeking God's direction for how he wants them to spend their lives for the sake of the kingdom...to a richly serendipitous conversation with a man whose wife is a strong believer in the Turkish church, we found ourselves at the intersection of moments in the lives of people in whom God is at work.

Tonight especially was a blessing for me. We were invited for coffee/tea and dessert at the house of the woman who translated the Parent's Guides for the two classes we are teaching. Her husband is not a follower of Jesus, but is open to the gospel. While we were there, Peggy (who had purchased a cute sweater and top for their 7-year-old daughter, Tuana...cutest thing!) essentially became Nana Pea to her by the end of evening - entertaining her, receiving a tour of her room, listening to her read, simply being interested in and loving her. That was a ministry in its own right, but it also freed up Ron to share with the husband his recent "coming to life in Christ" after a lifetime of pursuing other 'gods.' The wife translated back and forth as Ron gave witness from his heart of his love for Christ and how the gospel is really good news for those who want to be freed from the slavery of trying to live good enough to please God and earn one's way into his favor. I basically said very little to nothing and simply prayed that the Holy Spirit would use the sincerity, earnestness and compassion of Ron to add one more piece of that gospel puzzle he is forming in the husband's heart...and mind.

In between these two encounters, I reviewed my notes, made some new ones, and coordinated with Ron the flow of our next class session which will be tomorrow, and taught twice - once in the morning and once in the evening. This is the "big" one on teaching responsibility through discipline. It was this content, in a much briefer format, that I presented a year and half ago, and became the impetus for this return trip. This is the class where the translation issues present the greatest challenge to understanding, and will be the hardest to have a good question and answer session over specific issues.

So, I am praying that I will have the words to help people with their questions and concerns.

The sign outside St. Paul's Place - where we are teaching the classes.

My podium view of the class - before anyone's arrived.

Seeking to be faithful...and fruitful, by God's grace --

Charlie

Work Day

It rained off and on during the day, which made it easy to spend most of the day inside working on various projects. We had a good team meeting today in which Ron, Peggy and I talked about our experience thus far – how we sensed God working or not working in us – as well as how we feel we are entering into the life of the people here. I spent the morning reviewing the videos for the next two sessions, seeing if there were any possible problems. Good thing, as the entire session three was missing from the Teen program (Session Two was in twice, the second time as Session Three). So I tracked Metin down and we worked on fixing that. By the end of the day we had Session Three in place. Final translation of the video narrator text was completed today as well, so bit by bit, we’re getting all the pieces in place to get through the final sessions.

We spent the evening at the home of Metin and Özlem. (see picture) Metin works with students at the university (along with Pam, who has been my liaison with the church for this project), and he and Özlem were my hosts the last time I was in Turkey. They are expecting their first child the day we are scheduled to leave, which is unfortunate timing, as I would love to be here when the baby is born. Peggy will be attending a shower for Özlem on Friday. She fixed a rather tasty dish of meat stuffed in eggplant, which, despite my deep-seated aversion to eggplant, being a guest, I ate it all (almost). It was actually pretty good. My wife would be proud. :)

In all, a good day for reflecting, planning, preparing and visiting.

Charlie

Relics, Religion, and Jesus

Today was a day of 'rest.' A sabbath of sorts. After an intense week of preparation to leave, and fairly intense first three days of teaching and preaching, leading classes and worshiping, meeting people and becoming acclimated in our new context, today was ours to do as we pleased. So we went to the site of the ancient city of Perga, where the Apostle Paul landed during his first missionary journey (Acts 13:13). The picture above is of me standing in front of what is left of what is believed to be the first church built in Perga. Seeing that relic brought to the surface feelings I have from time to time of sadness, and even confusion, over the near-complete eradication of a Christian presence in this land with such a deep and rich Biblical history. What happened to the enduring presence and power of the church, against which even the gates of hell will not prevail?

I think of how embedded the Islamic faith and culture is here, and has been in some parts of the Middle East for well over a century...while Christianity, in some places, did not even last a century (at least in terms of the prevailing religion). This, of course, is a very complex subject about which volumes has been written, but for me, it just felt sad...and caused me to wonder where else will we see only relics of a faith that once was - Europe? North America? I found myself reflecting on how the kingdom of God works and what are the signs of its presence? And, most to the point, how does our presence here in Turkey fit into what God is doing and how he wants to show love to Muslims?

At one point, right near the end of the Teen parenting class on Saturday night, I felt led to share how I believed that the principles of Active Parenting (teaching Courage, Responsibility and Cooperation in the context of unmistakeable love and affirmation) maximize the likelihood that our children will grow up and embrace our values as their own (without rebelling against us) and choose our faith as their own (without rejecting it). I talked about how parents, regardless of their faith, share this hope, and then illustrated it with an example from my own life and children. Knowing there were Muslims in the class, I spoke of this embrace of my faith my children in terms of "receiving the love of God in their lives" and "choosing to love and follow Jesus" - both of which are concepts that would not be offensive to a Muslim. It was a choice of words that I had not put any advance thought to, but words that felt right for the context...and actually what I felt was most accurate and true about their lives.

I mention that because I finished reading a book today that I had begun reading earlier: Muslims, Christians, and Jesus. It seemed to validate my instincts. Written by Carl Medearis, it is a plea for us to make the issue in evangelism Jesus, and not "Christianity," and that the best way to reach Muslims is to talk about Jesus - to point them to him and encourage them to seek him, and to trust that the more they get to know Jesus, the more they will be drawn to him...love him...and follow him. That's my VERY brief and simple summary of a wonderful book that gets at the heart of what our faith really is all about, and what we should want first and most for anyone. It is very similar to the idea that we don't really need to turn Jews into Christians - we just need to help them accept Jesus (Yeshua) as the Messiah and follow him. Hence the presence of many Messianic Synagogues. Why not see Muslims in a similar way, as people who possess a shared Biblical history with Jews and Christians, but have failed to fully understand the truth about Jesus?The hope is that by embracing the truth about Jesus, they will choose to follow him in ways that won't necessarily require them to reject all elements of their own religious and cultural heritage. This is no way suggests there are profound differences between Islam and Christianity; it simply seeks to turn and start the discussion with the most powerfully shared thing we have in common: Jesus. The book is inspiring, thought-provoking, encouraging and challenging.

Faithfully,

Charlie

A Slight Taste of Pentecost

We had the privilege of worshiping with two congregations today: the International Church at 11am and then the Turkish Church at 1pm. I couldn't help but hear and feel the echo of Pentecost, when many different people heard "the works of God" being told in their own language. By the end of the second service, we had heard a German pastor pray over the children (in German), a Russian pastor preach the sermon (in adequate English with a decidedly Russian accent), an American Pastor (in English) dedicate a Ugandan baby (who undoubtedly cooed in Swahili), a Turkish young man lead the worship in Turkish, another American paster (me) preach (in English), and a Swiss pastor translate it into Turkish. At one point, I was even informed by one of the Turkish church members that my English was not English English, but American English. And I loved it all.

In the International service, all the songs and hymns were sung in English - I knew what I was saying when I worshiped. In the Turkish service, all the songs were in Turkish. I didn't know what I was saying (though I could pick out certain words) but still, I felt like as I was worshiping as I sang along with them. I felt enlarged as a believer in experiencing such a sense of connection and identity with the body of Christ - so far from home...far from my own culture...and so much a part of the universal Church that is the fruit of Christ's Great Commission to go into all the world.

I felt a great responsibility preaching before the Turkish Christians. I know their lives and the challenges of their faith have both a great similarity to mine...and a profound dissimilarity. How would my words be received? I could only do my best to preach the Word as it is - the Word of God - and trust that it is sufficient in itself to touch people's hearts...and trust that the Holy Spirit would do His job. I preached on the story of Jesus turning the water into wine, a sermon I had previously preached in my own church as part of my preaching through the gospel of John. I shortened it and recast many of the sentences and phrases to make it more translate-able. I enjoyed trying to make the story come alive for them, and I was grateful for the response, both as I was preaching and afterward.

Following worship we went to lunch at Pasa Bey with some members from the Turkish church. We had a good time, which resulted in a very good time for everyone, when Ron interpreted my comment to pay for "all of us" (meaning him, Peggy and I) to mean EVERYONE at the table! They were pleasantly surprised and grateful for the gift...only now we have to hope we didn't set a precedent! :)

One point I made in the sermon about the servants filling up the jars with WATER...and drawing the WATER from the jars...and taking the WATER to the master of the feast - was that they must have felt ridiculous doing it since they were supposedly trying to solve the problem that the wedding guests were in need of wine, not water. How surprised they must have been when by the time the water got to the master of the feast, it had become WINE. Then I quoted from an Anglican bishop these words about this story, "Duties are ours. Events are God's," and then applied it to our lives saying, "Our job is to fill the water pots; God's job is to make the wine." I didn't say this in the sermon, but I was struck in my preparation that this story is our story here in Turkey: In coming to Turkey we are filling the water pot; while we are here we are trusting God to make the wine. And I guess if I'm honest, my prayer is that Jesus does what he did at Cana - he makes some really good wine!

Faithfully,

Charlie

With the End in Mind

The 2pm class was cancelled for lack of sign-ups, and those that did were asked to come to the evening class where there would be more people, which they did. So that freed up the afternoon, and Ron, Peggy, Pam and I, along with Lawrence (a co-worker of Pam's from England) and Ruslana (a Moldavian woman who works in Antalya and attends the church, took a boat ride out of the Kaleici (Old Town) Harbor. This was the harbor that the Apostle Paul departed from (Acts 14:25-26). At that time the area was referred to as Attalia. The picture at the left would have been the view Paul had as he sailed away (well, minus all the buildings...). Thinking of Paul's leaving caused me to think that I, too, will be leaving. Which was odd because I just got here! Yet not so odd, because the best way to arrive anywhere is to know that you will be leaving...because when your really know that, it can help to make sure that when the time comes to leave, you will not have wasted your time there. It's the old, "Living with the end in mind" idea, and it prompted a reminder to me to keep doing just that. Without rushing...without obsessing...without anxiousness of any kind - to simply be attentive to every moment and opportunity, and respond with the graciousness of God.

We had our largest and most responsive class yet tonight - the Active Parents of Teens. I think because many of them are in the middle of the reality of raising teenagers, they have come with an energy and interest to learn and get help in what they are facing. We made some adjustments in the presentation - in both content of the teaching and the way we presented the material - and the wisdom of both decisions was evident. I felt more free tonight than in the two other classes, which, I think, indicates I'm feeling more at home here. Now we wait a week and see who comes back...or even (and for this I hope) who shows up who wasn't here this weekend.

Tomorrow we get to worship with the Turkish Christians, and I will get to preach. Pray for me and that the Holy Spirit uses the words I use to edify and encourage the believers. I always have a hard time picking a sermon to preach in another language because I use too many words that lose their nuance in translation...plus factoring in translation, most of my sermons would be too long. (I know what you're thinking...). If we get up early enough, we plan to take in the International Church service first, which will be in English.

wow...I just dozed off and typed some really weird-looking combination of characters! Time to stop. :)

Charlie

Turkey Time

First of all, 'Turkey Time' means we're not in Pacific Standard Time...meaning we're still getting used to traveling 18 hours to a time zone that is 10 hours ahead of the one we left. Right now it's 11:30 PM in Turkey, so it's 2:30 Pm in Templeton. It will soon be Saturday while Santa Barbara Presbytery still has 10 hours of Friday left. We're still getting used the change. I have an advantage over Ron and Peggy. I get to stand up, move around and do most the talking. They get to sit in front of computers and push buttons to bring up the video and power point, which can at times be challenge for drowsy eyes. But they did great. We both learned from the first class so that the second went smoother and better in some ways.

Second, 'Turkey Time' means don't panic when at 7:15 (for a 7pm class) arrives and nobody's there...which was the case tonight. That was a discouraging moment for me (though I tried to pretend it wasn't) as I had the thought of "How do I tell people who sent me to teach that nobody wanted to learn?" But by 7:30 we had 12 people show up, which just a little less than what we had in the morning class. Things start in Turkey when people show up...and not before. Definitely something I need to get used to.

Third, 'Turkey Time' means we're here on God's time, not ours, and that it's now about discerning the hands on the dial but the presence of the activity of God. In the Greek, there are two words for time: Chronos (clock time) and Kairos (event time). When Jesus said that "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand..." (Mark 1.15), he uses the word kairos. For me, I want to pay attention to what God is doing because I believe that God IS doing something, no matter who shows up...or when.

Thanks for your prayers and encouraging words. Tomorrow we teach the Teen program. Pray that we will apply well the lessons learned today.

- Charlie