IMPACT TURKEY--2011: 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.