Messy Beauty in Turkey

Now that we have covered some of the highlights from Jordan, next stop is Turkey! 

As soon as we arrived in Turkey in mid January we gathered as a squad with our leadership for our 3rd debrief on the field. Debrief is a time to prepare for the next season, learn, worship, pray, and process with the squad, your team and leaders! During this week we had sessions together with different teachings from leadership and squad-mates. There was one specific session on reconciliation and as a squad we confessed, repented and reconciled with each other and leadership. We brought the schemes of the enemy into the light and asked God to redeem hard things that have happened during our time on the field with each other. It was both messy and beautiful! 

During our gender time where woman and men separate for a few hours, the ladies went out to the hotel’s playground and simply PLAYED together. It sounded so silly initially but it was a beautiful time for me and reminded me to not take myself and life too seriously. I tend to get in my head and overthink pretty often. We laughed so hard, ran around and even made up a dance together! I was so thankful for this time to remember to have FUN while on this journey and in life in general. 

Also during this debrief our mentor gave us guidelines and advice regarding evangelizing in Turkey. Turkey is a Muslim country with over 90% of people identifying as Muslim. How strictly people observe and practice Islam varies. For some it is more of a cultural identity than a personal one. She advised us to be more aware and cautious than we have been in other countries. There is a history of Christians being asked to leave the country. We were asked to make our blogs and social media private. We were also advised to be careful in the texts and emails we were sending and to use different coding like “EV” for evangelism, “Je$us,” etc…

On the 5th day of debrief we entered round 2 of quarantine on the field after 2 people tested positive for covid! We spent the next 5 days in a hotel room. Some of us were very thankful for this time to breathe, rest and process with the Lord before going to our ministry locations for the month! 

Once quarantine was over we were free to leave Istanbul and start our travel to our ministry sites! I will not be sharing the location and host’s information for protection purposes! It was about 5-6 hours from the capital. We left the debrief hotel as a team on the morning of January 24th. The story of getting to our ministry site could be a whole blog within itself. It was CRAZY!

It had snowed a lot that week and the roads were covered! However, we were able to get taxis and made our way to the ferry. Most of us were very excited to get to take a ferry! We got tickets and were waiting to board the ferry. Suddenly about 30 minutes before it was supposed to leave, it got canceled due to weather making the water not safe! 

Plan B was now trying to find a bus to take us. We taxied to a bus station and thought we were given 2 options. Either a mini bus at 2pm or a big bus at 5:30. We picked the mini bus option at 2pm. We got on this bus and quickly realized we were still in Istanbul about an hour later. We were dropped off at another bus station in the same city and realized that what the man at the first bus station was trying to tell us was that a mini bus would take us at 2pm to a big bus station that would take us to our city at 5:30pm… this is what happens when there is a language barrier! Haha 

While waiting for the big bus it began to snow more, roads were closed and all buses were canceled until the next day. We then begin searching the area for a hotel to stay in and they were quickly filling up and we were being told there was no space for us. My teammate jumps online and booked us a hotel close by. No taxis were running at this time since the roads were closed. The GPS said it was a 6 minute walk. Due to the snow and carrying all of our bags, it look us almost 30 minutes! We were so thankful that this hotel had rooms for us. We laughed at the fact that it took us 9 hours to travel only 8 miles from the debrief hotel…

The next day we woke up, had breakfast and got taxis to the bus station for the 10am bus. Once we arrive a little early we begin the wait and are told the 10am bus is canceled but there is a 5pm bus. We decide to stay and wait it out. Then at 2pm we were told all buses are canceled again. Back to the hotel we go! There were not taxis running at this time and the one taxi we found at the bus station wanted to charge a very large amount of money for a 6 minute drive. We then walk back to the hotel. They only had one room left! They were so kind and added 3 beds so all 6 of us had a bed that night. The next morning we began day 3 of attempting to leave Istanbul. This time I asked the hotel to call the bus station for us and we were told buses were running! Once we arrived we were given actual SEAT NUMBERS! We then began our 6 hour bus ride to our ministry location. I never thought I would be in a historic snow storm in Turkey before. Cars were stranded on highways and some of our squad-mates slept in the mall food court with hundreds of other people because they were not able to get a taxi back to the hotel! 

While on the bus we needed to cross the water and the whole bus took a 30 minute ferry ride! I was so thankful that we were still able to do this! Once we arrived in our city for the month, the pastor of the church there picked us up and brought us to our apartment. He doesn’t speak much English so we used a translation app very often. His lovely wife spoke English and we were visited by her that night. She then showed us the city, close and cheap grocery stores and the church location. The following day we had a meeting with her to share our stories and discuss what ministry would look like that month! I also had my first of MANY Turkish teas that day… 

The first few weeks in Turkey were definitely not what I expected, however, that is what most of the race has been! Through it all, I see the goodness of our God and His ability to restore, redeem and make good of ANY situation, including the messy ones!

Turkey was by far one of the most testing months for myself and many people on my squad. For me, it was also one of the most fruitful seasons! I’ll be sharing more about that in my next blog and about what ministry looked like that month! 

After Turkey we made our way to the country of Georgia the same day the war started in Ukraine. The ministry that happened that month was also messy and beautiful as we had many conversations with Ukrainians and Russians. I’m excited to share more! 

We are now in the country of Armenia and I’m with a new team in the capital! With only 2 months left I would love to request prayer that I would remain present and faithful with what is in front of me and not worry about tomorrow or coming home. Thank you for your continued support and prayer!