The pastor who mentored me for years, Dan Davis and to this day is like a father to me, at least spiritually, would make regular trips to Turkey to pray for the people of Turkey to come to know Jesus. Each trip’s return brought wonderful stories that kept many of us on the edge of our seats. From these stories, I learned that a revival in Turkey was when one or two people came to know Jesus Christ personally. I learned that one could end up in jail pretty easily and then kicked out of the country as well…possibly. When I was invited by Dan to join he and several other respected brothers in Christ, I jumped at the chance.
Most of the time was spent praying together, prayer walking and sometimes meeting Christians who were part of the underground church in Istanbul. One day, I met this very old man who had spent his life in Turkey as a missionary and had yet to see one person come to Christ personally. He was not deterred at all because he knew his life’s work was mostly seed-planting and was certain he would see the fruit of many of those seeds in Heaven. The very next day, our team decided to go to a certain neighborhood that had been prayer-walked many times before. We too would spend part of the day prayer-walking there. It was a cool neighborhood which was framed partially by five story walls about 30-40 yards wide, if I remember correctly, that had been built during the dark ages of the Crusades. Because I also was shooting photos, I had hired a bodyguard to help watch over my gear and interpret for me as needed. To boot, he was a Christian Turk! We’ll call him “Tunc” for security reasons.
After spending most of our time walking the hood praying and shooting photos, Tunc suggested we get on top of the wall to get some overall shots of everything and pray. Since Tunc knew the way, I followed him. The view was amazing and right away we came across about five boys in their late teens drinking beer and shooting pigeons with their slingshots. I spent time shooting photos of them and after getting this shot, this young man who again for security reasons we will call “Aykut” asked why we were there and not at the tourist sites. Through Tunc, I explained we were there praying for him and all others in Turkey. I was vague because we were strictly warned NOT to share Christ with anyone, to only pray for reasons explained above. The kid was bright and immediately asked if I was a Christian. Ok, screw the rules, I’m NOT going to deny my relationship with Jesus. I responded that I was a “Follower of Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior”. At this point, Aykut’s friends dropped back a couple of steps as though I had “The Plague”. My young friend had a very serious look on his face and asked if I would tell him about Jesus Christ. So, for the next hour or two Aykut would ask very deep sincere questions and I would answer them as best I could. It became clear to me this kid was ready and just needed a little nudge. Finally, I turned to Tunc and told him if I was in the U.S., this is when I would normally invite Aykut to give his life to Jesus and asked if he felt the same and if we should do so. Tunc got up and looked around to make sure no one else could hear us and then said “lets do it”. So, there on top of this wall built during Christianities second darkest hour, I asked this 17 year old Muslim if he would like for me to pray with him to receive Jesus Christ into his heart. After seriously considering what he was about to do for what seemed like five minutes, he decided yes, he was ready. At this point I feel like I’m having an out of body experience. Clearly someone else was in complete control and I was just along for the ride! I made sure to cover every angle possible for Christian conversion in this prayer he recited after me in his tongue. In the end, the three of us had tears in our eyes and Aykut then asks “Does this mean I’m no longer Muslim?”. “Geez, how do you answer that?” I asked Tunc. He responded “Tell him you are not a Muslim, you are a follower of Jesus Christ.” So I did and Aykut said “Me Too”. I then asked Aykut’s friends who had listened in if they would like to give their lives to Jesus and again they dropped back further with their hands out towards me saying “hayir, hayir, hayir” with high pitched voices, which of course is “no” in Turkish. I had a cap with a fly fisherman on it (get it?) on my head which my new Turkish brother had admired earlier. So, I took it off and gave it to Aykut, telling him it was my gift to him welcoming him to The Family Christ as my new brother in Christ. After Tunc got all his contact info so he could disciple Aykut, it was time to meet up with the rest of our team and head back to the hotel. I have no idea why God would bless me with such an incredible honor in such a unique place, but I’m so thankful! It truly is one of the highlights of my life and I look forward to seeing Aykut and Tunc at Dad’s house….hopefully soon. Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
the Jesusfreak
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