Our time in Turkey has been a wild ride, to say the least. Despite the worries and anxieties that come with the unknown, these last 2 weeks have been some of the sweetest memories I’ve experienced. The best way to describe it is by tying our experience into John’s letter to the church of Pergamum when he mentions finding the “hidden manna.” God gave the Israelis fresh Manna each day to provide for their needs. If they held onto the manna from previous days, it would grow stale and be useless causing more problems than if they would have just thrown it out. Our experience felt similar to the Lord’s provision each day. If we tried to cling to the things He provided the day or even the week before, we weren’t trusting Him in faith to show up. My faith and trust in the Lord were built up to new levels this month. Here’s a little overview of our time and some sprinkled-in testimonies…
Since Kyrgyzstan, we shifted some teams around to what we felt God had for this new season. My team, once again, consisted of 8 people only with a few different additions this time around. On March 3rd, we arrived in Istanbul, Turkey. We dedicated that day and the next to prayer, seeking the Lord’s will with this team, as we had no plans past these very few days. After some experiences the boys on our team had, on day 2, we decided to spend some time in prayer and intercession right where we were in Istanbul. We came up with a tentative schedule including daily check-ins (to stay unified as a team), worship, and intentional/specific prayer around the mosques and the city. Each day we learned about one of the 6 pillars of Islam and then proceeded to split into groups to pray for that specific pillar, to walk around the mosque 7 times, on the 7th day, inspired by Joshua 6. We learned a lot about the Muslim faith, the main thing being that they believe they follow the same God as followers of Jesus when that is simply not true. They believe Jesus walked the earth as a prophet while Christians believe Jesus is Lord, sent in the form of man, to be the final sacrifice, saving us from sin and death. Jesus is God, is something a Muslim cannot say or believe because it would be going against their holy book, the Quran. Anywho, despite the historical soundness of the Bible and Jesus’s supernatural death and resurrection, in the Muslim faith even counting Jesus as equal to God is blasphemous.
While dedicating ourselves to prayer in Istanbul, we were able to make some sweet connections through the famous blue mosque. As you go in, there is an information desk with volunteers, sharing their faith. We struck up some conversations with some of the volunteers and even ended up joining their “Iftar” dinner a couple of evenings. It was truly a privilege to get to experience such insight into the Islamic faith and the daily routine of a devout Muslim. One of my favorite moments there was one of our friends asking me this beautiful question. She said, if she was seeking out Christianity, wanting to find the truth in it, how should she go about it? The Holy Spirit quickly reminded me that God wants His daughter to know the truth even more than she wants to know it, as well as Matthew 7:7. I responded, by saying to simply ask God to open her eyes to the truth. God is the only one that changes hearts and opens eyes to inconsistencies, therefore I fully believe if she prays this prayer and her heart is open, the Lord will reveal His full truth to her. I’m praying for that as well. She is dedicated to seeking and I have full faith she will find what she is looking for.
As we said goodbye to the city of Istanbul on March 12th, we all agreed our next stop would be the city of Pergamum. The same city is mentioned in the Book of Revelations. Despite a literal pitstop in the city of Ayvalik for a day of rest and prayer, we made it to Pergamum simply by the Lord’s grace on March 14th. Buckle up for some stories of full faith now haha….
Everything in Peramum was very much too expensive for our small budget. We knew that going into Pergamum, therefore did not book anywhere to stay walking in faith that the Lord will provide. We all agreed the Lord wanted us in this city, therefore our only option was to trust in His provision upon us. From our first bus ride into the city, we saw His hand of provision. We knew how to get to the big bus station in Pergamum, thanks to our logistics and treasury team (ps, I’m on the worship team!) but other than that no clue how to get into the city or truly anything… 8 baby deer in a headlight basically haha. As we arrived at the bus station a man helped us find a bus that took us downtown, praise God. Did we know what stop downtown was? Nope. We got on despite that and a few stops later, a girl who happened to sit next to one of my teammates and speak English, was getting off at the same stop. She explained the area a little bit and made sure we got off at the right spot, praise God. As we got off, we dropped our bags in the street and simply prayed because we had nowhere to go. We decided from there to start walking and see what we found. We stumbled across a public park and found it to be the perfect spot to regather, ask God what to do, and possibly grab some legit manna. As a few of us were leaving for a quick food run, a man asked us if we were going to move our bags soon…. then proceeded to ask if we needed a place to stay. We said yes, eager to hear what he had to offer. He owns a hotel and offered us a few rooms. We got excited but once again, were let down by the over-budget price. When we explained our budget, he asked if we had tents and we responded no, but with weather like this, we could simply sleep outside with our sleeping pads and sleeping bags. He called his wife, did some quick math, and offered us a price right under our budget… we accepted, praise God again. It was about a 15-minute walk, which was interesting with all our gear, but we made it and piled our stuff in the garden. We also ran into a friend we had been in contact with from the previous team’s time here…. He happened to be playing violin on the street as we were exploring the city! We got to hang out and share stories, which was so sweet. We stayed in the garden for 2 nights, so the next day we got to visit the church of Pergamum finally!!
After visiting the church/ the ruins of Pergamum, Sky, Nick, and I were walking home from dinner when some people started speaking English to us. We were confused because that is rare in these parts of town. They told us they knew who we were and why we were here which caught us off guard a little, as to be expected. They ended up being locals who worked with our friends last year. Then they asked us if we were joining them for their church tomorrow, which we had JUST been talking about and expressing our desire to go with each other. Crazy timing. We had a conversation with the squad that night which ended up continuing into the next day. We decided as a group to split into 2 groups. 4 of us stay in Pergamum and 4 continue to the rest of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations.
That same day, the 4 of us who stayed, went to church and brought all of our stuff, expectant the Lord to provide once again. Church was truly amazing and I think I felt the most welcome I’ve ever felt in a place. Everyone was waiting outside the door for us and helped us bring our bags in! After church ended we all shared a meal and one of the friends we made was joking about us staying with her…. She said “My home is your home” to which my team responded by asking if she was genuine because we would take her up on her offer… after asking her parents, it was a go! Praise God, we were so excited. We ended up staying with her family for 3 nights, which was simply so sweet. Being in a home, hearing local’s testimonies, and creating a new family here was refreshing for my soul.
After our time at our new family’s house, we had an open door to attend a worship night in Izmir. We decided to go, once again with all of our stuff and see what door opens for housing. The worship night was so beautiful with people from all over the world. We even met people from America! Afterward, a super sweet couple told us about a nearby hostel that was on a budget, and lots of tourists visited! So we gathered our stuff and rented a room there. We attended a prayer group at the same church the next morning, got to talk to lots of tourists from the hostel, and did some team check-ins to see where we were—then headed to the church of Ephesus in the Bible. While there, we met some other Americans, reading the Bible and they shared what they had learned with us. They told us Acts 19 was a scene that happened at this sight!! After the day was finished, we decided to finish out our time as a small group, in Pergamum. It was kind of funny coming to go to church once again with all of our stuff, but praise God, this church opened its doors for us to live there for our final week. So kind, and we are forever grateful! We spent this week praying over the city, doing lots of worship, going deeper with the Lord, having Bible studies, and hanging out with the friends we made. It was truly such a sweet week here and one I won’t forget!
I feel along the way to each location, the Lord sent someone our way to guide our steps. We always knew what bus to take thanks to a local or a friend, which train to get places, someone to call a cab… etc. We never lacked in all of our needs and plenty of times even our desires. He is so kind to us. This season was so sweet and the friends we made are so special.
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