turkey recap

I realized that I never wrote and published a blog from our time in Turkey! So here it is now, long overdue!

I honestly don’t know where to begin with our time in Turkey, so I’ll start at the very beginning. Our squad arrived in Istanbul and my team spent two days there before splitting off from the rest of the squad. We then took a 22 hour long bus ride to Antakya, where we spent the majority of our time.

While in Antakya, my team and I partnered with a humanitarian aid organization, working at a refugee camp that looked after families directly impacted from the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes. While I have many stories and testimonies to share from our time in Antakya, there is one specifically that the Lord has placed on my heart to share in this blog.

My squad just so happened to be in Turkey for the majority of Ramadan, a month of fasting from sunup to sundown, prayer, reflection, and community annually observed by Muslims worldwide. Each night of Ramadan, after sunset, Muslims break their fast with an Iftar meal. This meal is supposed to be a celebration and represent a time of gratitude. Because Islamic culture is largely centered around community, my teammates and I were invited very often to join the families at the camp to break fast with them, even though they knew we had not been fasting.

One night I was invited by a 6 year old girl to join her family for Iftar. Well, “invited”, may not be the right word- she simply grabbed hold of my hand and brought me to her family’s home and pointed at the carpet she wanted me to sit on. But nonetheless, her family didn’t bat an eye when one of the strange Americans just appeared in their tiny home. They made sure I ate my fill and then some, but as the night continued things started going south.

As dinner went on, it became more and more evident that any hospitality, love, or gratitude this family had shown had been largely superficial and obligatory. The father was completely checked out and in his own world, showing no emotion or affection whatsoever. One of the sons was clearly intoxicated, his wife much younger than him- trying to keep track of her husband and their son. The grown-ups were hitting the children, shouts and screams filled the home. At this point my mind was running in two opposite directions.

Part of me wanted to get out and get out fast. I didn’t feel unsafe by any means, but I also didn’t want to have to keep witnessing what was before me. The other part of me wanted to start yelling and smack all of the adults that were hitting the kids or the others that were allowing them to upside the head and get them to stop. My fight or flight felt like it was buffering and opted to default to paralyze.

I couldn’t just get up and leave- how disrespectful they would consider me! But I also had no right to stop what was going on, I was a guest in their home after all. The night finally came to a close as it was time for my team and I to clean and leave, but it’s safe to say I had a lot to process.

As I sat with the Lord on all that had happened that night, the only word that kept coming to mind was “helpless”. I felt helpless that I couldn’t protect the children that were being physically abused, helpless that I couldn’t make the husband help his wife, helpless that I couldn’t stop the son from taking whatever he was on. I was focused on everything I could not do. But then the Lord reminded me of the fact that there’s nothing I can do anyway. It is not by any power of mine that this family’s circumstances are going to change. It wasn’t going to be anything I said or did in that moment or later on to change their behavior. And why? Because they don’t need any kind of lecture or lesson. They need heart change.

The truth of the gospel is the only thing powerful and strong enough to truly bring healing and redemption. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” This verse does not say “if anyone is in Hannah” or “if anyone is in Adventures in Missions” or “if anyone is in the world”, but if anyone is IN CHRIST” they are a new creation.

I felt a wave of relief and gratitude as the Lord reminded me of this because the weight of change or salvation was no longer mine to carry (it never was to begin with either but that’s besides the point). The Lord wasn’t asking me to do what Jesus already has for this family. He simply just wanted my obedience in showing up and interceding as I broke bread with them. How often do we overcomplicate ministry when in reality it just looks like showing up and loving wholeheartedly. Praise be to God that the work is FINISHED and that He is patient and kind and gracious!!