Jerry and Sarah Mattix loved living in Turkey. They arrived in 2001, had all their three children there, and expected to spend the rest of their lives serving the nation with its rich heritage from the time of the apostles. They have been serving local churches in Turkey, giving support and counseling in all manner of practical and spiritual ways. However, some ten years into their time, it became evident that there were no guarantees they’d be able to stay.
“By 2012 a lot of foreigners were being kicked out because the Turkish government was wanting to make it more of an Islamic nation,” Jerry explained. Living in the east of the country they were a lot more conspicuous, as there were far fewer foreigners to be seen.
“We stuck out like a sore thumb. They denied my residency and then we tried to get a Religious Workers visa through the churches association. We tried all sorts, but we kept being denied,” he said.
Eventually, the inevitable came. “In 2013 when we were trying to enter the country I was turned back at the airport. My wife and children were allowed to go through. I was told there was a G82 code, that I was a threat to national security and that I had been working illegally because I’d been serving with the church with no specific permit.”
However, with Turkey being a democratic republic, there should have been the freedom for Christians to come and serve. Turkey presents itself as upholding freedom of religion and democratic values. Legally, it seemed, the decision didn’t hold water.
“So with the encouragement of local leaders, we opened up a case against the Turkish government and after much effort, and going from one court to the other I was actually acquitted of those charges and the bans were lifted so that in 2016 I was able to reenter the country.”
Jerry’s case was a success. Their right to stay in Turkey had been clearly established in law. But the story was far from over.
THE FAILED COUP AND THE EFFECT ON MISSIONARY WORK
“After that a number of other important elements happened,” Jerry explains. “One was the failed coup in the summer of 2016, after which Andrew Brunson was imprisoned and charged as a spy – for instigating the coup.”
As outrageous as the charges were, Jerry explains how Turkey was hoping to leverage the US to release Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who the Turkish president held responsible for the coup. However, the US didn’t buy the story being given and was unwilling to rescind his asylum case, so the Turkish government imprisoned Andrew Brunson as a way of trying to exert pressure on the US.
From 2016 onwards a lot of other Christian workers were also being denied residency or getting kicked out of Turkey, and none of them were able to win their court cases. “There was a ramping up of anti-Christian, anti-Western rhetoric.”
It all came to a head in 2018 when Andrew Brunson was released, even though he wasn’t acquitted. He was released and sent back to the US.
“To this day people think he was working for the CIA this great spy who and slipped through their fingers,” Jerry adds.
One of the reasons Jerry had success after the first time he was kicked out was that he won his case before the failed coup when there was still more or less a functioning legal system in place. “After that there’s been gridlock in the Turkish legal system unfortunately. It’s not just Christians and pastors, it’s any number of also journalists, teachers, and others who were swept up in this anti-coup operation. I was blessed to go back in, others have not been able to make any headway with the legal system.” He was able to come and go from Cyprus with relative ease for several years until he was recently coded as “Inadmissible”.
Families who were denied entry were often also denied the opportunity to pack up their homes and tie up their lives in Turkey. Some had families still in the country who had to do it all alone. “It’s traumatizing,” says Jerry. ”People who have deeply invested in Turkey and served for years suddenly have to pick up stakes and leave… it’s traumatizing and a tragic situation.”
Jerry’s wife, Sarah, was also coded in 2020. “Of course we’re not forewarned, they don’t tell you. You just show up at the airport and find out that you’re banned and you get put on the next flight back. In my wife’s case they kept her in this room overnight in the airport, no food or water, internet or communication. She had to plead with them several times for basic necessities.”
Altogether he estimates that 150 individuals that they know of have been banned, and if we include wives and children some 500 lives have been affected. And those are just the ones who had made their situation known to church leaders in Turkey. Jerry says he’s sure there will be others who received “the code” who have just gone off quietly. “These people were serving local communities, but expelled simply because they are Christians,” Jerry says with sadness.
“Attempts to fight it legally have left people empty handed.” Some were informed of the decision only as they were leaving the country, so just turned around and went back home. This is not a permanent solution but at least those people had the opportunity to settle their affairs. The Turkish government essentially said, “No. Turkey has every right to ban whoever they want, and it’s likely that you guys are a threat to national security, and so we’ll leave it at that – we’ll not disclose any further”, and so it was a dead end.”
WHY CAN’T TURKEY EXPEL CHRISTIAN WORKERS?
As heart-rending as this situation is for foreign missionaries, you might think perhaps Turkey has the right to refuse them entry. The reason for resisting these expulsions lies in its own constitution. Turkey proclaims itself to be a democratic country with freedom of religion. Legal rights are being eroded at the cost of essential kingdom work.
They use the word “missionaire”, but in their minds that’s basically an agent, a spy, and that’s illegal. But they don’t differentiate between what we are doing as Christian workers, and what a spy would be doing,” Jerry says. In essence it’s a total mischaracterization of what they’re actually doing as servants of God in Turkey. Their work has been framed and promoted in this false way by the media and the government at every level.
“They’re happy to brand us as potential agents, whereas the word missionary as it’s properly understood — as someone who represents their faith in a foreign country — is not illegal. And in fact the laws and the way it’s represented in the constitution guarantee the right not just of meeting and expression, but the right to share your faith. This is not an Islamic republic. It’s a secular republic.”
“The Turkish church is not a church that is in hiding. It has every right to exist. Turkey is a republic undergirded by democratic and secular ideals and this is written in the constitution that we have every right to meet openly and share our faith.”
Michael Kerem agrees: “It’s the only place I know of in the entire Middle East where you can go into a government office and change your religious status from Muslim to Christian.” Muslim background believers are more protected in Turkey than in many other countries. “You’re still going to experience persecution and kickback, because you’re viewed as a potential traitor to the nation and an infidel. Additionally, after the coup, international Christians are viewed by the authorities and the mainstream media as a threat to national security. Consequently deportations increased.”
Now that he has been more permanently expelled, in order to bring clarity, Jerry made a video about missionary work, explaining what a missionary is. He reminds people, “There are Turkish missionaries who go all over Europe promoting Islam, nobody’s getting kicked out for doing that. This is part of establishing a democratic society, people have a right to express their faith openly. It’s guaranteed in the constitution.”
The number of Protestant Christians in Turkey is very small, only about 10,000 among 80 million, but the government has assumed that they are propped up by Western organizations and assume the whole thing will collapse if foreign missionaries are removed. However, they don’t realize that local churches have been growing for four decades. Many of the foreigners have gone but local leaders are flourishing. As we see in Iran and China, the removal of missionaries can actually increase the work of God and take it to the next level.
EARTHQUAKE IN ANTIOCH
The Mattix family have been serving in the area of Antioch, a unique part of Turkey with a unique history. Most of the inhabitants are Arabic speaking, and many are “Alevi” Muslims who, similar to the Alawites in Syria, revere Ali the grandson of Mohammed. In 1929 the people were polled whether they wanted to be part of Turkey and as a result of that referendum the area has been part of Turkey ever since. It’s different to the traditional Sunni Muslims of Turkey, and is relatively tolerant with the presence of Jewish and Christian communities. However the area has suffered greatly because of the Syrian civil war, and they have absorbed a lot of refugees. More than that, the earthquake has brought unimaginable suffering to the residents of the province of Hatay.
“Some suggest we’re there to target Alevis,” Jerry says. “That we see them as a soft target, but not true. We’re there to serve their constituents who were hit hardest in the 2023 earthquake.”
The prominence of the Alevi minority in the region seems to have led to less commitment from the Turkish government to provide aid after the earthquake. The local church has stepped into the gap and are now providing help to thousands in need. In 1999 an earthquake devastated Istanbul and an estimated 15,000 perished. Then too, it was Christian workers who offered aid, spearheading the response. Now, with so many foreigners expelled, more local believers are joining the relief efforts.
Jerry shared how many Turkish people, moved by compassion, had loaded trucks with all manner of supplies that ended up being wasted, either because it was not the kind of aid that was needed, or the distribution failed.
ISRAELI INNOVATION CHANGED THE GAME
What could be done in the face of a tragedy on this scale? Thousands were displaced, and tents were not a long-term solution. “Buildings were so damaged that they were all torn down,” Jerry said. “Containers are the next best thing, but they’re big, clumsy, and expensive to buy and manoeuvre.”
The Mattixes and others sought ways to meet needs that would benefit the communities long term, but that could also be a receptacle for the gospel. It wasn’t long before God brought the answer. An Israeli engineer who had developed a system for building tiny houses, and at a tiny price.
“This Israeli guy just flew himself over,” Jerry recalls. “While not necessarily a follower of Jesus, he had more faith than we did!”
The local believers urged Jerry to fly over from Cyprus where they are now based: “They said, “Jerry we need you to get over here,” and I wasn’t sure how I could help. But we met up with this Israeli fellow and found a carpenter. Everything to make the houses is pre-packed, can be put on the back of a pick up, and can be assembled in two to three hours.”
The model was very transferable, and all made from materials that could be locally sourced in Turkey. “We didn’t need to ship anything in. There was a special kind of saw that was needed, but we already had it in Turkey,” Jerry said. The initiative took off really quickly.
“People were clamouring them,” says Jerry. “It was just $2000 a unit with plumbing and everything. It’s a bit like lego – we could do two a day. Containers are twice the expense, and difficult to transport. They need a crane to put them into place whereas these are very easy to assemble. Others are using the model as well, and it all grew really quickly.” More than 1000 have been constructed over the last two years.
They put the opportunity to apply for a house out on Instagram, and received thousands of replies. The demand was so great that they quickly had to decide on the criteria of who would be eligible to receive one of the tiny homes. Initially they expected some contribution towards the new houses, but they realized this just wasn’t possible for many. They prioritized people whose homes had been destroyed or heavily damaged, who had no means to get anything else. Those with disabled children or elderly parents were also pushed to the top of the list.
“We recognised we can build on land if they had land, but some didn’t have a square foot to their name.” The Mattixes and others raised money to buy land, and have built a couple dozen tiny houses on it already. Working together with the local believers who were championing the project, short term teams come from overseas to help and volunteer. As well as providing food, water, and clothing, they all rallied together to construct hundreds of new homes. They are still building even now.
“We had the joy of serving a lot of people,” Jerry says. “They’ve been incredibly grateful and hospitable, and a lot of teams coming here have been blessed as well. But with humanitarian work, you want to make sure it will also leave lasting fruit for the kingdom.”
A brother, who is now the manager of the program, had rented a house in the area of Samandağ (adjacent to Selucia mentioned in the New Testament) hoping to start a local church, before the earthquake hit. That house became the HQ of the relief effort, and now they hold services there. “It’s bursting at the seams every Sunday,” Jerry says. Many have come to faith and now a church has been planted in that place. That new church is flourishing where there was no church before.
Jerry had been going to Antioch every month up until recently, when he received the INAD code, refusing him entry into Turkey. Jerry says, “I expected to get “the code” at some point or another, but mine is an interesting case because I won my court case, and also my work is humanitarian, serving the people of Turkey, so for them to do that it hurts Turkey’s image.”
HOW CAN WE PRAY?
- While we don’t expect the ban on Christian workers to change due to the legal system being in gridlock, we can pray that the people of Turkey learn the truth about missionaries and what they do: That they are serving and blessing Turkey, and are not a threat to national security.
- Pray that the “appeal to the court of public opinion” would be successful and that Jerry’s videos would be widely seen and have a great impact both in Turkey and overseas.
- Due to Jerry’s work in Antioch (Hatay Province) and in the media having a high profile in Turkey, pray that news of his expulsion would not negatively impact his work, or tarnish the image of the church in Turkey. Pray that his explanation of events would be seen and understood and that Jerry’s high profile would highlight the issue in a helpful way.
- Pray this message would get out to diplomats, officials, and churches around the world who can exert pressure on Turkey to stop expelling Christian workers. The legal route may be blocked for now, but the diplomatic route may help challenge Turkey to stop banning believers.
- The overthrowing of Assad and the rise of Turkish-backed mercenaries in Syria has emboldened Erdoğan. However, last time Trump was in power, the Turkish lira took a big hit dropping from 5 to the dollar to 35 to the dollar as a result of the sanctions imposed by Trump during Andrew Bruson’s imprisonment . Erdoğan is not young and may be attacking God’s people while he can.
- Pray for wisdom for leaders in Turkey to see that welcoming foreigners is a better way of rebuilding their economy, by courting foreign investment. Pray they would perceive the damage done to Turkey’s image by wantonly kicking out International Christians, and the benefits that would come by choosing to welcome them.
We continue to pray for Turkey and long to see them living in harmony with the rest of the world. We want Turkey to prosper and to be free. Respect and tolerance, for peace to blossom. The bans are hurtful and disappointing, but we are continuing to pray. Turkey has no greater friends than Evangelical Christians who genuinely love them and pray for them.