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We ask for your prayers as we have a team in Turkey right now. We thank God that they all arrived safely.

This is the third team to go to the region in five months to assess the refugee situation, encourage the local believers and pray. We’d like to see a long-term presence in southeast Turkey to serve the local fellowships and refugee populations.

Turkey map

The team has been sending us reports. Here are two:

  • J writes: “So we met a Syrian believer living in Izmir. He and a local pastor have been going back and forth to Suruç (Turkey) over the last few months. There have been refugee families coming to the Lord there. They are discipling and preparing for them to go back to Kobani (Syria).”
  • M reported seeing in Izmir a refugee begging in Arabic for food: “I saw one who is a refugee in a street. He was asking for food; he was hungry. He was surprised that I asked him ‘What do you want?’ because Izmir is a city with not many Arabic-speaking people. He answered, ‘Food, I want to eat. I am hungry.’ He was Syrian. I asked him if he had brothers, and he said yes. I told him to bring them, and they were three all together.”It was very hard to see his situation. My heart was broken. I bought for them food then I told them ‘Jesus loves you.’ I would love to spend some time with them and their family. There are many like this situation, but I had a meeting so, I went.”

A new year

The timing of this trip coincides with the first day of the Hebrew religious calendar (Nisan 1), the Kurdish new year (Newroz) and the first day of spring.Newroz is considered the most important festival in Kurdish culture. Since the late 1980’s Newroz has been mainly associated with the attempts to express and resurrect the Kurdish identity. (Wikipedia)

Knowing this, ISIS bombed a Kurdish town in Syria on Friday, killing at least 20 (Reuters). ISIS also publicly beheaded three Peshmerga fighters on Friday as a warning to the Kurdish forces (Daily Mail).

Please pray

  • for protection of our team as well as our partners in the region,
  • for favor as we look to establish a long-term presence southeast Turkey,
  • for wisdom on how use our resources to minister to the displaced peoples of the region.

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Thank you.