Mark's Blog

Sherrylee and I have always wanted to take LST into the Muslim world—but we didn’t know how. We needed a Russian church to show us the way!

Tim Brinley and Sherrylee on our first visit to Antalya, Turkey

Nobody has more adventurous ideas nor is any bolder than Tim Brinley, whom we first met in Moscow.  As I mentioned in a previous post, he and his mission team had really become the first long-term missionaries from churches of Christ in Moscow just a few years after it opened to Westerners.

He had done mission work, however, in Turkey back in the 1970s and still had a real heart for the people of that country.  Partly to teach the church in Moscow to be missional and partly because of his passion for the people of Turkey, he proposed to LST that we allow him to take a group of Russian Christians to Turkey where they would do a version of LST, not with English, but in the Russian language.

Sherrylee, who hangs right in there in boldness with Tim, said absolutely not—UNLESS he agreed to let us bring a group of American Christians to do a joint LST project in Turkey with the Russian Christians—which he gladly did.  So the plans were made for the summer of 2002.

Turkey is a totally Muslim country—but is secular by law, which means that they have a strong separation of church and state.  One of the phrases we heard most often that first year was, “Tell Americans to come. We are not Iran!”  The combined Russian/American LST team had nothing to fear, even though our presence and our work made some of the Turkish people around us a little nervous.

Tim chose to work in a beautiful tourist city on the Mediterranean coast called Antalya—or Atalia for those familiar with the missionary journeys of St. Paul. We advertised with flyers in windows and at the university. We also put a big ad in the local newspaper for an information meeting at a well-known hotel.  Many people came. All were told that while we helped them with their English, we were going to use texts from the Bible—stories of Isa, the Quran’s name for Jesus.

Overlooking the Antalya Harbor

For two weeks, we had regular LST reading sessions all over the little pension where we were staying—even on the roof. Daily the call to prayer would interrupt us from the many minarets in our section of the city.  We were careful, but not fearful at all. In fact, we loved the people we met—and they loved us.  Love really does cast out fear!

The third week was a little trickier. An article came out in the local paper with a picture of our group warning the people of Antalya that we were trying to lead their children astray!  Even our Turkish Readers were shocked at the inaccuracies. After that, local policemen walked by almost every day just to look in—just to check.

One of our Readers, a local shopkeeper, began to be mildly harassed by the other merchants on his street: “Are you going to become a Christian?” they would ask him.  He hasn’t yet, but we are still in touch with him. Pray for him.

We followed this same pattern of reading and advertising openly in Turkey for the first two years and read with over 200 people, but after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the attitude toward Americans abroad was so bad that we had to work more quietly.

Instead of open reading programs which we could no longer advertise for, we began sending internships to Antalya, i.e., young people with long-term desires to do kingdom work abroad together with a teacher/sponsor. They would study the Turkish language and culture, visit mosques, interview local Christians and Muslims—and read Luke with anybody that they met personally.

One of the first four interns is in Laos now, but two of the first LST interns currently live in Turkey and are spreading the Good News  full-time. Pray for them all.

For the last two years, LST has partnered with Oklahoma Christian to send hybrid groups to Antalya, part study abroad and part LST groups.  Just because it is not easy to know the best form for work in difficult countries, this does not relieve us of the responsibility to be there.

Bob and Donna Carpenter interview Turkish man in Antalya.

I believe Turkey to be a very important country, that it serves as the front porch for going into the rest of  the Muslim world. It was not easy in Turkey during Paul’s day and it is no easier now; occasionally now there are roadblocks, but we have not yet been stoned or beaten or shipwrecked like Paul, so I’m thrilled that we have been able to continue working there, trying to be ready for every door as God opens it to us.

NEXT:   China!