Mark's Blog

Antalya, Turkey

I’m having a Whopper Jr and a diet coke for breakfast in Antalya, Turkey, because that’s all there is at the airport at 8am! That’s not entirely true. At the Turkish restaurant next door, I could have ordered a Doner sandwich—basically a gyro sandwich—with Turkish coffee, but that option didn’t seem any better to me.

Did you know that very few countries in the world have special breakfast foods? Most people eat the same kind of food for as many meals as they may eat in any given day: soup, rice, beans, noodles, bread, cold cuts, cucumbers, tomatoes—all very common breakfast foods around the world.

Whopper Jrs are not common breakfast food in any country!!

We came to Turkey in 2002 with the first LST team here—really one of the very first entries into Turkey by churches of Christ since the early 1970s, when our M’s—you don’t use that word in Turkey– were all forced out.

Andrew and Katie were part of that first LST team, and now they have lived for almost four years in Antalya as full-time workers.  We had breakfast with them at our hotel—which did serve fried eggs (right next to the eggplant salad!)—and then Andrew took us to the English Center where he and others are offering conversational English classes to university students.

They can’t use LST materials because our Bible-based materials are too political!  Yes, political is the word the school officials use to describe the orientation of Christians in Turkey.  That surprised me! Religious, sectarian, infidels, heretics these words would not have surprised me, but political did.

As Andrew explained it to us, the greatest fear in the Muslim world is not a religious fear; rather, it is a cultural and political fear. They are afraid they will lose their culture and their control of their own political situation.  Christianity represents a threat to all of these in their minds.  It is the encroachment of Western dress, western morals, western politics, just western-ness into their ancient ways of living and thinking.

Being a political threat makes work for Christians in Turkey much more difficult.

As Andrew was dropping us off near the place where Christians meet in Antalya, a Turkish woman walked up to him and asked if anyone was in the church office.  It was actually a holiday so no one was around, but Andrew asked if he could help her.  She replied that she needed help. She felt trapped in Islam and was smothering. Could he help her?

Very kindly, Andrew asked a few more questions and then told her that his wife would call soon to talk to her. Women must be taught by women in this country. Katie will share the Good News with this woman in need.

The clash between countries and cultures may seem insurmountable, but Christians reaching out in love and in the name of Jesus to people in need will never be stopped by pejorative labels.

I’m really glad Andrew and Katie are here!