Encounters with God in Istanbul
When God moved us to Istanbul, it came as both a surprise and a calling that made sense. Nonetheless, it was a process that took us five years.
I grew up as a third-culture kid of Turkish descent in Germany. Though I was born in Hamburg, I was raised according to Turkish culture with Turkish as my first language. Through family, friends, and regular visits, I retained a strong emotional bond to my country of origin and its people.
While my childhood household was culturally Muslim but practically irreligious, I always had an interest in spiritual literature and read much. In 2002, a friend shared her faith and, by God’s grace, I realized that I was a sinner in desperate need of a Savior. After years of studying and working as a physicist, God called me to ministry. I went to seminary, earned a master’s degree in theology, and completed a four-year pastoral internship at Hamburgprojekt in Hamburg, Germany. In 2017, I relocated to Istanbul with my wife and two children to plant a church.
People in Istanbul are highly relational. Even in a simple transaction at the supermarket, you get to know people. So that is what we do. Our church has held six preview services, hosted an art exhibition, a movie night with discussion, and a public talk on the impact of religion and worldview on work. These events have allowed us to engage with many of our neighbors and communicate that our primary goal is not just building our little church. We want this city to benefit from our presence. Whether our neighbors share our beliefs or not, we want to build friendships, relationships, and trust. And as we engage with them on a deeper level, they begin to see that the gospel is full of grace. If we’re able to communicate grace and connect it to their cultural narratives, it starts making sense to them.
A member of our core team recently struck up a conversation with a woman he bumped into in a restaurant. He gave her a New Testament Bible, which she took home and began reading. She had many questions. He then invited me to join the conversation. She’s an engineer and very intellectual, so I said to her, “I’d love to try to answer your questions, but we might end up playing argument ping pong. You argue from the Muslim point of view and I from the Christian background, but this will lead you nowhere. What you really want is an encounter with God.” After that sentence, one I had never said before, she really opened up. She told me she dealt with depression and came from a very difficult upbringing. She then said, “Recently, I dreamed about a man, and he was cloaked in white and was shining. He touched me and took all my sadness away, and I never had that. It must be Jesus.”
I said to her, “I’d love to try to answer your questions, but we might end up playing argument ping pong. You argue from the Muslim point of view and I from the Christian background, but this will lead you nowhere. What you really want is an encounter with God.”
God meets people in dreams here, and it makes sense in light of the way trust is built in this culture. Because they are more relational, they want to experience something. And so God appears to them in a form they can relate to. This woman has now accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. She has already brought a number of her friends to church, but her conversion has come as a shock to her Muslim family, and she is in some danger. She is staying with friends, and we are praying for wisdom and her safety.
Since we’re very aware that it’s impossible to talk Turks into becoming followers of Jesus, prayer is a fresh priority for us. We’ve always prayed, of course, but we have not had regular, recurring times of prayer. We now gather at 8:00 AM five days a week to pray for one hour—not for our own needs, but for our friends, for God’s kingdom, and for God to move the hearts of the people.
We’ve seen a change in the openness in those around us. The story of this woman is an example of that openness. Due to our Turkish history and cultural shifts over the last few decades, there seems to be an open gospel window. It was just not possible to do what we’re doing and be received positively fifteen years ago. So we’re building the altar and praying that God lights the fire.
Names have been withheld for security reasons.