Prayer Request for Turkey
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작성일 2020-01-03 (금) 14:41
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Pray for Huri and Hasan’s family and Yozgat


  • Pray that God would continue to bless, guide, and use Huri and Hasan's family for the sake of His glory and the Gospel of Jesus Christ
  • Pray that many people in Yozgat would come to know Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ through lives and ministries of Huri and Hasan's family
  • Pray that God would continue to provide all the needs of Grice family and their ministries as they serve the Turkish church planters such as Huri and Hasan




The land of the Hittites.
Yozgat province in Turkey

By SH Grice






The Hittite people in the Bible often caused problems for the Hebrews. They brought conflict and tension when God gave the promised land to the Patriarchs, and Rebekah was not happy when her son Esau married a Hittite woman and despised her.

The land of the Hittites is still a difficult area for God’s people, where the land around Yozgat used to be the land of the Hittites and the remains of their worship place can still be seen on the top of the hill. The people who live in the area today are conservative and hold firmly to their traditions. When we look at the history of the area we find a lot of evidence of conflict and genocide and manipulative ideas originating in their culture.

The province of Yozgat in Turkey is still an area where it is hard to imagine people coming to Christ and a church being planted. However, fifteen years ago, our faithful sister Huri, her husband Hasan, and their family came to the Lord when they all saw a warm bright light which filled their poor village house. They were amazed as they felt the warmth of Jesus fill their house and the whole family accepted Jesus as a result. They could not keep the news to themselves so the mother, Huri, began to share the Good News with their relatives and neighbours. Everyday she went to share the Gospel, until eventually they threw her out of the village.

The family had to move to a remote area where there was no electricity or piped water, the top of the mountain where the Hittites had lived. They had to build a new habitation from nothing and, in order to survive, started to keep sheep. They started with 10 sheep; most of which died because of disease and their lack of experience of sheep farming.






She was desperate for help and asked us to pray for her sheep to survive. She has had many difficulties and challenges in that place far from the village and community. But now she has two hundred sheep and her husband got an award as the best shepherd in Yozgat. When she had built her sheep shelter, three years ago, we held a Christmas celebration in their home with their neighbours, the first time that Christmas had been celebrated there since the Armenian Christians had fled from the area.

This year, in April, their enthusiasm and passion eventually paid off as we helped them to open a small Christian meeting place in the centre of their small town, where people can easily access it.

It was Easter time when we gathered to open the church and celebrate Christ’s Resurrection. This opening of this small church was so overwhelming as we all sensed the Love of God. We were so happy to be able to bless this land of the Hittites and bring God’s healing to this area where so many Christians have suffered persecution in the past. Even though the place is small and cannot take many people, yet this Christmas, for the first time, we were able to advertise and invite people to come and worship with us. Through fifteen years of Hasan and Huri’s labour and faith the people can hear that there is now a church among them and Christians living in the town.

Many of the people we had invited to come to the Christmas party could not because they were afraid of the manipulation of the despising of the Christians, hesitancy of seeming different and worried about offending their families or gossip by the community. However, we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God and maybe one day they can come and celebrate the Saviour’s birth and His love toward us. We were hoping for fifty people to come to Yozgat church and we prepared food and gifts for them, as we looked forward to celebrating Jesus’s birth with them.



In the beginning, Hasan and Huri did not know how to organise a Christmas Service or how it could look like, so we had to divide the roles of who was going to do the different tasks. To decorate the church, for the first time, Hasan found and cut down the hard board for shape of Christmas tree. We asked a new believer, a quail farmer, to provide some quail for us to eat at the feast. Another man, a carpenter, who is not yet a believer, gave a lot of help preparing the decorations. Hasan and Huri’s daughter was responsible for the cooking and all the food.

Eventually the time came to hold the celebrations. A number of refugees from the refugee camp heard about the church and were also welcomed. There were six of them, from Burundi, Afghanistan, and Iran, and it was a great privilege to celebrate together with these people who were waiting for the Good News and for blessing in their lives.

We gathered together to remember the coming of the Saviour, in the midst of so many who have not yet heard. We enjoyed singing Christmas hymn songs. Hasan introduced himself as a shepherd and I shared how the shepherds responded to the message of the angels and searched to find where Jesus had been born.

The message was from Luke 2:6-7 about there being no room in the inn for the Holy family. When Jesus was born in the manger there was no room for him. He was rejected by the people and by society but there was a welcome at the manger for the shepherds and they could come and worship Jesus. We know that most people may reject the Christ in Yozgat but there is a place where people who are waiting for the Saviour can receive him as Good News for their lives.

We rejoice that some village people came and seemed to enjoy hearing the story of Christmas, and some said they will come back to the Yozgat church service on Sunday. We saw that the people are looking for Good News which can bring them blessings and help their community to live in peace. They asked us to pray for them to be able to receive Jesus as their Saviour and for forgiveness for their sins. Some needed healing in their bodies. We pray that they can really understand the message of Christ’s coming into the world, that Jesus Christ the Messiah was born to take away the curse and bring blessing.


 
The Christmas service which was lead by by Hasan and Huri in Yozgat church

I hope you all can have a Happy Christmas and blessings in the New Year.
Many blessings
SH Grice




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