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Prayer request from Samsun Protestant Church (July 8, 2018) By: Orhan Pıçaklar Dear Brother and Sisters In my last letter, I sent you photos of the group from the small church fellowship in Ordu—though it’s a small group, our Lord’s strength has manifested itself wonderfully there. I also shared with you about the slander that came to me and now my lawyer is following through with that so we wait for the results. Please continue your prayers as nothing has been revealed yet. Indeed I need those prayers. If only I didn’t worry or fear these attacks, yet, to be honest, I do from time to time. Then our Lord’s words come to mind and knowing that you are upholding me in prayer helps me claim that peace God gives us through difficulties and I can continue His plan for my life. Just as it says in 2 Timothy 4:1-2, we continue through difficult times even though the times may be suitable or not suitable. Well, I’m sharing with you photos of how God is blessing us now. As you can see there are children, wives with their husbands, whole families, who are being baptized. Their only desire is to have “peaceful hearts” which they are finding in our Lord Jesus. All of these had no love for our Lord or desire to search for Him a little while back but in answer to your prayers their hearts were softened and they received the Lord into their lives together with their children, the young ones, and even some elderly folk received our Lord, too. We are so grateful and full of joy as it’s been our privilege to minister here because of your support. Each of these people being baptized have different stories, but I’d like to share the story of one of the refugee ladies. This lady is from Iraq and moved to Samsun about a year ago. She met with the Arabic speaking minister in our church and expressed a desire to attend the Arabic service. She was asked, “Why do you want to attend the church?” She then shared that she had had a dream of a church, and she wanted to see our church to see if it was the same church she saw in her dream. Even though she hadn’t been to our church just yet, the next day she saw another dream with our church in the background, and a man (whom she thought was Jesus) was inviting her saying, WE’RE WAITING FOR YOU, COME. So she said to her husband, “Please let’s go to this church” but the husband said he definitely won’t go to a church. They are missionaries, bad people, out to deceive us he said. Yet she was so touched by the dream and the invitation that she said to her husband, “I’m going.” He threatened to beat her up if she went, but she told him “whatever you do, I don’t care, I’m going.” So this angry husband contacted us and a translator helped us speak with him. He said he didn’t want us to talk with them and tried to put us down. We assured him that “his wife wasn’t doing anything wrong and asked that he let her come to visit us this one time.” This man came to our church a few weeks later looking a bit fearful but noticed all the love that people had for one another and decided to come every week. He got really unwell and had to undergo an operation, so asked us to come to pray over him. Yes, he didn’t like us in the beginning but then he started asking us to his home to pray for him!! What a miracle!! Our Lord changes the hearts of those who are the most against us so that he himself brings his wife to the church every Sunday. He attended his wife’s baptism, and she is considering herself to be the world’s most blessed woman. And they now attend our church early in order to help us prepare for worship. Our Lord brings change to the lives of these kinds of difficult people. You will see some Iranian refugees who have fled their country due to the persecution there (they accepted Christ in Iran) and found us as a church home so asked to be baptized. They now connect with their relatives in Iran by internet sharing the Gospel without fear and say to them, “We are praying for you that you receive our Lord who loves you so much and that it no longer be considered wrong to be a Christian in Iran.” Sometimes I wonder why God gave us this opportunity to serve him in the City of Samsun where there are so few Christians, why did He allow this building to be provided for us to worship in. Actually, the answer is obvious, “God gave his people here a protective shelter” and for this reason, we are so very thankful to God. And you are a part of keeping this place of the shelter alive and effective by your prayers and your helpful support. People are coming to Christ from every nation and people groups each year. We will have another baptismal in Ordu soon. There are people there who are coming to our Lord in answer to your prayers. I also encourage you to continue praying that the governmental statements against me be corrected so that I am able to serve freely. Pray also that those who have accepted our Lord would share the Gospel with others they come in contact with as we are encouraging this vision in our sermons.
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