Dear Brothers Sisters, I am so very grateful for your prayers and support.

As I shared with you in my former letter, God is using your contributions to make amazing changes here! We’ve visited all our church fellowships teaching those who have come to Christ what baptism is all about and many have been baptized. There have been around 110 people who have chosen to complete the training and have been baptized.

There are now about 150 people who are taking the course hoping to be baptized by the end of this year. And all these people coming from Islamic backgrounds go through serious struggles to be free from the past pressures put on them by their families, friends, neighbors, and work bosses, who are all very Muslim. Yet they are so thankful for the true eternal LIFE they have received from our Lord. We are thankful to God first, and then to you for your prayers.

When people meet Christ Jesus, their lives are changed, but how are they changed? It is definitely more than economic change or physical change. It is an eternal change giving us everlasting LIFE.

Our friend Mr. Halid came to us with a hard heart, arguing with many of us at the church telling us that we were on the wrong path in life. He refused to listen to any of us, but we prayed for him and one day he asked one of us to give him a NT, saying, “Let me find the lies in this book to show them to you.”

He began reading the NT, and noticed how merciful Jesus was to those he connected with. Even leprous people who had been forsaken by their parents came to Him asking to be healed and He got close to them, touched them, and they were healed, so he said to us, “No one can do this. He was a carpenter, living near contaminated people, talking with every person, eating with them, but never getting the disease from those He was helping.” So he asked us this question? “Why didn’t Jesus become leprous? Why did He show more interest in the infected people than the religious people?” So we shared with him how Jesus came into this world to rescue those who were most needy, and he began to cry.

He said to us, “Yes, I do believe in Jesus as He is also my Savior, but I’ve defamed Him speaking against those who believe in Him so much. Will He forgive me?” We assured him that Jesus died to rescue him too, so we let him join in the baptismal lessons. And he was baptized.

We assured him that nothing from him was expected other than his commitment to follow Jesus, and he shared this news with his two children and his wife, who have joyfully accepted Jesus into their lives. The rest of his family are living as covered Muslims, yet change is happening as this new believer is sharing the Gospel with them. (You can see them in the photos below with the mother and father bringing the children for baptism.)

When I asked him “How are you doing?” He said, “My heart is filled with God’s love, so I can’t stop sharing it with others. We read the NT every day together and I notice how it blesses my family as they grow in their love for God, causing my eyes to flow with tears of joy.”

Those who come to our church to cause great difficulties end up noticing how God changes their hearts, so your help in letting us share NTs freely with our people here is wonderful!! Thank you so much!!

So sorry that there’s so much to share with you that these letters get too long. Yet I must share the good news of how God is using the internet here. You will see the picture below of Nursenem, a 17 year old girl, who watches our social media program a lot.

Learning about God was important to her, and she wondered whether what she was taught about the NT being changed, and the belief we have in 3 Gods was true. When she heard our explanation of the Truth she did her best to let others know and waited till she was 18 years old to be baptized.

She was doing her best to honor her mother and father who were still believing the lie above. She said, “Now that I’m 18, I want to be sure of spending eternity in Heaven with Jesus instead of following my parents to hell, so I’m happy to grow in my faith and be baptized.” We’re thankful for her honest sharing as this does encourage the youth in our church.

And in the City of Tokat God has answered all our prayers in providing a wonderful place for us to rent so that the 20 to 30 believers can come together to worship our Lord Jesus.

We were able to share the Gospel and prepare a number of people in this city for baptism even before we could rent a place of worship. There are a lot of African young people attending the University there who have joined the church fellowship, so we’re thankful for your prayers and support making this ministry possible.

Even while we rejoice over the many baptisms, some difficulties have hit us. Please pray that the missionary families who have left this country will be able to return, as the need for spiritual leaders is increasing so much.

The churches don’t seem to grow very healthily when left to newly converted believers. So please do pray with us that God send new workers mature in their faith to help us. The churches are full of very poor people coming to us with needs, so we do our best to provide vehicles that bring them to church and this is costly.

In Samsun we are ministering to refugees during the week, providing some of their needs. We have rented a place to feed them and share the Gospel with them.

We are also continuing our ministry to prisoners who are still imprisoned. Pray with us for those who have been freed that they continue growing in their faith in Jesus.