My name is Johnson and I am from Nigeria but I live in Turkey and I’ve been living in Turkey for 11 years practically, so I’m doing ministry in Turkey but I’ve been doing ministry for 10 years in Turkey and God has been faithful in our ministry. God is so good to us.

And I’m married with two boys. I have two boys, and they are wonderful children, and my wife is wonderful, so I have a blessed family.

On the issue of the earthquake… actually it is not a good thing to behold, it is not something that someone should actually experience. But you know it’s life, it’s one of those things that happens in life you know? So we just have to ask God for grace to be able to go through the experiences.

It’s one of those experiences in life. It was on the 6th of February at 4:17am in the morning, when we were sleeping, but I was actually awake and I wanted to pray. And all of a sudden I felt the vibration, you know this is a normal thing. It happens. So we thought it was a normal vibration like the earthquake vibration. It happens once in a while.

So usually when it happens I just pray, and I say let there be peace, this is a normal thing. But when I said let there be peace in Jesus’ name, it was like the devil got angry. And all of a sudden the house started shaking like it was really disastrous. Trees started falling, the house started cracking.

The only thing I could do was to scream “Jesus! Hold this building!” and all of a sudden it stopped. So I went to my wife’s room, I told her to pick one of our sons, I picked the other son, so we ran downstairs.

And unfortunately for us it was snowing heavily on that particular day. So when I went down, my kids were literally naked, so I couldn’t leave them outside in the snow like that, they were naked. So I had to come back inside because our house is a five-story building.

We are living on the top floor, so I had to go back up to get shoes for them, and clothes. But when I got up, unfortunately for me, the night before my children scattered the shoe rack, and I didn’t know where their shoes were. So I just picked [up] my documents and my phone, [and] I went downstairs to meet my family.

But God’s so good, we found a man downstairs, he opened this car for my children to stay there for some time. But I was outside, my wife was in the car with them but at one point the man said that he had to leave, so we were outside. It was very, very cold because it was snowing, and when it stopped snowing it started raining. We were outside for about 4 hours.

It’s not a good thing to behold, we were just walking in the rain, and we don’t know where to go. But glory be to God. We found a place to stay for some time, at least for 24 hours. Then after the person wanted us to leave, so we left the person’s house. We stayed in another place, another church member.

It [was] like a basement, so we were staying for 3 weeks before. Everything started coming back to normal. Actually almost everyone left the city.

So we were just there, just trusting God. I told God, “You know you brought me into this land, you brought me here. So I know you’re gonna keep me because you said to me, ‘I will never leave you at any point in time.’ So I held onto the promise because I know that Jesus is with me. I know within me, I know that Jesus is with me.

But of course, it’s not easy. But then I just had to just trust in God, you see. So that is what happened basically.

So you know, when I came out of the building, I actually didn’t know that it was an earthquake. I thought it was the building that had problems. So that is what I thought until someone called me and said, “Pastor, are you okay?” I said, “what happened?” “It’s an earthquake.” I was shocked!

So when I got to the place we stayed that morning, after 4 hours. So the person opened the TV and I saw that thousands of buildings had collapsed. People have died. Just in 2 minutes, people have died, you know. So we blessed the Lord for keeping us. And those that have lost loved ones, we prayed that God will comfort their hearts and strengthen them in Jesus’ name.

So like I said, it’s not a good thing to behold, it’s one of those things that happens in life but we know, we also trust God that God is with us. The Bible says that the LORD is my shepherd. v

So after the earthquake, let me ask you first about how you [helped] people who are suffering. And how you are planning to help people in this earthquake area.

After the earthquake, everyone was silent. Because nothing was moving. So the Lord led us to start a mercy ministry. So we started going into the cities that were affected as well. Myself and some members in the church.

We went to other cities, we went to Kahramanmaras, we went to Nigde?, we went to Elbistan. We went to share some clothing, and shoes and toys for kids, and different things because when I go to those cities, I was shocked.

There are even some cities [where] you go there, you will be amazed at how disastrous the earthquake was. In our city Gaziantep, it wasn’t as much as some cities like in Nigde for example. Some neighborhoods, you wouldn’t even find one building standing.

So we got there, we got to tents, we saw the people, and I really felt a lot of compassion. People were staying in tents, and remember it was cold, it was very cold. Sometimes it rains, and they were there for days, so.

We just had to show them love. We supported them, and many people came to support them. A lot of people came. A lot of organizations, Christian organizations, people just came just to show them. So I think this is what they need at the moment to show these people love, to let them know they are loved and they are cared for.

Did you have any lost members? Your church members, your family…

No, no. Everyone is okay, we thank God for that. Even though there was a panic, most of our church members left the city, but I and my family we remained here, and some other members, to carry on with the ministry. We thank God that the Lord kept every one of us safe and sound. No one was injured. Like I said there was fear and panic, but now, everyone is doing fine by the grace of God.

Was there anything you heard from God when you prayed about this earthquake?

One thing that we noticed after the earthquake was that a lot of Christian organizations came into Turkey, so it opened doors for people to come in to show love. Because the Bible says we should show love, we should care for one another, we should love our neighbors… So a lot of people came, Christian organizations, came in to show love, and it really touched my heart.

So I’ve heard stories of some people [who] got born again through these means, so I believe it opened doors for the gospel to come in. That is what I think the Lord used this incident for.

So I came into this city… I came into Turkey, 11 years ago.

I came as a normal Christian. I wasn’t filled with the Spirit, I don’t know what grace is, I don’t know who Jesus was. There was no relationship between myself and God and Jesus and Holy Spirit. There was no relationship.

I came as an intern, so when I finished my internship, I got a job. I had to go back to Nigeria to apply for a work visa. When I got there, my visa was rejected. When it was rejected I [didn’t] know where it came from, I screamed, I said, “God, what do you want from me?”

Then, ten hours later, in midnight, Jesus appeared to me with Elijah and Moses, and I saw myself in that vision preaching the gospel in Gaziantep.

And I was looking at Jesus, and he was busy with Elijah and Moses. It was like the Mount of Transfiguration.

They were discussing, so I was thinking, ‘What are they discussing about? What are they talking about?’

Then I began to pray in that vision. There were people before me. I began to pray, and Jesus was before me as well with Elijah and Moses.

And… when I finished praying, I looked up, I saw trumpets! Like ancient trumpets beside them.

And I knew what that meant. It made me to know that the rapture is coming.

It made me to realize that something is eminent. So I got to know that that preparation was that Jesus is working. He is preparing for those who have believed and have received him.

It’s just the same image as the Mount of Transfiguration. So, I woke up I was shocked. It didn’t stop there.

So one week later, same time. This time, I saw myself in that vision – this is the second vision – I saw myself preaching the gospel.

So I went to a place, and they were drinking, eating, and dancing, and partying, and I went to preach to them, but they didn’t listen to me. God gave me an understanding of what was happening in the book of Genesis where it says that in the days of Noah, people will be drinking, and eating, and be merry and be partying, until Noah builds the ark and no one knew and the flood took everyone away.

So when I saw them, I began to preach the gospel to them. But they didn’t listen to me, they were dancing and eating and partying and just ??? and playing.

So I left them. When I left them the earth shook and the trumpets, I heard, “Bahhh!” The trumpets sounded and all of a sudden, I leaped down into the sky, and I began to see believers, like stars, flying, getting raptured. So I was in the sky, I was like “Wow, I made it!” And a voice told me, “Go, and tell the people about me. I am coming very soon.” And I woke up.

And when I woke up, you know I was in Nigeria with all these visions. I left Turkey already, so [my visa] was [refused].

So it was during this process the Lord was showing me these things.

After that, the first one was preparing, the second one, the trumpets happened, the rapture happened, and one month later, the tribulation. The 7-year tribulation.

It was just like the Bible said. Many will look for death, but they won’t find death. In that tribulation, Jesus Christ said, “If the Lord had not shortened the days, no one will survive it.” It was exactly what I saw in this vision.

13 It was so disastrous that I myself, in that vision, I was looking for death. I didn’t find death.

It was disastrous that there was chaos everywhere. I was with my family. I was holding my family, and we were running, and all of a sudden I had to leave them. I left, because there is nothing like family.

There so much chaos in the world. So the tribulation is real. So the Lord gave me the vision of the preparation, of the rapture, and after the rapture, then tribulation happens. When I woke up from my sleep, I began to shed tears. And the reason I began to shed tears was I couldn’t even imagine my worst enemy to experience tribulation.

Talk less? of going to the Lake of Fire. You see tribulation is real, it’s really going to happen. So we as Christians we need to preach the gospel, so he gave me this command, “Go and preach the gospel in Turkey.”

So I reapplied for the visa. When I reapplied, they gave me the visa. So I came back to Turkey. When I came back I started doing the work of the Lord, started serving the Lord, preaching the gospel, going to different cities, preaching the gospel. It’s been ten years, and it’s been wonderful. God has been working.

Yeah, so I was serving with my pastor Patrick. He left Turkey, by God’s grace, so right now I’m here, and the Lord has been helping us. We’ve been serving here, we have a church here. And God is good, God is good. I’m here with my family, so we’re serving the Lord together in Turkey.

I have one, or two more questions. Before we go in depth, I hear a sound, so if you can tell them to keep their voices down.

30 Is there anything that you’d like to say to the churches overseas? Maybe you can tell them what they could pray for this country and this city. And anything that you’d like to say?

The Bible says that the harvest is full. But the laborers are few. Just imagine this city that I am in Gaziantep, there are almost 4 million people in this city.

We have Turkish, we have Syrians, we have Afghans, from different nations.

How many of us are here serving, preaching the gospel? How many? Maybe just a hundred. So you compare 4 million people to a hundred people. Just do the mathematics. This is not physical. So there is the harvest, but the laborers are few.

So we want the people of God, we want the church to send in laborers. Laborers to come into this nation and preach the gospel and talk about Jesus Christ, and share the gospel of reconciliation the gospel of love.

The gospel is what can save people, because the Bible says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it is the power of God that brings salvation. So this nation needs salvation. We need people to come in, we need Christians, we need believers, [who want] to serve the Lord, with all of their hearts, to come into this nation, and share the gospel.

So that is the major thing that we need in this land.

And secondly, if you can come and pray. Prayer is the key, having the victory. We believe in the prayers of believers. We need prayers.

First of all, that God will touch the hearts of the people.

God will melt the hearts of stone, and turn it into the heart of flesh. So that as we preach the gospel, the holy spirit will touch their heart and they will receive the gospel.

And when they receive the gospel we know that the Holy Spirit will quicken them. And they will come, and believe in Jesus Christ. So we need prayers.

We need prayer, you see, for the two parties: for the people preaching, and the people receiving.

For us we need wisdom on how to share the gospel because we have different projects. We need wisdom on how to – you know it’s a very sensitive thing to do here.

We need wisdom on how to share the gospel it’s important. We need to pray for us on wisdom on how to share the gospel.

And the people that are receiving the gospel, we need God to melt their hearts, we need Holy Spirit to quicken their hearts, it’s very important.

You’ve been serving this city for 10 years. Can you tell me about the most beautiful fruits that you saw while you were…. Sharing the gospel… fruits. Maybe from ??? or maybe from churches maybe from the streets. Like people that receive Jesus Christ? Yeah, like how the church grew, how the people accepted Jesus Christ. How their life was changed.

I have seen the fruit of our labor, by God’s grace in this city.

I’ll give you an example. There was a time – you know I’m also a teacher here I teach English. So in my school, there was a lady who came to look for a job.

So my boss told me to coordinate the demo lesson.

So I was supposed to supervise her. So she was teaching, and I was supervising. I was listening to her teaching in the class. Then after teaching, we had a break.

So I was talking to her then I realized that when I was talking to her she was responding back. And I realized one thing, she needs something there’s something missing in her life.

So I told her, “There’s something missing in your life. You need Jesus, Jesus is the only person that can fill the deep hole in your heart.”

And after the lesson, we were walking on. I started talking to her about the death the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how he took our sins away and how he saved us from the wrath of God and I was shocked at how the Holy Spirit worked in her. I’m talking about just in an hour!

For me I was shocked. So she said ok I am ready to receive Jesus. And I prayed with her – this was two years ago – I prayed with her and she received Jesus!

And now she’s serving with us in our English course program. You know it’s amazing! It’s just amazing.

There are different stories. There was another guy also that came to our church. He’s been asking questions, reading books and he came to church and he asked questions. So I was answering his questions, and I answered all the questions.

Through the knowledge the Holy Spirit has given me, and he said I want to receive Jesus.

And I prayed with him, and he received Jesus. He was so joyful, so he went home. He didn’t tell me this.

He went home. I’ve warned him not to tell anyone. So out of the joy, he went to share with his wife, “Wow I received Jesus. I have joy in me.” So that day or that week, the wife took the kids and left him. So that was the beginning of his persecution. So things like that happen. These are the kind of things that we experience in this place. There was another guy I also preached to another city in Iskenderun.

I used to go to Iskenderun every weekend. Two years, I went there to preach the gospel. In two years, do you know how many souls that I won to Christ by God’s grace? One.

And I was going there every weekend. And this guy, I shared the word of God with him for about 2 months, and he came to believe in Jesus Christ.

And after sharing with him, his life just transformed! And the next day, I met the wife. The wife told me, “What happened to my husband? My husband told me I am beautiful!”

I said, what does that mean? She said, we’ve been married for 25 years, he never told me I am beautiful.

This is the first time my husband said I am beautiful. So his life transformed and he loved Jesus.

And the Lord gave me vision, just like the Lord gave Peter a vision. He saw Jesus by the seaside, and he saw himself like the light came upon him…

And you know things like this happen in Turkey. So, there are many testimonies. Like the lady that prayed with us today, she just got baptized like three or four weeks ago here.

So there are testimonies. God is really working through the servants. The servants [whom] he has put in this nation. So we also encourage that we need laborers to come and preach the gospel and do different projects and also support us.

And also pray for us. So these are the kind of things that happen in this place.

The wife that the husband told her [that she’s] beautiful. Did she leave?

No. Because she was there… Like wow my husband is transformed. Their love it’s rekindled love, their love life.

He began to show affection to [his] wife. The wife was surprised, the wife always wanted us to come, to preach the gospel.

So it’s very beautiful. The man used to worship with us even with one of his friends who was really sick, so we prayed and God worked in his life. And many things have happened last 10 years. We’ve heard a lot of testimonies.

We heard one of these ladies in church today. So there are many, many testimonies. Even this lady was born again here in Turkey.

She came as an unbeliever. The lady [who] shared testimonies today. She came to Turkey as an unbeliever. And the Lord touched her and the Lord started using her to share the gospel.

So things are happening in Turkey, things are happening.

Did you have any fear or [were you] kind of afraid of the environment in an Islamic country?

As a human, sometimes this fear comes. And fear, for me particularly, when I was single, I didn’t bother much.

But when I got married, it’s a new ball game. It’s a new thing entirely, so I wouldn’t say it’s fear. It’s just that now we have to be more careful.

We have to be more careful as a pastor, as a lead pastor I have to protect the people. I don’t have to say because I have faith I have to just do things [any way I want]. We have to use wisdom. We are using wisdom, so…

But then, you know the thing is there’s no way I can explain this to you. If I tell you, imagine that I’m walking I also [think] at the back of my mind, the ?? can just come and say to me, “Oh, you are preaching the gospel, so we have to deport you…” So this is at the back of my mind every time.

You are also ready when these kinds of things happen. You are in the place where you can’t just go out and preach the gospel. You can’t just go out and start talking. You have to be careful how you preach, you have to use wisdom.

So that’s it. It’s difficult, the truth is it’s difficult. Where I come from, Nigeria, you can even go in the streets, you can preach the gospel. And say whatever you want to say.

You can’t do that here. It is impossible. And that alone is a big burden. That is the greatest burden that I have. Jeremiah said the word of God is like a fire in my bones. So you have so much you want to say but you can’t.

So that burden is the… If you ask me what’s the greatest challenge you have? That is my greatest challenge. I see someone that I know, as the Bible says in John 3:16 for God so loved the world, that he gave us his only son, and whoever believes will not perish. It means that if you don’t believe you will perish.

Imagine, I have a friend, or I see someone, I see people that don’t believe in Jesus and I know that they will perish. And I know that I have what it takes to save them. But I can’t speak! This is the greatest burden, the greatest challenge that I have.

So many times when I’m praying, I’m crying. Sometimes I just have to stop praying because I don’t know what to say again. You talk to them, you realize that they are not thinking of anything. Like, nothing!

There’s nothing! They are not thinking of anything! You see that is a challenge. You’re so challenged. Unlike you go to some other countries, some other Muslim countries, like maybe Iran, Iraq. They have a lot of persecution, in those places, so the persecution makes them to seek God.

It makes them to seek the truth because [of] the persecution. But here it’s different. There [is] no persecution. It’s like Jesus Christ said I’d rather prefer that you are cold or hot, but don’t be lukewarm.

So it’s just challenging. The prayer also is that God [would] quicken their hearts, so that they can even think of something.

06 So you know if this person dies now, you know that this person will perish. And you have what it takes to save the person. But if you share it it’s a problem.

Evangelism here it’s one – I used to say – it’s one hundred and twenty percent Holy Spirit. There’s no way you can do it by yourself. It is impossible.

You can never ever do it by yourself. It is impossible. You need the Holy Spirit to speak through you and to touch the person’s heart. You need it.

There is a lady that I am preaching the gospel to now, she’s a colleague, [and] she’s even an Islamic teacher. She just saw me, I was praying, she said are you praying, I said yes. Can you pray for me. I said yes sure.

I said what do you want me to pray about. She said I am an Islamic teacher. I’ve been studying [Islam] all my life… but I never had peace, no fulfillment.

14 So I said okay let me pray. So I prayed for this lady. And when I prayed, since then she told me, I am feeling peace in my heart. Then I gave her the Bible like two weeks ago, just finished the book of Matthew. Now she’s in the book of Mark. She said, “My life is – like I am feeling peace in my heart.”

So these kinds of people are rare. So when you see them you hold onto them. You don’t want them to go. They are like diamonds, they are like treasure. So you hold onto them. You want to do everything possible to make sure that they hear the gospel.

So, that’s it. Like I said, the greatest burden is knowing what can save someone but you can’t – it’s difficult for you, so you need Holy Spirit to do that.