Greetings in Jesus’ name from Durham, north England!
We have just returned from a week in Istanbul. It was a mixture of sad and happy:
sad because over twenty of our co-workers have been deported from Turkey in the last few months, happy because we spent time with our son, Jon and his wife Berna, and attending a wonderful gathering of passionate pray’ers and worshippers. No agenda, except to share and seek Jesus, listening to His voice and encouraging each other to keep going.
July 23-30 I (George) will be going with a small team of Turks to NORTH MACEDONIA, as it is called now. We will be distributing 1,000 Turkish Gospels of John toMacedonian pastors who have expressed interest in reaching the Turks in their communities. Turks number 80,000 among a national population of 2 M. There are no known believing Turks. God wants to change that! Will you join us in prayer?
ARE THE LIGHTS GOING OUT? Since 1985 we have worked toward making space for legal, new-start churches in Turkey. Most of you have followed this story with its twists and turns. Today over 150 above ground, legally recognised churches are functioning.
However, the growing expulsions of our co-workers has been primarily those in senior church leadership. It is obvious that the government doesn’t like church; the Enemynever has! This leads us to TWO PRAYERS:
1. Pray that displaced workers will find their place in ministry again. Children have been uprooted from schools, homes and possessions lost, relations severed with congregationmembers.
2. Pray for mature local believers in each of these 150 churches to step into roles of leadership.
Thanks for travelling this road with us! If you would like to help financially, as so many of you have, our banking details appear below.
God bless and have a great summer with Jesus!
Love and Greetings,
George and Alison
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A team of five of us will be visiting Macedonian pastors in five or six towns with considerable Turkish populations. These pastors are on fire to reach out to their Turkish neighbours and eagerly waiting for the John Gospels we will be giving them. PRAY FOR A LONGER TERM STRATEGY TO EMERGE.