Türkiye (Turkey) #4: Love's Impact
Day 4: Love’s Impact
William Pender, Outreach Foundation traveler, March 2023
The author Donald Miller makes this observation: “Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.” In this immersive experience with faithful followers of Persian descent, I am being shown “the way” by their love.
Here we have people living in Diaspora – those who have had to leave their home country for a host of reasons, but their departure has mostly centered around their faith – AND those who struggle to live the faith “in country” who face constant pressures. And such love they share as they gather in this “middle ground” of Türkiye (Turkey)!
Yes, love for one another…but more vital and urgent is their love for Jesus. For this even-keeled, reasonable, slow-to-spiritual passion but deeply committed Presbyterian, I am humbled by the opportunity to see such love…inviting me to join in. I have watched in awe the love that sustains through abusive domestic situations (some severe), through arrests, through flight from home, through cultural oppression in a Muslim-majority context, through addiction, and the list goes on and on. I listen in awe to testimonies about visions, dreams, miracles, and hearing the voice of God.
In the company of these Persian Christians, what is clear through both the imposing challenges they face and the evident joy they exude in being followers of Jesus is this: they are showing me the way of love. Thanks be to God.
