Thoughts from 2001
The following article appeared in the January 2001 Renewal Ministries monthly newsletter.
Editor: Could you tell us a little bit about your work and family life:
John: I own and manage a small packaging and shipping store in Ann Arbor. Michelle and I have five daughters (12, 11, 8, 6, 2) and we home school our children. We’re active in our parish and the Catholic Mission Society. We maintain ties with a nearby Armenian Orthodox Church as well, since I am Armenian Orthodox. We try to make our family life the center of all our activities, and usually only participate or allow participation in activities that will promote the goals we have for our family.
Editor: What motivated you to travel to another country to serve the Lord, and why Turkey?
John: I had a sense of overwhelming gratitude for all the ways God has blessed our family. We have wonderful relationships with other Christians, mentors to turn to, a strong family life, a thriving business, health, the experience of a spirit-filled relationship with the Lord, and on and on. I felt we had been given so much, that we should be giving away some of the blessing! When Peter Herbeck (missions director) initially asked me if I would accompany Ralph to Turkey I looked at is as opportunity to reach Armenians. I also saw it as a way to prove to myself that I didn’t hate the Turks and would prove it by reaching out to them with the greatest treasure I had to offer. I figured if nothing else, with my knowledge of Armenian and Turkish I could keep Ralph out of trouble and help him negotiate the taxi’s.
Editor: How many visits have you made to Turkey and what do you do there?
John: I’ve made three trips to Turkey since May of ‘99. Two of the trips were around 10 days, with a shorter trip in between. The presence of other brothers was a great support. We were mostly preaching and evangelizing, praying with people at home gatherings and in churches. We also established contacts with local clergy and lay evangelists, and set up a system of communication and support.
Editor: Describe some of your thoughts and experiences in making your first trip?
John: I am Armenian. All my family was originally from Turkey, the historical homeland of Armenians, and the part of the world where a majority of Armenians lived until WWI. I consider myself a child of Anatolia. In 1915, the Turkish government made a systematic effort to rid Turkey of Armenians through forced deportation and massacre. My grandparents were the only survivors in their immediate families. My dad’s parents managed to live in Turkey until the 1970. I grew up hearing heart wrenching and tragic stories from them and other elderly relatives and family friends. I went to an Armenian high school in California and studied Armenian history. The modern Turkish Government has never admitted to the atrocities that happened in their country under the cover of WW1 and, in fact, continue today to deny that over a million people were slaughtered and millions more were deported.
In light of the nagging injustice, many of my peers became militant nationalists. I could understand their anger, but was never very sympathetic to the terrorist movement. I’ve always been saddened by the deep strife that exists between the two nations. The Armenians, like many other peoples, frequently seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In spite of my desire to hold a balanced opinion of the relationship, until I gave my life to Christ, I still viewed the Turks as my enemies. At that point in my life, I began to see that the long-standing hatred and bitterness that Armenians have for the Turks was a poison in me and in my people. I knew I had to forgive and love the Turks. When the idea of reaching out to the Turks with the good news of Christ was presented, I realized that moving on was one thing, and going to Turkey to offer a part of myself was something completely different. While examining my conscience early on in my Christian walk I can recall telling the Lord that I forgave the Turks and asked him to deliver me from my feelings of hatred. Now I had to see if I could really do it? Could I love the Turkish people? Could I really witness the love of God to them? Or would my work there be a sham - an outward semblance of love and service, with an inner coldness? I struggled with self-doubt: was God really calling me to this? Why? Wouldn’t someone else do a better job? Wouldn’t I do better in a different nation, reaching out to anyone other than the Turks? It wouldn’t even have to be Armenians. . . how about the Greeks or Lebanese? I struggled with fear: my Armenian identity, my name, would make this work dangerous for me? Would I be harassed?
My relatives and my father, who came to the U.S. in the ‘60’s and still occasionally visit and keep up contacts in Turkey, certainly thought so, and tried to convince me not to go. Relatives, friends and Armenian clergy all told me stories of recent persecutions in attempts to dissuade me. Other Christian friends emailed articles to me from Christian and secular news sources reporting the persecutions Christians were experiencing in Turkey. 1 Corinthians 13:2 haunted my thoughts and prayers: “If I have not love, if I have not love. . .”. Would my work be for “nothing”? Or could God give me the love I needed to reach out to these people? Could I trust him with my well being? I decided to go, yet my worries plagued me. The turmoil reached a peak as we left Istanbul for the first time, and flew west into Adana. Adana, where 10,000 Armenians were slaughtered in 1907/8 the first evidence of what was to come only a few years later. Adana had a large thriving Armenian community at the turn of the century with several churches. Armenians from the west hardly ever venture west of cosmopolitan Istanbul any more, yet here I was flying in. It was very challenging.
In addition to the stories I’d already heard growing up, non-Armenians I met in Adana would secretly relay to me what they had heard from their parents. Fr. Simonelli, our main contact in south–central Turkey would regularly point out buildings that were formerly Armenian churches and now were mosques. And it was here that God began to change my heart, and release me from my anxiety and, yes, my pain and sadness too. I was so surprised to see how the people responded to the Lord when I spoke and ministered. I was startled to find myself connecting with the crowds in a different way than the other men - a connection of our ethnicity, our middle eastern culture that I couldn’t ignore. I did share a bond with these people, and they did respond to me with such joy as I spoke to them especially, when I could muster up the courage, in their own language. I also thoroughly enjoyed their food and kissed their cheeks in the typical middle-eastern greeting. I saw them as individuals. These people could not be blamed for the sins of their ancestors or of their government. They could not be blamed for their ignorance or even their prejudice to a certain degree. Christ was reaching out to them, and I found that I could too. Seeing the children especially brought these lessons home to me. Children are children, and they have such a wonderful way of breaking down the barriers of prejudice and mistrust.
Editor: So what motivated you to go back?
John: The hard part was over! God had done a mighty work in opening my heart to the Turks. Now I felt He would really be able to use me for this land. I also saw that my background of language and culture really were a gift for missionary work in Turkey, something I could offer that not everybody had. I was also astonished at the incredible anointing and power we experienced when preaching and praying with the crowds, and felt that this was a sign from God to keep on going.
Editor: How has this impacted your family life?
John: We always said that our goal was to raise children who were “missionaries, saints and martyrs.” We’ve tried to encourage a missionary sense in our kids through hosting individuals from other lands in our home for many years, through our reading and our prayer, through contact with Renewal Ministries and real live evangelists. This mission work of mine takes us even a step farther - I’m able to “walk the walk”. I’m not encouraging them to do something that I’m unwilling to do myself, even though it definitely requires a sacrifice of money, comfort, and emotional/spiritual resources. We’d like to go even the next step, and are prayerfully trying to arrange a way for the whole family to go and do outreach in Turkey next summer for a few months. We’ve begun by starting to learn the language, and praying for the Lord to make a way - especially financially. We found out on my last trip that we can only rent a place to stay by the YEAR, which raises the cost almost prohibitively. Please pray for us, for provision, and especially for courage.
Editor: Tell us about a situation where the Lord blessed you personally.
John: I think the most striking incident was a time when, through a direct leading of the Holy Spirit, I was able to approach two Muslim women to pray with them to receive Christ. They both did. On another occasion I was able to pray with a girl whose grandparents had been Armenian Orthodox Christians, but had assimilated into the Muslim culture in order to escape with their lives during the genocide. My heart was full of rejoicing. I felt like one who has won back a family member, bringing them back home again.
Editor: What does an ordinary person have to offer?
John: If John Paul II is calling everyone to take part in the new evangelization, then everyone has to do their part. Ordinary people all over the world need Christ and who better to reach them than other ordinary people who can empathize with their daily struggles in their businesses, their families, their relationships, their temptations, their losses and their joys? I offer myself. God uses every bit of what I have to give - and then adds in some special extras of His own!
