Days 4, 5 and 6

November 5, 2009 Mon, Tue, Wed & Thu (Nov 2-5) The time is flying by on this trip. Our days have been so busy with hardly any time to write. For the last three nights we’ve been busy with ministry late into the evening, not getting back to the guesthouse until after 11, and not having had dinner yet. I’m just going to cover the highlights from Monday through today (Thursday).

In addition to a home prayer meeting Monday afternoon, we went to my friend Garo’s house for desert. He, his wife Anet and their son Natan live in Yeshilcoy where we stay. They invited us over to surprise Lloyd and Nancy with a small party for their anniversary (45 years this week).

Anet had made a cake, bought a cake and made noodle boreg and stuffed peppers (knowing that they are two of my favorite dishes). This was supposed to be a dessert! The best part of the night was when we prayed over Garo and Anet for God to bless their marriage. All day Tuesday was spent at the Armenian old age home which is run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, an amazing bunch of holy women. Every time we go there we expect to work hard and we do. Yet at the end of the day we leave refreshed. The sisters were in a celebrative mood because their foundress, Jeanne Jugan, was canonized a few weeks ago. We were there for eight hours praying with each of the sisters, attending Mass, visiting and praying with each of the 70-80 residents and doing a short meditation. At the end of the day Mother Philomena gave each of us a first class relic of St Jeanne Jugan. Wow! What a wonderful surprise and grace.

We raced out of the hospital at 6:00 to get to a prayer meeting with the local Nigerian community which meets at St Antwan’s Church in central Istanbul where our good friend Fr. Anton is the priest. These young men use Istanbul as a way-station while they attempt to reach European Union countries (EU). There are between 70-100 in Turkey at any given time. We’ve visited them on many occasions over the last 5 years. I don’t know what the average stay is, but whenever I ask how many guys remember us from a previous visit only a handful raise their hands. Most are in their twenties, scared, lonely and poor.  They're looking for greener pastures. Although it's a very tough situation, and your heart breaks for some of these guys, praying with them is totally invigorating. After having made a trip earlier this year to Liberia, certainly one of the poorest countries in Africa, I concluded that contrary to American opinion there is no connection between monetary wealth and joy. And when they worship you can’t help but want to move and sing. Though my Armenian self doesn’t seem to be able to catch the syncopated beats so well, it doesn’t slow me down. After all, as some of the members of our team concluded, I don’t think a single one of them can hold a tune yet they all sing their lungs out and you can’t tell unless you get real close to them. They’re also capable of repeating the same phrase a hundred times without getting board and being totally into the worship.

I got to preach and talked about the life of St Augustine. Since he was from the city of Hipo in Africa (present day Algeria) and faced some of the same types of challenges these guys face I felt he would be a good example for them of what can happen when we come into contact with the living God. Lloyd followed up with a ministry time while the team went around and prayed with each of them. At the end, a visiting priest from Zambia asked us to pray with him. So the team gathered around him.  Afterward he told the story of how he was attacked while in his church in Zambia five years ago by robbers who hit him on the forehead with a hammer. After a long recovery he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He shared about the challenge of keeping his glucose in control while being station in three different countries on three different continents with very different foods all the while begging the Lord to heal him. Last year God did heal him, but he was afraid to tell anyone just in case it relapsed. This evening he was making it public for the first time and giving glory to God for his healing. Halleluiah!

On Wednesday, while the team rested during the day, I went off to visit Sister Gayane. Gayane is the only Armenian sister in the Armenian Orthodox Church in Turkey. Maybe the only one in the world. We have been close friends for many years and I love visiting and praying with her. We met in the apartment where she and her mom live in Bakircoy, not far from Yeshilcoy (2 train stops). What a joy to have time with this holy sister. She is so loving and encouraging. What a special friendship.

Wednesday night we were invited to the Istanbul Vineyard Church in the Kadecoy district of Istanbul. Kadecoy, the ancient Chalcedon, is where the third ecumenical council took place in 451 and, unfortunately, is the place where the first split in the church took place. The pastor of the church is a Muslim convert named Levent. Levent is a very good friend. He was one of the first translators for Randy Cirner and I back in 2000. In addition to the spirit filled worship, Levant opens his pulpit to us and Lloyd lead a healing service. I preached a message on why we would want to be holy and suggested it as a path to reconciliation. Given that we were Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox joining together in prayer I felt it was an appropriate message.

This morning we left Istanbul for Adana. I had been dreading this part of the trip for a few reasons. First, because it’s always a bit tough for me psychologically to get on a plane and head further away from home halfway into a trip when I’d rather be heading back home. The additional issue here is that it is the 100th anniversary of troubles in Adana where some say upwards of 25,000 Armenians were killed here. It appears to have been a precursor to the greater problems that began in 1915. Fr Bruno decided to join our group for this trip which is a tremendous help. Nothing like having a priest along when you visit a church. We pitch the local priest on the programs we might offer to help with evangelization and Father works them for choosing a date and time when we can come back. Other than a few Protestant “home” church’s in Adana, a city of 5 million, there’s only one Catholic church left. It’s had many priests in the last 15 years, some who’ve not been very helpful with the locals. The priest they have right now seems to be a very special man. He’s only been here for two years and Mass attendance has gone from and handful to over 150. He learned enough Turkish to start giving sermons after only four months. He’s very interested in having us back. God willing they will keep him here for a while. We prayed with him and departed. On the way to Iskenderun, where we had a program scheduled for this evening, we stopped at the ruins of an ancient Armenian castle about a half hour northeast of Adana. The Turkish name for the place is Yilankale which means snake castle. Lloyd and I climbed all the way up to the very top where there still remains a room that was obviously the church. We went in and I sang the Lord’s Prayer in Armenian at the top of my lungs. My guess is that those stone walls hadn’t heard that hymn for a long time. I felt like the stones were rejoicing with me. If you’d like to see some pictures of the place you can just Google the name and click images. We took some great pictures and I’ll try to get them on line soon. This evenings program was a small one. We’re going to be doing another one here on Sunday after Mass so we treated this as a warm up. Hopefully there will be a larger group in a few days when we come back. Tomorrow after Mass and breakfast we head to Antioch. We’re going to visit the oldest part of the city and the Grotto of St Peter. It’s probably the oldest church outside of Israel. In the evening we have a program in Mersin. Antioch is over an hour south of here and Mersin is three hours to the north so it will be a long day of driving. Lord help me it’s already after 1am!