News from Turkey

Dear brothers and sisters,

The month of April was full of great memories for our family and church. Once more, we witnessed the goodness and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout April. For the first time after our return to Turkiye, we went on a holiday as a family. We spent three days and two nights at Denizli, three hours southeast of izmir. Denizli is a beautiful city because
of its nature and historical sites. We went there to see Hierapolis, Colossae, and Laodicea. We always wanted to see the tomb of the Apostle Philip in Hierapolis, the church in Laodicea, and (unfortunately) the unexcavated city of Colossac.

We also got to see one of the most beautiful spots in Turkiye, it is called Pamukkale (the cotton castle), a sedimentary rock
deposited by mineral water from the hot springs.

We also had guests from Istanbul, one of Gulden's best friends from Kazakhstan. She moved to Istanbul several years ago with her family and has been serving there with a Christian organization. They all came to visit us in izmir, especially Gulden and Mevsim were delighted to have them. We took them to Ephesus where I would never get bored of visiting. Together with our family holiday, we had a refreshing week last month.

We had 58 guests at our Easter service! The Lord brought many to our
church so they could hear the gospel. We were so blessed and encouraged to see many unbelievers seeking to learn more about the living God. This was the second biggest attendance by the unbelievers on one Sunday. Many of our guests came to our Easter service because they saw the advertisement on Facebook or Instagram. Once again, we realized that social media is a great tool for evangelizing, and we hope to use it more. Of 58 people, only a couple of them returned to the church next Sunday, however, we hope to see more of them returning in the future. We pray that the Holy Spirit would grow the seed in their hearts and save them from the darkness that once we lived in.

I have begun "the inquiry class" with two young women who are visiting our church for the last five weeks. This class serves as an introductory class and helps these women to leam the foundations of our faith. They began a wonderful journey in their spiritual lives. We hope and pray that they will both discover the beauty of the Triune God through the mediation of the Spirit. Please pray for them as we continue to study the Bible doctrines together every Sunday.

Our third team returned from the disaster zone at the beginning of April. They served in Adana mostly, where some of the Christian disaster victims are living now. We continue to look for opportunities to help. We have been in contact with some local municipalities for building some water purifiers. One of these purifiers can provide clean water for hundreds of people in a day. We are getting really close to accomplishing our goal. Lord willing, we will start buying purifiers
before the end of May.

Gulden is doing a great job with translating kids' lessons and teaching them on Sundays. I preached three times in the last six Sundays. I finally preached from Ezekiel 37:1-14. one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Also, I am about to finish my first pre-marital counseling, I have to do two more sessions. I love counseling. I hope the Lord will bring more opportunities in the future for counseling. Overall, we are quite happy serving at our church. The Lord has given us many opportunities here in our church and our congregation and senior pastor is quite supportive as well.

And lastly, please pray for our country. We will have Presidential and Parliamentary elections on Sunday. Especially please pray for Christians in Turkiye, may the Lord comfort them and show them He is the king over all the nations, and He rules from heaven above.