As part of the 10/10 Prayer Initiative, 180 agencies have come together to ask God to draw to himself 10 percent of the world’s Muslims in the next 10 years. 10/10. Easy to remember, yet such an amazingly big task that only God can do it. SEND International has committed to fast and pray the first Friday of every month. Will you consider joining us?
By a former missionary in the Middle East — Turkey, a country of over 80 million people, shares borders and maintains close relationships with eight other countries. (How many can you name? Answer at the bottom of this article.) It also hosts several million refugees, the bulk of them from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. There are amazing stories of people within this group or that group of refugees seeing visions or dreaming about Jesus and coming to faith.
And yet, while there are many Christians working there and despite the fact that much of the New Testament was written either in or to churches in what is now modern-day Turkey, actual Turkish believers number only a few thousand. For such a rich history, one might expect more believers, but circumstances have been difficult and the challenges have been great over the years.
Until 1453, Constantinople (now called Istanbul) had been the seat of Eastern Christianity for over 1,000 years. But that all changed when Islamic armies conquered a fragmented empire and eventually established the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire lasted until World War I when, after it sided with Germany, the empire was divided into different parts by the Allied forces. Turkey fought for its independence a few years later and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became the founder and first president of secular, modern-day Turkey.
Unfortunately, in the latter years of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of Turkey’s independence, the government was very hard on the Christian population. An estimated 750,000 to over 1,500,000 Greek Christians were deported from their homes and many were killed in those turbulent years.
Even though the government today remains secular, there is increasing religious pressure from the top down against the church and local believers. Social pressure also works against people who show any open interest in Christianity.
Please pray for Christian workers who are working there to continue to faithfully share their faith, as visa issues are becoming more and more difficult and some families have had to leave with little or no notice. This makes planning for the future tenuous and uncertain, which can create anxiety.
The lack of obvious fruit in Turkey and similar countries can also frustrate and discourage Christian workers. Please pray for grace and strength to continue on faithfully, day after day.
Please continue to pray for 10% of the Muslim world to come to Christ in the next 10 years. An amazingly bold request to bring before the throne of God. A request that only he could make happen.
(The eight countries that border Turkey are Iraq, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Greece, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Syria.)
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