Turkey (or Türkiye) is full of so much rich biblical history. We’ve heard a lot of people say Jerusalem is where Christianity was born and Turkey is where it was raised.
All throughout the Bible, especially in Acts, we hear about Jesus’ disciples traveling throughout Turkey to spread the gospel. We quickly learned you could easily spend weeks visiting all the places mentioned in the Bible in Turkey alone.
While there’s so much Christian history, today it’s almost void of Christians. 99% of Turkish people identify as Muslim. Like America, not all of those people are practicing Islam but it is the country’s dominant religion. It’s evident by the many mosques and hearing the call to prayer five times a day.
Even though it’s no longer a Christian nation, a lot of ruins and history remains that we were able to visit with our team. Our host lived very close to Troas, Assos, and the Greek island Mytilene (all mentioned in Acts 20).
Turkey is also home to the 7 churches of Revelation. We were able to visit four out of the seven churches on our trip! We even got to go to the Greek island, Patmos, where John was exiled, received the vision from Jesus and wrote the book of Revelation!
We stayed in Ayvacik, a small town where our hosts live. They are newer to this town and currently the only known Christians. They have churches in two other towns but are working to plant a church in Ayvacik as well. While staying with them, we were able to help with different projects around the house and go to their church in a nearby town a couple times.
Most of our time was spent meeting locals and developing relationships within our team. Our host suggested the gym as a good place to meet other young people. After praying with our team, we felt led to join the local gym and make this a priority.
Surprisingly, the Lord used this space primarily to heal and bless us individually. There was so much fruit and health in this consistent team activity. Everyone was encouraging one another and pushing each other to work hard. This translated to increased physical, mental, emotional, relational and even spiritual health! The Lord is showing us how to intentionally create spaces for Him to show up and He definitely showed up at the gym!
We also met a group of university students who loved hanging out with us and were trying to learn English. One of our teammates made a close bond with one of the guys. This allowed us to show them love and engage in deep conversations surrounding life struggles.
We are continuing to learn so much about the Father’s love for us. We experienced a lot of healing and growth in relationships throughout our time in Turkey. We’re excited for what the Lord has for us in our last country, Georgia.
Please pray for our host family’s church and mission as they try to break into unreached areas of Türkiye.
God Bless,
Adrianna and Adam
Thank you for this report. While we all know Scripture is true, visiting biblical sites really drives home the reality of the message. God bless you in Georgia.
Love to hear all the good news.