Outcast
06-14-2008, 01:47 AM
Needing prayer for my Turkish penpals...that God can help bond our hearts as friends and that as time goes by, i can gradually share the Gospel with them or at least be a refelction of Jesus for them. Very hard to reach Muslims...even Turkish Muslims who are a mix of European and Middle-eastern ways...so far I have about 8 to keep up with and I am learnign Turkish through them and helping them with English:) Prayers especially for my friends Turker and Koray, who are now in the USA for about 2 days, in Pensecola and Washington,DC respectively. They are on work exchange programs where they can come to the USA and work for the summer and get to travel and vacation on the side too.
Also, pray for my friend Cengiz, for the Lord to soften his heart and ease a misunderstanding that may end our friendship. We hit it off very quickly emailing and chatting, both of us are language interested people. Also, we talked about the troubles in the world today and the need for peace in the Middle East and about courageous people in history who dared to risk everythign to fight for love, peace and what they beleived in. I mentioned Corrie ten Boom and how she and her family were Dutch Christians who beleived what the nazi's were doing to the Jews was wrong...and how they risked everythign even their own lives to hide Jews in their homes. He seemd interested when i told him there was a movie about her story and remembered a website where it was available for online viewing in Turkish. Out of respect I did let him know it was a Christian movie but also an incredible story. I dont believe in tricks or conversion games when it comes to being friends with people. Anyway, i gave him the link for the film at sermon.online.de and suddenly he wrote back saying he "didn't like my style" meaning when he explained that i was doing a lousy job at trying to secretly convert him by pretending to be his friend and learning Turkish...and he demanded that I confess the truth...that i was a missionary in secret and he was angry that i linked him to a channel/site with christianity and christian thinking only with the goal of converting him...not really wanting to be a real friend to him. I tried reachign him through email to try and heal things up with him...explaining that i am hs friend and that I am not using him to make a convert. I know some of you can say many things about this. i am not ashamed of jesus or ashamed of preachign the Gospel...but i feel it was the right thing for me to do to apologize for doing anything that could have caused him to misunderstand me and my intentions. I am blessed to have also a friend in Turkey since 2002 and he was online and able to at least counsel me to understand what had happened...to understand that being hit with the website i gave him with "christian thinking" all at once was threatening to him and everything he has known and that probably he had already some dislike and misconceptions about christians. The cool thing was that my old friend also reassured me that i had done nothing wrong...that it was indeed just a terrible misunderstanding. And still encouraged me to seek to reconcile with my friend if possible. Yeah, I have other Turkish friends, but it isnt like a collection, losing one friend would be like the parable of losing that one coin...so pray for healing in this misunderstanding. Well, what can I say...I have Turkish penpals...i love them and I have to love the muslim too...part of the package...so, can you guys still love me too? *hopes he isnt seen as a traitor to God and country*:)
Also, pray for my friend Cengiz, for the Lord to soften his heart and ease a misunderstanding that may end our friendship. We hit it off very quickly emailing and chatting, both of us are language interested people. Also, we talked about the troubles in the world today and the need for peace in the Middle East and about courageous people in history who dared to risk everythign to fight for love, peace and what they beleived in. I mentioned Corrie ten Boom and how she and her family were Dutch Christians who beleived what the nazi's were doing to the Jews was wrong...and how they risked everythign even their own lives to hide Jews in their homes. He seemd interested when i told him there was a movie about her story and remembered a website where it was available for online viewing in Turkish. Out of respect I did let him know it was a Christian movie but also an incredible story. I dont believe in tricks or conversion games when it comes to being friends with people. Anyway, i gave him the link for the film at sermon.online.de and suddenly he wrote back saying he "didn't like my style" meaning when he explained that i was doing a lousy job at trying to secretly convert him by pretending to be his friend and learning Turkish...and he demanded that I confess the truth...that i was a missionary in secret and he was angry that i linked him to a channel/site with christianity and christian thinking only with the goal of converting him...not really wanting to be a real friend to him. I tried reachign him through email to try and heal things up with him...explaining that i am hs friend and that I am not using him to make a convert. I know some of you can say many things about this. i am not ashamed of jesus or ashamed of preachign the Gospel...but i feel it was the right thing for me to do to apologize for doing anything that could have caused him to misunderstand me and my intentions. I am blessed to have also a friend in Turkey since 2002 and he was online and able to at least counsel me to understand what had happened...to understand that being hit with the website i gave him with "christian thinking" all at once was threatening to him and everything he has known and that probably he had already some dislike and misconceptions about christians. The cool thing was that my old friend also reassured me that i had done nothing wrong...that it was indeed just a terrible misunderstanding. And still encouraged me to seek to reconcile with my friend if possible. Yeah, I have other Turkish friends, but it isnt like a collection, losing one friend would be like the parable of losing that one coin...so pray for healing in this misunderstanding. Well, what can I say...I have Turkish penpals...i love them and I have to love the muslim too...part of the package...so, can you guys still love me too? *hopes he isnt seen as a traitor to God and country*:)