Our hearts were set on returning to Turkey and it was very hard to accept that it can’t happen. Due to the troubles we faced in 1999-2004, we knew we cannot go without a work and residence permit. We had no other assignments that could provide a work and residence permit in Turkey to consider at that point in time.
We had several meetings with our support group and in depth discussions with people we trusted about our response to the situation we faced. We continued with our monthly visits to the All Nations base and our Discovery Bible Study group.
In some of the discussions we had, it was suggested that we should still consider going to Turkey. The fact that we cannot work for the school did not mean we cannot find another opportunity in Turkey. We should go and explore what assignments may be available in country that we may not be aware of without scouting for it on location.
During that time we were invited by former colleagues at Kingfisher Mobilizing Center to De Doorns for a disciplemaking experience. We stayed a few days and had in depth discussions on Luke 10 amongst other texts. At one point I clearly experienced a “moment of understanding”. The command was clear. “Go in the same way!” At first I was startled, but then a clear picture started to form in my mind. We should go to Turkey. We should travel from town to town. We should stay with local residents and be a blessing to them as we live with them. As we do this we should look for opportunities to work and live in Turkey.
In sharing this “revelation” with our friends gathered in De Doorns everyone got very excited. In further discussions we decided that we will not make any reservations for our stay in Turkey and that we will use public transport to travel from place to place.
Our support group caught the vision for this trip and we started to raise funds to cover the expected expenses. We decided that our plan demanded that we travel with back packs and we were able to borrow two good ones from friends.
We made our flight reservations to arrive in Turkey on the 17th of August 2012. We had never before done a “backpacking tour” and as the date for our departure draw closer, our hearts started to beat faster!