Charles Spurgeon said: “The call of God can never be understood absolutely. It is like the call of the sea; no one hears it except those who have the nature of the sea in them”.
Psalm 139:15-16 says: “When my bones were being formed, carefully put together in my mother’s womb, when I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there, you saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began.
In the days following our decision to start the process of going to Turkey as missionaries we had many discussions and prayer sessions about our calling. We started to understand that God had called out from our nature, which He had placed in us before we were born. I heard the call to the nations that evening in 1995, because He created me with that “nature” in me.
We were very excited and immediately started to think of the next steps. Should we approach Operation Mobilization again? Will the church support us? What will we do in Turkey to justify our presence?
Suddenly there were more questions than answers….
We decided to speak to our pastor before we share our decision with anyone else. He was very supportive and accepted our decision. We had a number of meetings with him and we decided that we will visit all the small groups in the congregation to share our dream to be missionaries in Turkey with them. He wanted the congregation to listen to our story and affirm our calling. We also decided that we will not approach Operation Mobilization to be prepared as missionaries. He asked us to invite experienced mission workers to come and prepare us and interested members of the congregation, so that the congregation will be actively involved in our preparation.
We had to find a purpose to live in Turkey. Missionaries and spiritual workers are not allowed to practice as missionaries or spiritual workers in Turkey. Many of the mission workers we knew established liaison offices for other companies like travel agents and used that as a cover for their presence in Turkey. We were not comfortable with that option because we believed working in a legitimate capacity, practicing daily the work that you were registered for would give a better foundation to build up relationships and to serve the community where you work and live.
In the months ahead, we visited the small groups sharing our dream with them. We identified a group of people from our visits to the small groups to become a support group to us and to help us plan the process to prepare to go to Turkey as missionaries.
We were on our way, but there was still a long road ahead before we could set foot in Turkey.