EMQ » October–December 2018 » Volume 54 Issue 4
[memberonly folder=”Members, EMQ2YearFolder, EMQ1YearFolder”]Yakup Korkmaz
On a road in Eastern Turkey, on one of our first missionary journeys among the Kurds, my Turkish colleague and I had decided not to pick up any hitchhikers. Our reasoning was that travelers in that area may be members of the PKK or part of the Workers Party of Kurdistan. This is a political terrorist party, which seeks Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, and the surrounding countries. We did not want to be identified with such people, even if only to drop them off at their next destination. Before our frequent trips to villages in the Kurdish regions, we fast and pray, and while traveling we are in constant worship and prayer. Almost every province and village in the Kurdish regions of Turkey is virtually unreached. The people there have never met a Christian or seen a Bible, much less heard the mystery of the gospel proclaimed. Our burden is to see that the gospel is preached in every village in every province. This task is daunting.
On this particular trip we were heading to several of these unreached villages where we had contacts, when on the side of the road there was a man who waved us down. I was going to pass on, but as a good missionary, I submitted to the suggestion of the national that we should pick this man up (despite our previous conversation not to do this). He was a Kurdish man going to his village, a place that was ten miles off of the main road. We decided to go off our path and take him to his destination. The man enjoyed our company and invited us to stay in his village for a while. We sat and had tea with around fifteen men from the village; they were, of course, curious as to why we were out in their remote village.
After meeting the mayor, teachers, and other town officials, we were introduced to some of their youth. While we had lunch with them, we sensed a spiritual openness and spent all day until late in the evening explaining the gospel. We camped there in our vehicle that night and spent the next morning with our new friends. Later, after we returned from other villages, we stopped and stayed another night. On this one trip we planted the seeds of the gospel in over eight provinces in several villages to scores of people, individuals, families, and religious and political leaders alike. These areas are now open to us anytime to visit, sow seeds, and water what we have already sown (which we continue to do). This is what Paul spoke about to the churches as he gave a report in Acts after his first missionary journey: “They declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27).
Missionaries seek open doors to preach in areas that are unreached. They desire, sometimes with impatience, to see the gospel speed ahead and be honored, and they wish for more ambassadors to join in the ministry of reconciliation.
Prayer is the missionaries’ ammunition. When the missionary asks the church to pray for him or her, the missionary is asking for logistical support to complete the task of breaking new ground in the enemy’s territory. The prayers of the church greatly aid missions. Paul requested of the Corinthian church, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Corinthains 1:11). The Bible is very clear on how to pray in detail for the missionary and the mission field. The purpose of this article is to alert and challenge the church to what I call biblical missional prayer.
Accomplishment of the Task Revealed
The church must focus its prayers and giving so that the task may be completed. The fulfillment of the task is seen in the book of Revelation:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9–10).
Our task among the Kurdish people seems too much to bear, as there are scores of confederacies, and over fice hundred tribes or clans, not to mention extended families, which reach into the tens of thousands. These are found in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I am fully convinced that representatives of not just the confederacies, but the tribes and smaller clans will be those surrounding the throne crying out with a loud voice, “Xilasîyê Xwedêyê me ye yê ku li ser text rûniştiye û Berx e” (Revelation 7:10 in Kurmanji). In Turkey there are over twenty-five million Kurdish speakers, and in Syria there are over three million.
Five Focused Missional New Testament Prayers for the Church
Laborers
After being in Turkey two years, I sat down with one of our board members and we prayed specifically for three national workers that we could partner with. Years later, we have scores of national workers and foreign families that we have worked with.
Jesus knew the importance of needing workers, and even before He sent out the twelve on any mission trip, He asked them to pray for missionaries. “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Matthew 9:37–38). Going from province to province in the East, I have looked out and seen thousands of villages and wept because of the lack of workers actually going out to these unreached areas. I have felt the burden of the Kurds on my shoulders and have wondered how we could possibly reach every village in every province. This task is impossible for us, so I have been praying to the Lord of the harvest to send out the laborers. Pray with the missionary for more laborers because the harvest is vast and the laborers are few. In Turkey there are currently eighty million unreached with fewer than five thousand Christians.
Open Doors
Sitting in a tea house in Istanbul with my mother one afternoon, I overheard our waiter teaching tourists how to say “thank you” and “have a good day.” Unknown to them, he was teaching them Kurdish not Turkish. I called him over and asked him in Kurdish where he was from and what his name was; he learned that I was an American and was shocked that I knew his language. He had every waiter, and even the owner of the teahouse come over so that they could hear the foreigner speak Kurdish (Kurmanji). Our tea was free that day because he said, “We don’t charge Kurds.” I began visiting him on a regular basis, and he invited me to come to his village; our first meeting was in September, and I was in his village by the end of November. His Eastern Kurdish province, Muş, is the poorest in Turkey, and I was the first Christian ever to visit his village since the Armenian Genocide. From this visit I was able to share the gospel with many in his family, meet everyone in the village, and leave a Bible for the family, which they accepted. We have since visited that village often and from that we have now visited three other surrounding villages which were previously unreached. Now we have open doors in this unreached province.
Paul, who imitated Christ, is the missionary example to follow. Paul asked for prayer from the Church at Colossae (which happens to be in modern day Turkey) for open doors so that he could preach the gospel and make it clear to the hearer, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (Colossians 4:2–4). I have seen several doors open throughout our ministry, but I know that there are thousands more to be opened. Pray with the missionary for continual open doors.
Honor and Speed of the Word
Another very poor village on the very Eastern border of Turkey is home to about sixty xane (Kurdish residences). We recently have done a Zacchaeus project medical mission to this village. Two girls in this village had a severe genetic disease that looked something like leprosy. Their father, like many Kurdish fathers, had never read the Bible, and when my pastor and I shared the gospel with him in detail, he asked if the next time we visited his village we could bring a Bible so he could read it. We happened to have a Bible with us, and he was overjoyed and said that he would read it that summer (2009). He and many others looked forward to our further trips to his village.
We now have a small Kurdish fellowship located fifteen kilometers from this man’s village. We have been visiting him with the pastor of this village church and, in fact, they had already known each other. When I asked him if he had read the Bible we gave him, he told me that he called the imam of the village over to ask his opinion about reading it. The imam told him there would be no harm in reading it. This family continually accepts our guests that we send him.
Paul also asked the Thessalonians church to pray specifically for his ministry in this way: “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith” (2 Thessalonians 3:1–2). The Word of God sped through Thessalonica swiftly and was honored by many, and because they understood the importance of the Word of God, they would be faithful prayer warriors for Paul’s ministry. By your prayers missionaries can advance the Word of God even to the point that it would go forth rapidly, and as it goes be honored and glorified.
The second half of Paul’s request for prayer because of wicked and evil men is something that we also understand well. Recently one man deceived us and threatened us saying that if we come into his province again he would be waiting with his guns and kill us. I told him that he doesn’t own that province, but that God does and we will come anytime we wish. Pray also that missionaries would be delivered from evil men who would oppose.
Battle with Demonic Forces
There have been many occasions when we have had to come face to face with the spiritual forces of evil that are mentioned in Ephesians 6:12. These are very real and very evil, but because our focus is on glorifying God I will not go into the details of such encounters, except to mention that in Jesus’ name and by the authority given by Him we send them away.
Paul also knew this and asked the church in Ephesus to pray concerning these daily battles that are sometimes fierce. The demonic world seeks to destroy missionaries and their work by inciting discouragement, fear, and disunity and by tempting them to moral failure. Paul requested the church to “pray in the Spirit at all times with every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert with every kind of effort and request for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
Boldness in Preaching
In the 2nd poorest province in Turkey (Ağrı), my Turkish colleague and I (along with an intern from our missionary training school) were again in a very remote village. We loaded up our vehicle with around fifteen Kurds who needed a ride, (again disregarding our own law to not give rides to strangers) and took them to a place that no Christians had ever visited. We were invited to stay for dinner, and it just so happened that right before dinner my Turkish colleague became violently ill and spent the next hour or so resting. Dinner was served, and I was alone sitting on the floor with about twenty Kurdish men, and in the room adjacent several Kurdish women were sitting listening in on our conversation. After dinner one man asked me, “Now that you have learned our language, why do you not become a Muslim?” I replied, “I can never become a Muslim.” After that you could hear a pin drop in the room and all eyes were on me. I took the opportunity to explain in great detail that I had much sin and needed a Savior, the one that was promised to come in the Old and New Testaments. I then explained the prophecies of the Messiah and finished up with saying Jesus the Messiah is all I need and there is no further need for any other prophet (i.e., Muhammad) and no need for a new book (i.e., the Qur’an). The salvation we need is in Christ. This sparked much discussion among the men, and I longed to know what the women thought in the other room.
These opportunities arise often for the missionaries, so they must speak the gospel boldly. Paul, also being in such tense situations, knew that when the opportunity presented itself, he needed to be bold and present the gospel well. That is why he also asked for prayer from the church. “Pray also for me, so that, when I open my mouth, the right words will be given to me. Then I will boldly make known the secret of the gospel, for whose sake I am an ambassador in chains, desiring to declare it as boldly as I should” (Ephesians 6:19–20). Pray for missionaries to be bold and use the right words when these opportunities arise.
The Church Responds to Prayer or Not
After the three martyrdoms of Necati, Uğur, and Tilmann, in Turkey in April of 2007, there were some immediate needs of the families, who happened to be personal friends of mine. I remember being at the prayer meeting of a certain missions company that had a team of ten missionaries in one area. I was visiting with my wife, and we joined their prayer time. The needs of those involved were called to attention because some of the missionaries knew them as well. The team meant well and prayed with all sincerity as they asked God to “provide” for the needs of the people affected by the event.
However, their response ended with a simple prayer, and they were not prompted to be involved in the answer to that prayer through giving. I looked at my wife and said, “Why are we praying about this? Everyone should open up their wallets and give what they have immediately.” Everyone knew the needs, and God uses us to provide for the needs of our brothers and sisters—not only to pray for provision. Maybe through prayer God will tell us the amount to give, but God calls us to action and not just to prayer. I realize that many people are not mature in the practice of their faith, but we should be challenged to be mature followers of Christ, responding to the needs with not only our prayers but also our good deeds. John the apostle understood this principle and stated: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
Conclusion
In this process of biblical missional prayer, the completion of the circle is that the church must be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of these prayers. You are praying for God to send more laborers, but are you the laborer whom God is sending? You are praying for the Word of God to spread rapidly, but are you the conduit that God will use to purchase Bibles, Christian materials, or send those called as missionaries? You are praying for the missionary’s boldness in preaching that he may present the gospel in every situation with the right words, yet are you bold for the gospel in the situations to which God has called you?
Yakup Korkmaz (pseudonym) has been a church planter in Turkey since 2002. He holds a BS, Pastoral Studies, Clarks Summit University, MAR, Reformed Theological Seminary, MA in Muslim Studies from the Zwemer Institute, and is currently a PhD student at Columbia International University. His research topic is discipleship approaches to believers from Muslim backgrounds.
