Who Needs A Sabbath?

Abbey here, ready to report back to you. 

We have been in Turkey for a little over two weeks now, that blows my mind. Although the days are long and the sun doesn’t set until 8 or 9, time FLIES. We blink and it’s already 8:30 p.m, my team and I are currently in Ankara, but started in Istanbul. While we were in Istanbul, with how jam packed our days were, we would rarely have lunch, or if we did, it wouldn’t be till around 4. So, I have a lot to catch you up on! 

Our first day in Turkey, after a long 3 days of traveling, a 13 hour flight, and many bus rides, we kicked off our time with a Sabbath. Well, kinda, we were supposed to Sabbath, but we were in Istanbul. My team and I were itching to go explore. Despite the potential jet lag and exhaustion from travel, we decided to go adventuring. 

 We started with a long walk through back ways and alleys. As we were walking, all of us were taking in everything we could.

We noticed the amount of cats that were on the streets and all the men smoking. I know, strange things to observe, but they definitely stood out. Our first stop was Süleymaniye Mosque. After we finally made it, one of my teammates, Jenn and I stepped away from the group. When we came back, our team had made a new friend. 

Ayse is a college student studying history and works at a cultural center. She invited us to the cultural center to learn more about the mosque and the religion. Everyone on my team has a yes spirit and our whole goal in Turkey is to learn more about the culture and love the people well. So we followed her back to the center.

It was located right outside the mosque and had an amazing view. This was (zoomed in) right outside the window of the second floor.

Ayse and her colleagues told us about Islam and gave us more insight into what they believed. Through a PowerPoint presentation, we also learned more about the mosque and Turkish culture. After their presentation, we were able to ask questions and we had quite a few. We wanted to have a better understanding of their beliefs and how to be respectful and honoring to their culture. They invited us to have tea in their garden and keep the conversation going. Before that, we were able to explore the second and third floor of the building and take some pictures. 

They had a team room, with traditional clothing and a Turkish tea set. 

Downstairs in the garden, we learned that we were using our kettle wrong and they taught us the proper way to serve tea. My team snacked on Turkish delights and baklava, we drank Turkish tea, and learned more from Ayse. She told us about her faith and more about her history major. We talked for literally hours with her and her friend. They told us Turkish customs like dating, that it’s not super common and that you date to marry. Honestly incredible, am I right? We learned that they believe animals have souls, so they take very good care of their cats (we definitely noticed) and smoking is a tradition passed down from many generations. There’s almost an art to it. Turkey has recently started a campaign to stop smoking, but it is very prevalent in their culture. 

Throughout the afternoon, we started diving more into what they believed and Ayse shared that Allah, on judgment day, would decide if they would go straight to heaven or how long they would have to spend in hell. Turkey is an “open” country but we were unsure what to share so we questioned and spoke very subtly. Eventually, after we realized she most likely knew, we told her more of what we believed. They are huge on respecting other religions, and we were there to get to know them better. So, still trying to share the love we’ve been given, we respectfully challenged her with: is Allah merciful? Are you fully forgiven from your sins if there is still time in hell? We talked about the Quran and the accuracy of the Bible. The conversation was amazing, and I think both parties learned so much. It was around 5ish when prayer started again and Ayse had to go back to the mosque. Due to Covid, you typically cannot go into any mosque during prayer as a visitor, but our new friend was able to get us in during prayer time. 

As we watched the men pray, women were in the back, hidden. It was heartbreaking. We were also praying. Individually, we were praying and interceding for the people there, ourselves, and our time in Turkey. After the prayer, we explored more of the mosque. 

Our afternoon was filled with learning and building relationships. Even though we probably should’ve honored our sabbath with more rest, the L*rd still used it to plant seeds. As a team we have also been learning how important sabbath is and have been more intentional about honoring it. So we do, as humans, definitely need a sabbath! 

Join me in prayer for our new friends:

Father thank you so much for the people you have been putting in our path. Thank you for technology and how we can stay connected and pr@y for other’s lives, even from across the world. We come before you and lift up Ayse and her friends, we pr@y they would want to learn more about you and that they would feel Your mercy and love in their lives. We pray that their eyes would be open to you and that you would continue to sow their seeds. Thank you so for how much you love them, that you would send us their way, even to just put a little spark inside of them. You are so faithful, we love you. Amen.