Fethiye is a small town of 70,000 people in a land which has more mosques than any other nation and is 99.9% Muslim.
Children are taught that ‘to be a Turk is to be a Muslim’ and nationality and religion seem inseparable. There are approximately 5,000 Protestant Christians in Turkey and the church is growing, albeit slowly.
Front line
It seems that Turkey is rapidly becoming the ‘front line’ for Christianity in the region, as Iran, Iraq and Syria, its neighbours along the eastern borders, fall to extremist Islamic groups and Turkey has a massive influx of refugees fleeing war-torn areas.
Paul and Lynda Hembrough lead a small church (Fethiye Community Church), which consists of ex-pats of various nationalities and those visiting the church, often when on holiday. Paul also co-leads the small Turkish church (Fethiye Halk Kilisesi), where it is a delight to see Turks grow in faith.
The church is blessed with a tremendous sense of love and unity, which is frequently commented on by visitors, and we try to maintain connections with those who come to visit each year. We sometimes visit churches around the UK to ‘Talk Turkey’ and share what has been happening here with our brothers and sisters. God is on the move in Fethiya and we seek to walk with him wherever he leads.
Refugees
Refugees in Turkey are everywhere and we as a church have tried to meet some of the needs for some of the people. We have sent tents to camps in the East, along with winter bedding and clothing, but recently it is more difficult to access these camps, due to increased loss of life through terrorism. Bodrum has 2,500 refugees, Izmir 60,000 and Istanbul many more. Sending baby food, nappies, personal healthcare products, etc., we try to help, in a small way doing what we can.
Turkswork
Alongside this we run an organisation called Turkswork which aims to share the good news of the gospel, to help Turks to work and get fairly paid, and to connect believers ‘here’ in Fethiye with the church ‘there’, so helping Turkish believers see a larger picture of the church – to show them that they are not alone, or even a tiny minority, and that they too can play their part in the global body of Christ.
Turkswork is at present the main fundrais-ing arm for the new café and for outreach to Turks, either from financial gifts or by people joining us on a visit to some of the ancient biblical sites or other beautiful parts of Turkey.
New café
Early October saw the opening of the Turkswork café in the town centre which is openly Christian and, along with good coffee and food, offers Bibles, Christian books and other information in Turkish and English for those interested in looking at the faith we share. Recently we had an Englishman, three Iraqis, a Syrian and a Kurdish woman all talking together about the refugee situation and I was able to share our commitment to the Kingdom with them.
We are excited about its potential and hope to use it as the main outreach arm of the church as we seek to connect with the community around us.
In the Alpha course, which we have run here, there’s a story of a small boy on the beach at low tide. He’s throwing starfish, which had been left on the sands as the tide retreated, back into the sea. A man seeing what he was doing and the great number of starfish all around says, ‘It’s no good, you cannot make a difference, there are too many of them’. The boy looks up as he throws another starfish back into the sea, saying, ‘But it made a difference to that one’. We too want to make a difference, maybe to only a few, but every one counts.
Invitation
This small town in Turkey, sitting at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, has a Christian witness and a heart to reach others with the gospel. We invite you to come. Come and see what God is doing here, come and enjoy a time of rest and relaxation, come and meet the people and visit the biblical sites that make Turkey the ‘Forgotten Holy Land’, but most of all, pray. And experience tells us that those who come do pray.
Darkness to light
Fethiye is in an area known in ancient times as Lycia, which means ‘Land of Lights’. Our prayer is that, for the people who live in deep spiritual darkness, the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ will shine and many will come to salvation (Isaiah 9.2).
You can find us on websites and Facebook: Fethiye Community Church; Turkswork; Saklıbahçe Cafe (presently Facebook only). Take a look – we’d love to hear from you.
