We are beginning our fourth week since the earthquakes first hit and confirmed numbers of people killed by the earthquake have exceeded 40,000. There is much mourning in the region and recovery is slow, but the progress of the service and help that is being provided to the people of the region grows. Having primarily helped with the church in Antakya for the last two weeks to provide food, shelter, and basic needs are growing in our service to meet the call for aid in other regions too. This week Ramazan and Özgür will be going to Adıyaman to determine what help we can provide there while others are continuing to be sent out to Antakya. Many of our second wave helpers have come back from Antioch. Our third wave of helpers will arrive back this evening. A message arrived yesterday showing that the electricity has come back on on the street where the church has set up its tents and soup kitchen. This was the first evening lighting from the city in the last three weeks and many see it as a sign that infrastructure is starting to be repaired. It was a hopeful sign in the night of despair that many are continuing to feel at this time. The church building has been a buzz with activity. Meals and housing are provided for many who have been displaced. Those who are not able to stay in our church guest facilities are staying in apartments of members of the church. Some families have opened wide their doors to house family and strangers, followers of Christ and many unbelievers. The all encompassing love of God is being reflected through the hearts and actions of the church. On Friday night, we hosted a meeting on the basic principles of grief and trauma counseling. Because of our daily participation in communication with survivors of the earthquakes, and because Turks are very social people, we have found it helpful to talk about good and bad forms of communication in the midst of trauma. The meeting, which was facilitated by Olive Tree Counseling Center counselors and was hosted during our regular youth group meeting time, was packed to capacity with people representing most of the fellowships in town and many other workers, as well as youth and church leaders who helped facilitate.
Sending our third wave of relief workersWe had at least 9 of the 22 guests (unbelieving families who were left homeless after the earthquakes) attend our Sunday service where we prayed for those who had suffered deep loss. We even had Muslim women crying and praying in the midst of a service where we praised Jesus as Lord and preached on the roll of God's church in times of trouble - we must be the hands and feet of Jesus as we stand between the house of God and the ruins of this world. We prayed and blessed those who we were sending out as our third wave of relief workers. Last night, as the two vanloads of workers and supplies approached the most heavily impacted zones, another "aftershock," if you can call it that, struck the region. The shacking was violent enough, that our relief workers paused and spent the night with the Adana church. Much of what we can bring into the region is being purchased from suppliers in Adana. The team will continue on to the tents in Antakya today where they will be preparing meals, distributing needed goods, and ministering to the needs of the people in the city of Antakya, located in the Hatay. In Hatay, the people are seeing the outpouring of love from the church. I have receeived messages of gratitude from teachers whose students have been blessed with food and care. We are receiving messages of thanks, and hearing about the good works that are being done in the name of Jesus and we are also hearing of ongoing terrible need. After spending five days in the region one brother mentioned the need for the most fundamental things - running water for toilets and showers. Our workers are presently going a week without showers along with those who have been almost three weeks now without. Large orders of clean drinking water are being shipped in at high cost and are being used to feed thousands of people. Meanwhile, in Antalya last night the shocks of the latest earthquake in Hatay were felt in our church building, and sadly the electricity went out in the neighborhood for a period of time long enough to scare many of the earthquake survivors. With the whole country on edge the building was evacuated and everyone followed proper safety precautions and thankfully know damage was done in Antalya, other than the ongoing psychological damage that we face as we are daily reminded of the devastation of earthquakes and the great need for those who suffered. Following our Sunday service, I had the opportunity to briefly speak with one of our guests (this is how I will continue to refer to those displaced by the earthquake who we are housing). She told me she was a renter and her building and all her earthly possessions were gone. She asked us to pray for her. We pray that in the days ahead a clear path for her to find a place to live will open up. Whether that place be here in Antalya, or back in Hatay we do not know but you can pray for the church as we continue to grapple with the hardest questions people face after an earthquake. Do we rebuild our lives in the same place or do we move on? How to pray this week:
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