Earthquakes 2023
The earthquakes in Türkiye in 2023 were truly devastating. Affecting 11 major cities where over 60,000 people lost their lives. Our prayers go out to all who were affected. We also pray that God will continue to work in these areas as we see immense interest in Christ there today.
Türkiye Earthquakes 2023
Where We Are Today
2024
Today we are helping to build a church in Adıyaman! This church will be both a church and a warehouse to store and istribute essential supplies. We hope to have this project finished by the end of the year.
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In addition, the soup kitchen in Hatay has been transformed to a community center. There has been amazing growth in people wanting to know Christ in areas. The church in Hatay has tripled in its growth in the past six months and is growing faster than we have ever seen in Türkiye. Please pray alongside us as we pray for this growth in other cities in Türkiye.
Day 1
February 6, 2023
February 6 at 4:17 in the morning. That is when the first major earthquake hit Turkey. Over the next week there would be similar aftershocks of this magnitude. In minutes thousands of people would lose their lives in this terrible event.
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As a church we prayed for the families of this earthquake. We reached out to those we knew in this area and immediately opened our Lara church location for families to be able to stay there. We had services of lament for brothers and sisters in this area and prepared to send teams to help in this area.
Week 1
February 2023
At the end of this first week we send our first team out to help. We sent them to the city most affected by the earthquake - Hatay, Türkiye. This city is very improtant for us because it was the city where Paul and Barnabas were sent out for their first missionary journey in Acts. This first team was sent to help with a medial clinic and they also set up a soup kitchen in an area that had been destroyed by the earthquake and desperately needed food and water to survive.
Months 1-3
March - May 2023
During the next month we rennovated our church and received over twenty people form the earthquake zone who would stay in our Lara church building until May.
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In addition, we sent different groups to Hatay to help with the soup kitchen that was there. They would serve over 30,000 people each day providing food, water and essential hygiene products to survive.
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Furthermore, we started to work in the city which was the second most affected by the earthquakes - Adıyaman, Türkiye. We set up a warehouse there and delivered food and essential hygiene items to camps that needed it.
Months 6-12
June - December 2023
As the need became more we decided to focus more on Adıyaman, Türkiye. We were helping over 60,000 people in this city over the next three months in conglomeration with two other churches in the southeast of Türkiye.
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In addition, we were helping churches from the northwestern parts of Türkiye in a supportive role in Hatay Türkiye. Especially during the summer months, the soup kitchen desperately needed water so our focus was on providing them this needed water as well as finding solutions for clean waters in this area.