Every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation

January 10, 2009

In contrast to Monday’s discouragement, thanks to joining the body of Christ today, I am very encouraged. Besides being a beautiful weekend in general, today’s service at church included people from all over. This is not unusual, as a couple of regular attendees are Arabic, and there are two Korean girls, and the pastor’s wife is Korean. Besides, there have been teams from Russia and a couple of other places before, too. And all that is in addition to the fact that there are brothers in Christ in Turkey! That in and of itself is enough to pump me up, knowing that here are my brothers even though I can barely communicate with them.

So what happens today? There’s an Iranian fellow in church, and after a short prayer in Turkish, someone asked him to pray in Farsi. After that, we went around the room, praying in all the languages that were represented, which ended up being an impressive list of five languages: Turkish, Farsi, English, Korean, and Kurdish.

The last was interesting too, since I didn’t realize that some of the men at church were Kurdish. I’m not even 100% sure it was Kurdish, but I’m guessing based on some previous experiences. Like the Christmas party, where the pastor was talking about the Kurdish word for “Come,” which is, apparently, “Wala!” I didn’t follow why he was talking about Kurdish, because I didn’t know that anyone was Kurdish. But when they asked one of the guys to pray in yet another language that wasn’t any of the other four, I realized it must be Kurdish.

Every time these experiences occur at church, I’m reminded of the global scope of Christ’s kingdom, and how He truly is Lord of every tribe, tongue, and nation. And nothing excites me more!

Discouragement

Judy put the word to it. That feeling we've all been experiencing over the last several weeks, at least. It's discouragement.

With administrative missteps, hormonal and uncaring students, the rose colored glasses of this whole teaching overseas experience have fallen like the scales from the blind man's eyes. Don't get me wrong - I still see God's hand in this, as I posted last time. And this discouragement will not crush me. One way or the other, I know I will be stronger because of this. But it is a real feeling, and needs to be addressed.

I would really like to see this university succeed and prosper. I pray for its prosperity daily. But it seems that lack of a clear vision, lack of motivation on the students' part, and consequently lack of motivation on the teachers' part, are counteracting that desire. I find myself more and more just wanting to be home.

It will come soon enough, I'm sure. And in the meantime, I am in TURKEY! I never in a million years would have thought I would ever be in this place, but here I am. While I long for home (and a certain girl there), I do not want to pass up the opportunities to experience this place for all its worth. After all, who else can say that they finished reading through the book of Acts in Antioch, where parts of it take place?

Moreover, it is the people here - my friends and co-teachers who, despite religious, linguistic, and cultural differences, make it all worthwhile. I really enjoyed pointing out the Turkish words for things we encountered while walking through Antakya (Antioch) with Duygu and Selda this past weekend. I enjoy exchanging basic pleasantries with all my Turkish colleagues every morning. I enjoy learning slang greetings and phrases from Hasan. I enjoy paying almost nothing for basic food items at the local market down the street, while learning Turkish and teaching English to the shopkeepers. I enjoy fellowshipping with other believers who are my brothers in Christ in spite of linguistic and cultural differences.

And in the words which many people think come from the Kutsal Kitap: "This too shall pass."