SWEET FRIENDS!
January 26, 2016 – My heart is glad. I’m sitting on the couch in my parents house, drinking yummy tea and eating biscuits and gravy, cozying up in front of the fire place that my mother dreamed of, designed, and built, accompanied by some delicious melodies tickling my ear. I’m 21 years old, single, and thoroughly content with the choices I’ve made and the love I’ve chosen. My life is rich. Rich in adventure with the wooer of my heart. Rich in friendship, rich in love. Rich in memories of what has been, and rich in hope for what’s to come.
I am OVERWHELMED by the love, prayers, support, and encouragement that this year has held thus far. As many of you know, I spent the first couple weeks of 2016 in the Middle East sharing my testimony and the Gospel of Peace with a people in dire need of Hope. I have so much to say about this trip and have been at a loss for how to start…..
HERE GOES:
Our team was composed of 22 young adults recklessly willing to pray the hard prayers and start the hard conversations with strangers on the street all because of Love. Our journey began in Istanbul, Turkey – where in a city of 17 million there are only 3,000 Christians……that’s less than .06% of the total population (on a high estimate.) Islam is the cultural religion. I’ve never been in a nation where the Muslim call to prayer played 5 times a day, louder than the thoughts inside my head. There are not words adequate enough to articulate the feelings that transpired in my heart every time I heard the call to prayer.
I don’t have children, (yet, Lord willing!) but imagine with me for a moment – the very thing that you created with the person you love more deeply and sincerely than others.. the being that made you sleepy, gain weight, throw up, have wild mood swings, etc. ..the being that you loved and nurtured even before he was born, the baby that cried tenderly in your arms for the first time, the love you felt when you kissed his perfect and misshaped newborn forehead..the joy you felt as you counted his fingers and toes a hundred times.. the baby you cared for, taught, protected, discipled, spent time and money willingly to make sure he was taken care of.. imagine him proclaiming five times a day, ” You are not my mother, I am not your son. I will thank, worship, and maybe if I work hard enough I can earn a spot in my bosses house because I have no mother.” The call to prayer is as hurtful and insulting to the Father as is proclaims false truths throughout hundreds of thousands of streets all over the globe, “ALLAH is Most Great. ALLAH is Most Great. I testify that there is no god except ALLAH. I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of ALLAH. Hasten to prayer. Hasten to success.”
My heart was deeply grieved, as I can only imagine a mother who gave herself up for her children to live. My time in Istanbul awakened my heart to the reality of the Father’s longing for the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world to know and receive the only Way, Truth, and Life.
Istanbul is a beautiful city that is in desperate need of Hope. Three days after our team left, there was a suicide bombing in the historic Sultanahmet Square district, killing 11 people, all foreigners. The reality is that I.S.I.S. and other terror groups compiled of radical muslims have been around for longer than we know, and are not going anywhere anytime soon. I know that is a bold statement, but I believe it to be true. That being said, an urgency has risen in my spirit to clearly and effectively communicate the Gospel as much as I can before I die. In the way that I live, in the way that I love – audaciously and selflessly, in the way that I give, in the words that I speak, and in the testimony that I share. Now, I’m only 21 years old, and I don’t plan on dieing anytime soon..but with the rise of attacks both nationally and globally, ya just never know. I am not scared to die, everybody dies. But this I know: whenever my time on Earth is done, I want every part of my living to tell of the testimony of the Lord.
We boarded a plane in Istanbul and set off for Tel Aviv, Israel after our few days in Turkey. We were welcomed warmly at the airport by a kind and corky man who has spent the last decade (plus some) living in Israel. Our ministry times were my FAVORITE! Unlike our time in Turkey, (or any other country I’ve been to) we were able to boldly and freely share with anyone who would listen that we were Christians coming to to Holy Land to see what Israelis knew about Jesus. Surprisingly – 90% of the people we talked to over the week that we were there were clueless as to simple details of His life. I was shocked! I mean…this is the Promised Land..the land of flowing milk and honey…these are the streets that Jesus walked…the places that He taught…the places He prayed…the places He turned water into wine, healed the blind and lame, walked on water, turned five loaves of bread and two fish into enough to feed 5,000 men (NOT INCLUDING the women and children that were present!!) Seriously guys, I was shocked. It was such a cool way to share the Gospel unparalleled to any way I’ve done before. These Jewish people had no idea that the most famous man in all of history was a Jew – and His name was Jesus.. let alone the fact that He died for the atonement of sins and the abolishment of the law so that we may live freely and wholly, daily receiving the gift of grace and walking in the promised gift of salvation. Then we told them that He not only died………but He ROSE FROM THE DEAD! I’m telling ya, the looks we got were priceless.
There was one man (Anthony – the shop owner) in particular in whom Madison, (my assigned partner for evangelism) and I were able to build a unique relationship with. He owned a high end fashion shop on the street that we were assigned to spend our time on. (My oh my, he is a DIVA.) We aimlessly wandered into His shop our first morning of ministry because we liked the shoes we saw in the window, (we had no intent of 
telling him about Jesus……) Three hours later we left the shop after a long conversation about anything you can think of and how it relates to the greatest story ever told. We told him the full story of Redemption – from cover to cover. He asked question after question and I was amazed by how the Holy Spirit would give my teammate and I the most gracious and perfect answer to every. single. question. He was taken back by not only our knowledge of the word, but by our tenderness and genuine interest in his life. There was one point in the conversation where he said, “Ya know, it’s great that you believe all of this – but just wait until you’ve lived a little more life and people have screwed you over a couple times.. just wait till hard things happen to you, then you can decide.” ‘YES!’ I thought!! This was the perfect opportunity to share some of my testimony with him. I began to tell him about my childhood and the sexual abuse I had experienced from my grandfather. I told him of my journey to forgiveness including a court case and prison time for the man that I’d grown up calling grandpa.. I told him of the abandonment, emotional abuse, and neglect I’d felt from the men who should’ve loved and protected me. And I told him about Jesus… the man who’d never let me down or made me feel unsafe. I told him of the man who gives me peace. He is the one who comforts and provides. He is the perfect Father. I told him that hard things have happened to me – but He is the one who gave me hope. Anthony’s whole demeanor changed. The conviction of the Holy Spirit fell in his heart and he immediately felt uncomfortable with the reality that I was not forced to believe in this ‘high in the sky’ kind of God..I was not forced to forgive..but that I chose relationship with a kind, forgiving, and merciful God.
We visited our new friend everyday after that. We brought him coffee and talked about the Gospel, pausing when costumers would enter his shop. We shared stories of our lives and laughed deep belly laughs. He introduced us to his friends as the “Jesus girls”(not in a mocking way either.) He would translate for us in Hebrew and often times tell his friends the story of Jesus even before we could ask him to.
Heres the thing: I’m not sure if this man will ever accept Jesus as the son of God and savior of his soul.. but one thing I know – he will never forget the stories we told of the Jew named Yeshua and the way He changed our hearts and met us with kindness in our time of need. My prayer is that one day, that is what will lead him to the cross.. “Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” Romans 2:4
THOUGHTS ON SHORT TERM MISSIONS:
Some don’t see the benefit of short term outreaches..whether their reasoning comes from ideas that it’s not genuine or it’s for self glorification, good pics for Instagram, or any other of the many reasons to completely discredit the good that short term missions do. I deeply and fervently disagree.
Think about it this way: there is a global outbreak of a deadly disease. There is one cure. I have it. How selfish to keep it to myself. How ignorant to say, “I won’t go to the Middle East to give this life saving antidote to any who will receive it.” Even if only 3 people accept it…that’s three more people who won’t suffer the eminent death cause by the outbreak. And if none receive it, at least they had the chance to chose life or death. It seems like common sense to me. I love Jesus, and I believe with my whole. entire. heart. that He is real..and that He is the antidote to all of our otherwise tragic death. I believe that He is, in fact, the Son of God. That He lived a real life, in a real city, and had real friends. That He died a real death, and that HIS blood..the blood of the perfect sacrifice is the perfect atonement for the sins of mankind.
If I really believe that Heaven is real and it’s a place of Peace and Joy and Rest and unending Friendship – If I believe that Hell is real, and it is a place absent of the presence of God, Peace, Truth, Light, Love… If I really believe that..if WE really believe that, then logically, the most loving thing we can do is clearly tell the story from beginning to end – creation, fall, redemption – and invite every tribe, tongue, and nation to the place of Peace for all of eternity. It doesn’t come from a motive of fear or performance that ‘maybe if I work hard enough or tell enough people about Jesus then I’ll earn a spot in Heaven’..but from a genuine love for people and an understanding of the freedom that is offered.. for homosexuals, for heterosexuals, for liars, for cheaters, for drug addicts, for the bitter, for the broken, for the abused, for the abuser……
These are just my thoughts, feel free to leave yours below!
So much love, EMILYDEE
emilydee 