Pray for: Turkey

The devastating earthquakes of February 2023 were Turkey’s worst in 1500 years. Around 50,000 people died. That the earthquakes occurred in winter increased the suffering of survivors. Literally millions of buildings were destroyed or damaged and hundreds of thousands of people left homeless. Much of the destruction occurred in remote areas; getting assistance to these communities is now all the more difficult. Many of the buildings failed to meet up to safety standards due to corruption that allowed builders to bribe officials and skirt around requirements. Rebuilding both the physical infrastructure and faith in corrupted political leadership will take years or even decades – the trauma of loss will stay with many for their whole lives. Pray that God might use this tragedy to bring breakthrough to areas long resistant to the good news. Pray that Christians might continue to pour into the area with aid, assistance, compassion, and mercy as they love and serve the people of this region – in genuine partnership with and service to the local body of Christ. Pray that such humble and generous Christian service and witness might be present for the long haul of restoration, and that many hearts would respond to these demonstrations of Christ’s love. 

Pray for refugees and migrants in Turkey. Many Iranians fled the violence and Islamic extremism of the 1979 Revolution. This was followed by over a million Kurds during the Gulf War in 1991. Millions more fled into Türkiye from Syria and elsewhere during the civil war and the migrant crises of the 2010s. Türkiye has in recent years hosted more refugees than any other country in the world. Large numbers of migrants come from South Asia, other parts of the Middle East, and now Russia and Ukraine. They are proving quite open to the gospel. It is very possible that there are more refugees than ethnic Turks who are following Jesus inside of Türkiye. Increasing numbers of these are praying for God to use them as witnesses in their host nation. Pray that through Iranians, Syrians, Afghans and others, God might lead many Turks to know him.

Give praise for the slow but steady growth of Turkish evangelical Christianity. Turkish and Kurdish believers probably numbered around 10 in 1960 but rose to around 4,000 by 2010. Many hoped for or expected greater growth of the Church. But while small in number, it grew stronger and more mature. The growth of the 1990s and early 2000s slowed down when faced with spiritual, legal, and cultural opposition. Pray for the evangelism and church planting of the past generation to carry on! Meanwhile there is a remarkable turning to Christ of migrants from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere who are refugees in Türkiye. While ministry to Turks and Kurds is watched closely, there seems to be greater freedom to minister to these refugees.  Many are praying that the shaking of the nation from the 2023 earthquakes would trigger a mass movement of people to find and follow Jesus.