John and Julia
Dedicated beyond Danger
Story by Jennifer Dorozio
The nation of Turkey is close to 98.6 per cent Muslim, according to a 2014 NationMaster survey , however, the combined Christian and Jewish population comes to just 0.2 per cent of the population. These statistics, paired with the knowledge that Turkish people who were interested in Christianity had very few places to turn, caused John and Julia to uproot themselves from small-town Saskatchewan and become full-time Christian missionaries in Istanbul, Turkey.
Julia, originally from Veteran, Alta, met John, from Saskatchewan, at Eston College, a Bible college in Eston, Sask. The two married and began working full-time after their graduation from the college.
Sharing an interest in starting Christian churches and more permanent mission work. they sought after a more “authentic” Christian walk and itched for a change.
As of January 2017, John and Julia will have been missionary workers in Turkey for two years, funded almost exclusively off of individual and church sponsorship through their network of friends back in Canada.
Some have called them crazy but John says he can’t get enough of the missionary lifestyle. “It was kind of a slippery slope. It’s like a gateway drug you know?” He says with a laugh, over the Skype call we are having; technically 10 hours apart from each other.
During our Skype interview for this article in December, the word “missionary” had to be switched to “worker,” for worry of the call being listened in on by the Turkish government and having John and Julia tagged as Christian missionaries.
While it is not illegal to be a missionary in Turkey, John explains the Turkish people are very nationalistic.
For this reason, some Turks view Christianity, and Westerners by extension, as a threat to the majority religion of Turkey and as an attack on Turkey itself.
In 2007, two Turkish Christian converts and one German missionary in Turkey were slain in a Turkish Bible-publishing house by young Turkish tortured and right-wing extremists . Those found guilty of the killings all carried notes on them that said, “We did this for our country.... They are attacking our religion,” according to a May 2007 LA Times article.
While the religious climate requires caution, Julia says, “We have never felt personally unsafe here, really we’ve had a very pleasant peaceful experience and we believe that God is protecting us."
For John, the reality of Christ motivates him to do missions work, “I just feel the weight of Jesus hanging on the cross,” which he says, wasn’t so that a bunch of people could go to church on Sunday, or “have a lot of fun with “Movember”, or be “slacktivists on Facebook” with, “no amount of personal sacrifice.”
As John and Julia began to hear more about “unreached people groups,” those who have little access to the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ, they felt a pull to give people a chance to hear about God and experience his love. The couple began volunteering with young adult groups and performed short mission trips to reserves in Northern Canada in order to prepare for a more permanent change in address.
The city of Istanbul smells of the sea and fresh construction dust. At any point during the day there is the noise of people at work and the air carries the smell of salt from the surrounding sea into the peninsula.
Women garbed in floor-length burqas can be seen strolling arm-in-arm with their friends wearing miniskirts, they talk and laugh as they amble down the cobbled streets.
On a sunny day you can see the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace from the window of the Istanbul House of Prayer John* and Julia* often frequent. They have asked their real names not be used owing to incidents of violence against Christians.
Despite these reassurances, the international church they both attend has bulletproof glass in the front windows, has received online threats, and in their first week of attending was targeted by arsonists.
John and Julia also take extra precautions in how they make their presence known Their website is hidden unless they give the address out and they refrain from the label of “missionary” entirely.
“If anybody asked us on the street if we were missionaries I would say ‘no’ and say ‘no’ with integrity,” says John. He says this is for a specific reason, explaining that missionaries have come to Turkey in the past with damaging colonial and imperial mindsets, which is far from their own approach. He and his wife desire genuinely to love Turkish culture and people and show them who Jesus is through building relationships and acting as Jesus did on earth.
There is a Turkish verb, John sends me through WhatsApp, ‘TürkleÅŸmek’, which he says aptly describes John and Julia’s aim “to become a Turk.” Their first step is learning Turkish in order to communicate and connect.
“Turks are super friendly,” says John. “It’s really a part of their culture to discuss religion; you don’t have to try and sneakily steer a conversation towards Christ.”
John and Julia also plan to use their time working with the Bible Correspondence Course (BCC) in Turkey. The BCC is a network Turks can use to reach out for Christian materials, support and even a personal visit from a missionary.
It uses methods such as advertising for free New Testaments and a presence in online chatrooms to try and reach as many “Jesus Christ curious” Turkish people as possible. In one week the BCC can receive over 300 requests for contact or materials and wait-times for follow up can be up to 3-4 months, says John.
“There is so much interest in Christ right now and so few workers to follow-up with people,” says John.
John and Julia truly believe Jesus Christ is alive and at work in Turkey, and that they are there to help bring people to know that.
Their hope is that an average day for them will consist of a couple hours of praying and then following up with contact requests from the BCC. Julia says these moments of interaction will be critical to their work, where they answer any questions the Turkish people have about Christianity in the hopes of leading them to Jesus Christ.
“In the West in church we’ll say ‘It’s not about religion it’s about relationship.’ That’s so utterly true,” says John and adds the social benefits of converting to Christianity for the Turkish people aren’t very high so he has to trust that God’s love will convince them. Julia says this reality helps to alleviate some of the pressure she feels to change anybody’s mind about religion.
Despite difficulties in learning the language, perceived safety and the work they are there for, John and Julia view their move to Istanbul as an “adventure” after coming from small town Saskatchewan.
However, not everyone from back home is thrilled the young couple has moved there due to perceived danger.
“The reason we came here is because Muslims are dying without Christ. If more Muslims are dying this year because of bombs that doesn’t make us want to go,” says Julia, on the contrary, “It makes us want to be here more to connect with more people.”
For the foreseeable future, Turkey is now a permanent home for John and Julia. The couple is expecting their first child and they have plans for future Christian outreaches. One way they hope to do this is by pairing up with a street ministry that performs music in groups in order to draw a crowd then afterwards hands out Christian materials.
“There is so much interest and hunger here for Christ and yet so few workers to do the work,” says John, paraphrasing a part of the Bible verse from Matthew 9. In the verse, Jesus sees a large crowd of people who have gathered and wish to see him and be attended by him and remarks, “The harvest is great but the workers few.”