EUROPE-MIDDLE EAST

Siberia’s Minorities Receive Scriptures (Russia)
Scriptures Reach Chechnya Refugees
‘Christ’s Words Became Reality’ (Albania)
‘Great to Have the New Testament in Our Language’ (Turkey)
Sharing a Practical Gospel (Turkey)
Life After the Losses (Turkey)
Bible Creates a Stir at Book Fair (Turkey)
Scottish Members of Parliament Reminded of the Bible Message

Siberia’s Minorities Receive Scriptures

by Anatoly Rudenko, Executive Director of the Bible Society in Russia
NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia — The work of the Bible Society in Russia (BSR) reaches the furthest corners of this vast country, which covers no fewer than 11 time zones, from Kaliningrad in the West to Chukotka in the East. Last July and September, the BSR undertook two expeditions deep into Siberia as part of the outreach program ‘To the ends of the Earth’.

These trips were organised by Alexei Bulatov, BSR director in Siberia, and he had help and support from representatives of the local Christian mission ‘Help for the disappearing peoples of the Far North’.

The BSR provided the Scriptures for distribution, and transport, while the mission provided humanitarian aid such as food, blankets and medicines.
  

In such a way a unique and irreplaceable nation gradually disappears.
In July, the newly-bought Bible Society van was used to transport the team and its supplies to a small aircraft, which flew the team to the settlement of Bor, some 600 kilometres (375 miles) to the north of Krasnoyarsk. This is geographically in the very centre of the Russian Federation.

Mosquitoes

Bor is a widely dispersed settlement of some 2,500 people, which serves as a transportation and communications centre to a vast region that has a radius of around 300kms (187 miles). Summers are very short but hot in Siberia. These would be delightful if it were not for the billions of mosquitoes that plague everyone who ventures outdoors on a sunny day with little wind.

In the past some 5,000 people lived in and around Bor, earning their living mostly from fishing in the summer and hunting in the winter. In recent years the trade has dwindled to almost nothing. People are forced to leave their homes to look for work, and those who remain try to barter their fish and bear-skins for home-made vodka of poor quality.

Disappearing

Only rarely do the people manage to sell their goods for money. Meanwhile, their children are growing up and need to be fed, dressed and shod. Above all, they need to be educated.

The team visited the tiny hamlet of Sumarokovo, 40kms (25 miles) downriver from Bor. Here they found a group of about 20 peasant houses. Eight of the families belonged to the Keto people. The Keto are a disappearing group: only some 700 Keto are left. Linguists have so far been unable to identify the provenance of their language: it is neither Turkic nor Finno-Ugric, and it is certainly not of Slavic origin.

Today it is not easy to distinguish a Keto family from a Russian one – one of the reasons being the mixing of races through inter-marriage. As Keto traditions are abandoned so the language is used less and less and is now disappearing – only a few Keto people are able to speak their own tongue, and nobody in the village can read in Keto. In such a way a unique and irreplaceable nation gradually disappears.

Red banner

There is a house where the local administration is supposed to be based; these days there is nobody there. In the most imposing room of this house there still hangs a big red banner with the slogan “Forward to the Victory of Communism!”

The team held its first meetings here, praying and communicating the Good News with the local people. A dozen adults came to hear the message; later some 25 children

listened to the Bible story. In summer the children have little to do; they swim in the river or they help their parents fish or collect berries and mushrooms. So a Bible meeting was a new thing for them. In fact, adults and children alike listened with great interest about the work of the Bible Society and Bible translation.
Children in Tuva proudly displaying their Children's Bibles
They asked many questions, and some asked for prayer about their needs. One particular prayer that almost every child prayed was that their parents would stop drinking. All of them expressed their need for God.

Next port of call was Sulomay, on the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Here the team found a village which was almost completely Keto; it had some 35 houses and 200 inhabitants. It was the most remote spot of the whole expedition; the nearest inhabited settlement along the river to the west being 75kms (47 miles) away, and to the east 110kms (69 miles) distant.

Special event

Here the team occupied a ‘kindergarten’ which consisted of two rooms: one serving as a dormitory and the other as a combined kitchen, dining room, changing room and toilet. For the local people a visit from the outside is a rare and special event. The local children, having recognised someone who had been there before, ran down the hill to the river bank, shouting, “Uncle Valera has arrived! Let’s go to pray!”

All the children from the settlement came to pray, some from the hill, and some up from the river. Tears came to the eyes of the visitors as, yet once more, these small children prayed earnestly that their dear parents be released from their addiction to vodka. They were very glad to receive the Scriptures provided by the Bible Society.

Delighted

Generally, people were more delighted to receive the books than the humanitarian aid – this was particularly true of the children, who were thrilled to receive the beautifully illustrated Children’s Bibles. The teacher of the elementary school, on seeing the book The Story of Jesus, decided to use it as a school textbook, and was very grateful to receive a copy for each child.

What particularly interested the visitors was how many people who came to the services reacted to receiving the Word of God for the first time. Some opened it at once and began to search for what God had to say. Others simply held the book all the way through the service pressed to their chest.

In addition to the Bibles, the Bible Society provided a set of audio-cassettes of the dramatised recording of the New Testament for those who agreed to meet regularly to listen to the Gospel together. While the tapes were playing, all was quiet, and the people listened with rapt attention. Afterwards their faces were full of joy and happiness, as though they had discovered a love for all people and forgotten the reality of their daily lives and its problems.

The team prayed together with both groups, adults and children. One woman was crying – expressing her thanks for forgiveness. “It is good that you came,” she said. “Now we want to live again. Come again! Do not forget us! Pray for us!”

Newly-caught fish

Late in the evening, as the team was about to leave, children ran up smiling and bringing thankofferings of newly-caught fish, which was all that they could offer. It was impossible to refuse this gift, given from the bottom of their hearts.

Then the team moved on to the village of Podkamennaya Tunguska, which takes its name from the river on which it is situated. Here the visitors were struck by how things had become run-down, especially the community facilities. The services were held in the library, and as always, the children arrived first. Each child received a gift of books with great pleasure and immediately sat down to read and go through the illustrations.

Haymaking

Spontaneously, the children talked about their families and their parents’ occupations. The weather was very hot – it was haymaking time and the majority of adults were busy working in the fields. As the children were leaving for home, they asked if they could have Bibles for their parents. They were given the Scriptures with great pleasure. The members of the team knew that these books would be greatly valued and much used. 
‘Come to us again, you are so much needed here! Speak to us the Word of God. It will give us hope.’


At the end of September Mr Bulatov organised another expedition, and a team travelled down from Krasnoyarsk to Tuva, a republic in the south of Siberia. This most beautiful countryside with large steppes, high mountains covered with forests, many rivers and lakes, is the size of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland put together. It has a population of around 300,000, mainly Tuvins – nomadic people who live in tents called ‘yurts’.

Ruins

The people breed horses, sheep and cattle, and previously lived quite well from the sale of their livestock. However, now the economy is in ruins, and everywhere one sees signs of poverty, drunkenness, and people trying to exist on extremely low incomes, many of whom have no work at all.
Two elderly women in Sumarokovo with their new Bibles
People are exhausted, not knowing where to turn for help. This lack of direction is accompanied by debauchery and drunkenness, and inevitably too, by a serious growth in crime. In the Tuva Republic there are three state prisons, and several detention centres for younger offenders. All of these are full to overflowing. The team was able to visit three prisons, two in Kyzyl and one in Shagonar. They were shocked at what they found:

Circumstances

“Conditions were indescribably bad. It is hard to convey in words the circumstances in which these people are existing. We shared the Good News with them and provided Scriptures to every convert,” said Anatoly Rudenko, Executive Director of the BSR.

“One of the prisoners, Michael, said to us: ‘Come to us again, you are so much needed here! Speak to us the Word of God. It will give us hope.’

“And that was not only the opinion of the prisoners. The lieutenant colonel in charge of education work in one of the prisons had worked in this field for 20 years. He told us: ‘Here one can survive only with God’s help.’

Replenish

“He explained that the prison has not enough room to separate the sick from the healthy prisoners. Also, there is not enough room for everyone to lie down, so that people have to sleep in shifts. There is a small Christian community, which has existed for the last two years, conducting services in a tiny room. We were able to distribute Scriptures, and to replenish their Christian library with new books; Bibles, a Bible Atlas and a Bible Encyclopaedia,” said Mr Rudenko.

“But however bad the conditions were in the adult prisons, we were even more shocked by what we saw at the orphanage in the village called Ust-Elegest, 30kms [18 miles] west of Tuva’s capital city, Kyzyl.

“When we went there with a couple of local Christians we found only a few sick children. They were lounging around, or lying in bed in this huge, unheated house, furnished sparsely with a few pieces of old furniture.”
Bible Society in Russia Executive Director, Anatoly Rudenko, with children who gave the team some freshly-caught fish as a thank-offering
The children told the team that the others had “gone for a walk”. The place they had walked to was 5kms away. The visitors drove there and discovered more than 50 children, mostly Tuvins, beside two nomadic tents on the banks of a fast-flowing river. All the children were poorly dressed – one was in shorts, even though the temperature was only 5ºC – and most had inadequate shoes, some practically barefoot. Then the team found out why the children went there every day: the nomads gave them some curd which helped them to survive.

Recited

When the team talked to the children several of them shared what they knew about God. One boy even recited the Lord’s Prayer which he had learned from missionaries who had visited them some five years ago.

When they were each given a beautiful Children’s Bible their joy was incredible. Although the orphans had something to eat they had nothing for their souls to feed on.

The team returned to Kyzyl and bought some pens, pencils and notebooks for the children to write and draw. The next day they visited the orphans again and the children showed them the drawings they had done in their notebooks. Most of them had tried to copy the pictures they saw in the Children’s Bibles.

“Some girls asked us to write something for them, some piece of poetry,” Mr Rudenko said. “At that moment I felt that whatever I wrote would probably be remembered for many years to come. I wrote: ‘The Bible says: God is love’.

“When we were about to leave, the children told us that somebody had stolen food from the orphanage’s warehouse. But they did not seem to pay much attention to this, and smiled at us happily, saying: ‘Thank you, our Russian uncle’.” (WR 347/4 - 01.00) [PHOTOS]

Scriptures Reach Chechnya Refugees

MOSCOW, Russia — The Bible Society in Russia (BSR) is continuing to provide Scriptures for distribution amongst refugees who have fled the brutality and wars that have torn Chechnya apart since the early nineties.

More than 15,000 Scriptures were sent recently to refugee camps in the North Caucasus by the BSR, coinciding with the arrival of yet another flood of people from Chechnya fleeing the most recent conflict between the Russian military and Chechen nationalists. The Scriptures will be distributed by missionaries working in the region.
  

At great personal risk, these Bible Society supporters brought comfort to besieged civilians.
However, the situation is sensitive, and Bible work amongst these newly-arrived refugees is not straightforward, as Anatoly Rudenko, BSR Executive Director, explained:

Suffering people

“The new wave of refugees consists mainly of Muslims and people who are not Christians, and some of them are families of those who now fight against the Russian troops,” he said. “Though the acceptance of the Good News by the new refugees is not guaranteed, we have asked the missionaries who distribute Bible Society books in the region to do their best to serve these suffering people as well.”

Although the latest war has brought the media spotlight back onto the plight of the refugees fleeing the Russian bombs, the suffering of Chechnya’s civilian population has been going on for much longer.

Crisis

The crisis first began when Chechen nationalists seized power in 1991, and declared independence from Russia. Ethnic cleansing seemed to be one of the motives when extremist guerilla groups began a reign of terror, committing atrocities against the civilian population. They took hostages, selling them as slaves or demanding ransom for them. People were beaten, tortured and murdered in their thousands. Today, more than 1,000 people are still missing.

Exodus

The exodus of both Russians and Chechens, many of them Christians, soon began. By 1996, at the end of the first war between Russia and Chechen separatists, more than half a million people – half of Chechnya’s population – had fled to other parts of the Russian federation, and to neighbouring republics.
 
They took hostages, selling them as slaves or demanding ransom for them. People were beaten, tortured and murdered.

A 20-ton railway container, loaded with Bible Society Scriptures on their way to Georgia from the BSR, was also seized by extremists around this time. It has never been traced.

Scripture distribution to people affected by the crisis in Chechnya has been going on for the past five years. In 1995-6 the BSR undertook a distribution project, working through local Christians in Grozny and other towns throughout Chechnya. At great personal risk, these Bible Society supporters brought comfort to besieged civilians by distributing more than 16,000 New Testaments and Children’s Bibles.

Escalating

Scriptures were also given to Russian and Chechen troops on opposing sides, while some were sent to refugees who had already fled the escalating violence. (Please see World Report 322, page 6, for a full report.)
After 1996, with the withdrawal of Russian troops, all Bible Society activity inside Chechnya stopped. Those Christians who chose to remain were persecuted by extremists, and it became too dangerous to openly distribute Scriptures.

According to UBS Translation Consultant, Simon Crisp, a translation team formed through a joint venture between the UBS, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the International Bible Translators, was also forced to leave Chechnya, abandoning work on a translation of the New Testament into Chechen. They had just completed Luke’s Gospel.

Bible work

However, Bible work amongst the refugees continued, and in 1997-8 nearly 6,000 Bible Society Scriptures were distributed in camps in Ingushetia and other areas by partners of the BSR.
Hungarian Baptist Aid (HBAid) is one of the organisations working in refugee camps, handing out material relief as well as Scriptures.

They have recently begun a Bible program among refugee children, taking them on holiday to the Black Sea, and teaching them about the Bible. Each child received a Children’s Bible, and the program was so successful that there are plans to do the same next year.

Christmas season

In the meantime, HBAid is concentrating on making the fast-approaching Christmas season as pleasant as possible for the refugees. “We are preparing to hand out 5,000 Christmas parcels in the refugee camps in Ingushetia, mostly for children, and we hope to include a Scripture or a Children’s Bible in each package,” said the Rev Sandor Szenczy, HBAid Director.

Outlook

With no sign of a peaceful solution in Chechnya, and with the prospect of a harsh winter, the outlook for the refugees, and for civilians still trapped inside its borders, is grim. But it is hoped that the people who receive Scriptures will find some comfort as they read the Bible’s promise of the hope in Jesus Christ. (WR 347/5 - 01.00) [PHOTOS]

‘Christ’s Words Became Reality’

For eight weeks Bible Society staff worked 
in the camps alongside churches and humanitarian 
agencies to help the despairing travellers

TIRANA, Albania — At the end of March, refugees fleeing at gunpoint from Serbian ethnic cleansing in Kosovo poured out across the borders of the region. They went west by the thousand into Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina and south into Macedonia. But by far the majority fled south-west into Albania.

Though ill-prepared for the influx, the Albanian people welcomed the refugees, putting them up in schools and other public buildings, in private homes and in hastily-erected ‘tent cities’. On Easter Sunday, April 4, more than 200,000 refugees had crossed the border. By early June the figure stood at more than 440,000 and the final number is reckoned to have swelled Albania’s population by ten per cent.

Many of the refugee camps sprang up close to the Albanian capital, Tirana. The response of the General Secretary of the Interconfessional Bible Society of Albania (IBSA), Altin Hysi, was to shut the Society’s offices. For eight weeks he deputed staff to work in the camps alongside members of local churches and humanitarian agencies, helping to set up the facilities which would provide the despairing travellers with food, water, shelter and medical care.

Although the vast majority of the refugees were Muslims, says Mr Hysi, Christians found that, by offering practical help with sensitivity, they could build relationships with them.

 “They [the Christians] did not appear to the refugees as people who wanted to take advantage of the situation and so it was possible to share their faith and distribute Scripture,” he says.

“By serving and sharing their faith, the churches showed all the refugees that Christ is not Serb or Albanian or anything else. He is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. Through loving the refugees, the Christians made known to them the one who reconciles us with God and makes it possible for the people to be reconciled with each other.”

Through being directly involved in relief work he personally saw his faith being put into practice more than at any other time before. “In those days I saw Scripture and the things Christ says becoming reality,” he says.

NATO troops moved into Kosovo on June 12, and within a week camps began to empty. The Kosovar refugees, ignoring United Nations warnings that their safety could not be guaranteed, were determined to return home. By then the offices of the IBSA were open again and, with help from the churches, distribution work was resumed.

At the end of the crisis the Society received 11,250 copies of the International Bible Society publication My First Bible, and these have now been distributed. Now distribution is concentrating on some 10,000 copies of a special Portion published by the Italian Bible Society, which uses the Filipaj translation of the Bible.

Attractive

Mr Hysi said that this translation is both modern and accessible, and the IBSA is hoping to publish the whole Bible in the near future. Mr Hysi is also planning to produce the New Testament on audio-cassette. By using dramatisation, and having a well-known actor do the readings, he hopes to make it an attractive product for many people in Albania.

Meanwhile, the refugees who left Albania in June to find their homes pillaged and burnt by the Serbs are set to spend the winter months in the bitter cold with little more than the barest shelter.

In July Mr Hysi and a team of Christians made the journey to Kosovo with a family of Christian refugees who had been sheltered in a church in Tirana. Isuf and his wife discovered that their house had virtually been demolished. Only the walls remained standing. They apologised for only being able to offer their visitors hospitality in the garden. 

Many people are open to the Gospel, and Christians and churches in Kosovo are desperate for Scriptures.


Fitting roofs, doors and windows to make the ruin into some kind of shelter by the arrival of winter in December will present them with an enormous task. Media reports agree that, despite a high-profile humanitarian effort, shelter material and fuel are hard to come by.

Resigned

Many former refugees are resigned to moving to the capital, Pristina, to spend the winter with relatives. Others, like Isuf and his family, prefer to sit it out amid the ruins of their homes and villages. To many, it seems as though the refugees have swapped one set of makeshift shelters for another. However, many people are open to the Gospel, and Christians and churches in Kosovo are desperate for Scriptures. (WR 347/6 - 01.00) [PHOTOS]

‘Great to Have the New Testament in Our Language’

ISTANBUL, Turkey — “When writers and politicians visit the book fairs, they visit our stand too,” said Behnan Konutgan in a report on this year’s Tüyap Book Fair held in Istanbul. Dr Server Tanilli, the renowned scientist and author, opened the fair, held in the first two weeks of November. 
“I found out that my ancestors killed many Assyrian Christians. On their behalf I am sorry.”
Dr Tanilli returned for the opening of the fair from France where he is based. Eighteen years ago, while Professor of Science at Istanbul University, Dr Tanilli was shot in both legs by a group of radical nationalists, and he moved abroad permanently.

Well-known

He was not the only well-known figure to visit the Bible stand. Mustafa Tasar, the Minister of State, took a long look at the Scriptures on display. He was presented with a Bible which he gladly accepted. Another Bible was given to the well- known writer and television producer Can Dündar, who praised the work of the Bible Society.

Talking

“It’s great to have the New Testament in our language,” he said, and spent some time talking with staff about the work of the Society.
 
“We embraced him and happily gave him a copy of the Kurdish New Testament. He left our stand happy.”

The Scripture Calendar for the year 2000 was ready for this fair: 30,000 copies have been printed and some 3,000 were distributed to people passing the Bible Society stand. Some 1,200 Scripture cassettes were distributed; 60 copies of the Jesus film, several hundred Portions, 1,000 New Testaments and 142 Bibles also went over the two-week period.

On the first day of the fair a young man noticed the Kurdish New Testament on the stand and asked the meaning of the word ‘Mizgini’. He was told that it means ‘good news’ in Kurdish. One of the Society staff explained: “God always has good news for people. He loves them, cares for them and wants to bless them.”

The young man replied in a low voice: “I am a Kurd, from the east of Turkey. I am a lawyer and live in Istanbul. I found out that my ancestors killed many Assyrian Christians. On their behalf I am sorry. Please forgive us.”

“We told him that we loved him and had already forgiven the Kurds for this – according to the teachings of Christ,” writes Mr Konutgan. “Then we embraced him and happily gave him a copy of the Kurdish New Testament. He left our stand happy.”

Happy

On another occasion a happy-looking man came to the Bible stand and greeted everyone. Then he explained his enthusiasm:  “Some years ago, I came to the Tüyap Book Fair and bought a New Testament from your stand,” he said. “I started reading it. The more I read, the more I learned about the personality of Christ. A time came when I found myself on my knees in prayer: then I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. “Now I am a full-time worker in the service of the Lord, and I am a member of an Evangelical church here in Istanbul.”

He was so grateful to the Bible Society for having courageously made the Scriptures available at book fairs. He wished the staff God’s blessing. A teacher of literature came to the Bible Society stand with his students. He asked for a Bible to put in his school library and was given one.

Gathered

There were other students who came, asking for information about the Bible. One day, students from the Zapyon Greek High School, the Armenian Sahakyan High School and two other schools – Kadiköy Aramyan and Esseyan – gathered round the Bible stand. Each student received a Scripture Portion. The students and their teachers thanked the staff for their generosity. 
He was grateful to the Bible Society for courageously making the Scriptures available at book fairs.
A writer came looking for material for the children’s stories she is compiling. Nuran Turan prepares children’s books for the Ministry of Culture. She was shown the wealth of stories that are in the Bible and was happy to accept a copy, saying that she intended to use material from it in future books.

The mayor of Midyat came to the Bible stand and introduced himself. Midyat used to have many Syrian Christian residents and is well known for its old monasteries and churches. “I miss the good relationship we used to have with the Syrian Christian community,” he told staff and shook their hands, congratulating them on the display of Christian books.

“This year’s fair was a good experience,” said Mr Konutgan. “People did not come to argue with us but to ask genuine questions and gather information about the Bible. “Many people in Turkey do not know the truth about Christianity or the Bible or have been misled. So we try to inform people and tell them the truth about Jesus. We had many opportunities to talk about our faith this time.
 
‘People did not come to argue with us but to ask us questions.’

“We were always ready to offer an explanation in a friendly and loving way, even to our fellow book sellers and dealers who come to greet us at the fair, some placing orders, some settling their accounts,” he added.

As previously, the Bible stand at this year’s fair was organised as a joint venture. Hope Mission and Campus Crusade for Christ shared the management and costs of the Bible stand. (WR 347/7 - 01.00)

Sharing a Practical Gospel

The following two articles show Christian volunteers 
using their skills to help Turkish earthquake victims

READING, England — Once a disaster disappears from the news, it is easy to forget the pain and suffering it has caused, or the very real need for practical help and aid from overseas. In the wake of the first terrible earthquake, which caused so much damage and loss of life in Turkey, many Christians have been moved by compassion to ask, “How can I help?” That was the question former UBS Photo-librarian Rachel Penney had asked last October.

“We both felt this incredible stirring from deep inside. We knew it was God and that he was saying, ‘This is not about giving money. I want you to do something for me.’”

Now the mother of two boys, Rachel was sitting in the garden with her husband, Peter, having just listened to a relative describing what he had witnessed in the disaster area. They felt compassion for the people who were suffering, but what could they do to help? Then they felt God asking them to give of themselves. And that is how the Penneys ended up forming a 12-strong party to work for one week in November, at the very epicentre of the first quake, Izmit.

Manpower

“We both felt this incredible stirring from deep inside,” said Mrs Penney. “I can’t explain it except to say that we knew it was God and that he was saying, ‘This is not about giving money. I want you to do something for me.’”

The Penneys soon found out exactly what they could do: manpower and expertise were desperately needed. They gathered a team of eight friends from their church as volunteers, plus another couple who had a long experience of working in Turkey.

The team flew to Istanbul at the end of November and spent a week working in a camp being set up by the US-based Christian relief agency World Relief.

Aftermath

The local Christian churches were soon in the forefront of practical aid in the aftermath of the first quake. (Please see World Report October 1999, 344/25 and World Report November 1999, 345/8.) The Bible Society is currently distributing 100,000 Selections encouraging people to seek comfort in the Bible.

Ameniel Bagdas, Executive Secretary of the Bible Society in Turkey, has been actively involved in co-ordinating relief work through the Christian Committee for Disaster Relief.

But there is a limit to what the local churches can do, and many churches abroad have organised help which aims at re-housing the victims of the quakes so that they will not be homeless as winter sets in.

The camp where the Penneys went is set on an acre of hillside. It was scheduled to hold 280 blue steel containers, each of which had windows and a room divider, and these would provide shelter for a family throughout the winter – and even beyond.

“A typical family might consist of a widow and five children,” said Mrs Penney. “Izmit is a huge place and in some areas life is going on fairly normally. But since the earthquake, 40 per cent of the population has left – the economy has been badly hit and a lot of the men have gone off elsewhere in search of work.”

Final stages

The team found the camp in the final stages of preparation, and they were assigned a variety of tasks – one, a waste engineer by profession, was responsible for installing a sewerage system. Others prepared bases for more containers, or built and fitted porches to them, making wooden frames to which they stapled plastic sheeting. Yet others helped in a clinic which was part of the camp, or worked in the kitchen preparing meals for the rest of the workforce.

They were part of an international community of volunteers who had come in teams, in pairs or simply on their own, offering their help. “Although the volunteers stayed for different lengths of time, the number stayed remarkably steady at around 50,” said Mrs Penney.

With the camp due to open shortly after their departure, members of the team had little or no time for contact with the local people.

Limited

“There were some Turkish and Kurdish families there, but our contact was limited,” said Mrs Penney. “We were working hard from 7.30am until 4.30pm and then there was the language barrier. In the odd spare hour we used to find a few children and play football with them.”

Members of the team also went to tent cities in other parts of Izmit where they handed out children’s toys which they had brought with them from England.

Distractions

Some questioned the handing out of toys to people who lacked the basic necessities of life. “But the children also needed distractions and they received them really happily,” she said. The Gospel had to be lived out rather than preached openly.

The highlight of the trip for Mrs Penney was worshipping at a little Christian church in Izmit. There is an application for the church to be officially registered, and this would mean that local people would be more eager to attend.
Meanwhile, back in England, some members of the team from Reading are already planning to undertake further periods of service in Turkey: the waste engineer is hoping to spend up to three months helping prepare another new camp and the Penneys, too, think they may well return.

Tiny link

“Our week there was just a tiny link in the chain of what God is doing,” said Mrs Penney. “He has brought Christian people from all round the world to work in Christian- sponsored camps in a country where Christianity is viewed with suspicion and sometimes hostility. The Christian churches have suffered there, but God is moving to give them new recognition.” (WR 347/8 - 01.00)

Life After the Losses

IZMIT, Turkey — The following extract from a letter offers another example of the living Gospel. A group of Christians are helping and encouraging people who have lost limbs in the quake. Richard (name changed) helps to prepare people who will be given prosthetic limbs.

“We were able to visit four of the patients who have attended the centre. The one young man who had lost an arm was so delighted to see us, and so were his mother and father. I don’t think they have had visits from anyone else except their close relatives.

“It was great to hear that he has a New Testament he was given in Izmit and that he is reading it. He has a really positive attitude – I hope we can get him fitted soon.

“We visited another lady who not only lost a leg in the quake, but lost her dear 18-year-old daughter and her lovely 16-year-old son. She is devastated. She said she no longer believes there is a God. She lets her anger out by hitting out with her crutch against the walls of her pre-fabricated shelter.

“Her husband serves her night and day, and he has drawn into himself: he won’t talk with any of us much. So we need to pray for him and get him to talk. I hope to go back to visit him soon.

“Two of our group visited another lady briefly and then we all went to visit a young lady from Golcuk who has moved up the mountain to a village. They helped her to go through her exercise pattern, while I sat with a couple of the men in the next room. The power was out so we talked for about an hour by candlelight.

“We had ample opportunities to talk about the Gospel, and in different places. We simply have to trust God for His timing in saying more. It is so good to simply let the love of Christ pour over to these hurting friends.”

The opportunities for sharing the Bible’s message with people are not always obvious, but the possibility to reach out with practical help is often the only way of demonstrating that God does care for people and love them. The above are just two examples of the church in action which may open many more doors for the distribution of Bibles. (WR 347/9 - 01.00)

Bible Creates a Stir at Book Fair

ANTALYA, Turkey — The Bible attracted considerable attention during the first book fair to be held in this city in south-west Turkey. Some visitors to the Bible Society stand had never seen a Bible or New Testament before; others wanted to know more about the message of the Gospel, reports the Bible Society in Turkey (BST).

Some of the visitors were glad to see 
Scriptures being sold so openly to the public, 
while others were not so accepting.

The fair, which was opened on September 28 by the Mayor, Dr Bekir Kumbul, provided the BST with the opportunity to share the Word of God with people from a diversity of backgrounds. After the opening, Dr Kumbul visited the stand and welcomed the Bible Society, and their partners, Hope Mission and Campus Crusade, to Antalya. He looked at the Scriptures, and was pleased to receive a Bible as a gift.

Questions

Apart from locals, there were exhibitors and visitors from Pakistan, Ethiopia, Iran and Uzbekistan. Many visited the Bible Society stand with questions. Some had never heard of the Bible Society, and wanted to know why Bibles and Scriptures were the only books on display.

Mission

Staff explained the work of the Society, and its mission to share the Word of God. Some of the visitors were glad to see Scriptures being sold so openly to the public, while others were not so accepting. One day, a policeman came to the stand, and asked how they had got permission to sell Bibles. He was shown the Bible Society documents which allow it to trade as an official company. Appeased, he looked at the Scriptures. One member of staff asked him if he had a New Testament. He said he did have one, and left.

How many

Other visitors came to the stand wanting to know if the message of the Gospel was true, and how many Gospels there were. They also asked staff to explain the second coming of Christ.

One lady picked up a New Testament and began to read it. Coming across a verse about divorce, she was confused and asked for an explanation. When she heard that the Bible says marriage is a holy contract ordained by God and there is no room for divorce, she bought a New Testament and asked for the address of a church in Antalya.

Start reading

Another lady came to the stand, saying that she had never read the Bible before, and that she was not a Christian. She spoke for a while with those manning the stand, and when she left, she said she was going to start reading the Bible. The fair was a great success – as well as answering questions about the Word of God and the work of the Bible Society, the BST sold and distributed 49 Bibles, 209 New Testaments, 8,000 Selections, 787 Portions and 235 videos. (WR 347/10 - 01.00) [PHOTOS]

Scottish Members of Parliament 
Reminded of the Bible Message

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Members of the new Scottish Parliament (MSPs) were invited to a reception hosted by the National Bible Society of Scotland (NBSS) on November 24. The purpose of the reception was to make MSPs aware of the importance of the Bible and its message of morality for today. 
 
“Some argue that religion is a private matter, but private moral lapses so often have public consequences.”
Neil McTaggart, Chairperson of the NBSS, said that truth, justice and honesty were as important today as they had been when God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments. “Some argue that religion is a private matter, but private moral lapses so often have public consequences,” said Mr McTaggart.

Referring to the many ordinary people in China who are having a marked effect upon their social environment because of their Christian way of living, he said: “Over 22 million Bibles have been printed and distributed in China in the past 12 years, with the help of the Bible Societies. The responsible lifestyle of grass-roots Christians is, I believe, a direct outcome.”

Among the 22 MSPs who attended was First Minister Donald Dewar. Each MSP was given the choice of a new Bible, and many chose the Good News Bible with the dust jacket featuring the new Parliament’s own tartan pattern and carrying a message from Lord Mackay of Clashfern, former Lord Chancellor, and now President of the NBSS.

Generations

He writes: “Many generations of Scots have found the Bible a light to show them how to live. For those who fail – and who does not? – it has the Good News of forgiveness and restoration through Jesus Christ. I heartily recommend it for daily reading.”

Glasgow MSP Dorothy-Grace Elder echoed the appreciation of her colleagues for the work of the NBSS, and she drew her colleagues’ attention to the efforts of the Bible Society in Russia on behalf of disadvantaged children. She had seen the work there with her own eyes while on a visit to the towns of St Petersburg and Pushkin.

Scrambling

The MSPs were also shown the video footage of Russian MPs scrambling for Bibles during the first distribution made there in 1991 just after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. Colin Hay, NBSS Director of Programs, reminded those present of the freedom they enjoyed to obtain and read God’s Word, and urged them to remember that the millennium celebrations were about Jesus Christ who has had such an influence on one third of the world’s population. (WR 347/11 - 01.00)
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