Suzy recently visited Central Eurasia with a team of Chi Alpha students.  She is of Egyptian origin and loves to sing.

This spring break, I was extremely blessed to go on a mission trip to Turkey that turned out to be one of the most impactful experiences of my life, particularly when talking with refugees in Istanbul. Because I speak Arabic, I knew that this was something God really wanted me to do when I was there. These people are in the midst of a country that doesn’t really want them there and isn’t able to communicate with them, so I at least wanted to talk to them, even if it wasn’t necessarily about the gospel. I wanted to show them the love of Jesus.

On our treasure hunt, we had two different refugee encounters. The first one absolutely broke my heart. A middle aged Muslim woman, Iman, and her daughter Diana sat in front of a grocery store gathering a bag of leaves to eat. There were three other children begging in the same area. Before coming to Turkey, begging children were a distant, sad concept to me. Iman told me she has no job and no house. Her husband is still in Syria, where he somehow had his hands cut off in the midst of the war. She just wanted someone to talk to her. I even tried to get up at one point, and she asked me to please sit with her a little longer.

Seeds of Peace

I felt led to share the story of Abraham with her. I knew she would be familiar with him because of the stories in the Koran, so I wanted to talk about something she could relate with. I talked about how Abraham was a nomad wandering from place to place with no end in sight, but because He had faith in God, he had peace about his situation. I told her that I believe Jesus is God. I told her that all the evil that is happening in her country is because of sin in the world, and no human can ever be good enough to make up for it. That’s why Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins. He is perfect and He loved us enough to die for us.

After that, I asked her if I could pray for her in the name of Jesus. She nodded yes, as she had throughout most of what I had said, without really saying anything in response. I asked her if there was anything specific that she wanted prayer for, and she simply said to pray from my heart. I realize that it is very rare for someone to leave his or her religion behind after one conversation.

She probably didn’t understand a lot of it. However, I realized that on a short-term trip you can plant seeds, shower people with God’s love, and pray that the Holy Spirit nurtures it.