We work with Elmas, Tulin and team "Antakya Mesihçiler Church.” They provide food goods, milk, eggs, cheese, chicken and healthy snacks to very poor Turkish children who live local to the church, and to some Syrian refugee children.
Our ministry to Syrian refugees living in the fields in southern Turkey was paused during the pandemic and ceased after the pandemic as we found that all the refugees we were helping had moved away -either back to Syria to a ‘safe zone’ created by Turkiye; or into various cities in Turkiye. During and immediately after the pandemic we continued to help about 100 families with food relief. However, because of incredible inflation in Turkey since December 2021 and because donations have decreased, we have only been able to help 30 extremely needy families. These are a mixture of Syrian refugee families and extremely poor Turkish families.
We distribute whatever God puts in our hands to give, which normally is a monthly sack of staple food goods, and when possible we bless the children with a healthy snack and milk. Each food sack holds 1 kg each of rice, ashure wheat, lentils, coarse bulgur, beans, sugar, 500 gm olives, 500 gm macaroni, 750 gm salt, 1 large tin tomato paste, 400 gm tea, 1 litre oil, 4 bars hand soap and when requested, sanitary pads for the women. As God provides we also distribute clothing and other items like cleaning supplies, eggs, cheese, chicken and if possible healthy breakfast foods.
Along with the food we share, we are always planting seeds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their wee lives so that in future these children will remember Christians and Christianity positively. Our prayer is that each of them comes to know Jesus as their personal Saviour and Lord! Each family is personally involved with us and has had the Good News shared with them over and over. Some have risen to the challenge of writing out the New Testament. Some of those have already finished this and carried on to writing out chosen Old Testament portions. We want to touch their hearts with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We are very thankful to High5Give5 for their part in supplying funding so that we can give food relief and healthy snacks to the children, and to encourage them to consider the claims of Jesus Christ on their lives. We also want to promote much prayer for these people, and would be pleased to communicate regular prayer requests to you.
