2007 Annual Report

Street evangelism

A committed and enthusiastic team from various churches and ministries, both foreign and Turkish, hit the streets weekly to share their faith and to offer opportunities for the Bible Correspondence Course. Several people have made professions of faith, been baptized and have begun attending a local church near them as a result of our outreaches.

The team usually goes to a different part of Istanbul each week. When the weather is good and the right people present, we use sketchboard presentations, mimes or whatever else can draw a crowd, then preach the gospel to them. These are exciting outreaches and typify the BCC’s goal of evangelising “creatively and courageously.”

January is also the month when we host a special evangelistic event. In 2007, we coordinated a two week evangelistic campaign with two partner churches in handing out approximately 35,000 calendars, with a schedule for evening outreach events at the churches. This was very successful with a team of about 12 distributing the calendars and having open air events throughout the 2 weeks. One family was very touched:

On the first day of our Istanbul outreach Adnan* received an invitation to the local church’s evangelistic meetings. When he came to the first night’s event, a Jesus film showing, he was so moved that he stayed up reading the Christian literature he had received until two o’clock the next morning. As he began coming to each evening’s event, we could already see him changing from an angry old man to a smiling, happy new person.

Two nights later, however, something very unexpected occurred: his wife, daughter and her boyfriend walked into the church! As it turns out, one of our team had put a few church invitations under the front door of their apartment building, Adnan’s wife picked one up and decided to come to the concert at the church, not knowing that her husband would also be there!

We soon understood their amazement and joy: this was the first time in 15 years that they had ever been out as a family together. “This is a miracle that has really impacted me,” said a volunteer helping from another Istanbul church who spent much time talking with them. “These sort of things just don’t happen like this here.”

Adnan*, his wife, daughter and boyfriend ended up coming to many of the week’s meetings. Since then, we have learned that his wife and daughter have made clear professions of faith, and that Adnan* himself is very close although he wants to finish reading the New Testament before making a decision. The wife and daughter have been attending the church regularly since, and the wife has recently decided that she wants to be baptized.”

Pray

• For enough personnel to increase evangelistic outreach to two days per week in Istanbul.
• For the expansıon of training and outreach to two more cities in 2008!
• For fruit from the January 2008 outreach - please pray God would water the seeds sown.
  

BCC on the 'Net

2000 was a record year for the internet outreach of the BCC. We had over 450,000 unique visitors to our websites. Of all the very many articles we have online the one that was read most often is titled “What should I do to become a Christian?” This article alone was read 17,000 times! We praise God for these numbers which reflect the curiosity and spiritual hunger that exists in Turkey today.

“Do you want to chat with a Christian?”

From our website it is possible to chat one-on-one with a Christian. One of our chat operators, Murat, reports “One man received a Bible from us 6 or 7 years ago. He was very touched by what he read but because there were no Christians meeting in his city he kept his interest secret. This year he discovered our chat and I was able to explain a lot more about Jesus and encourage him. He now wants to be baptised. Another lady is a local TV presenter. She was intrigued by Christian worship and as a result says she wants to become a Christian. I gave her the address of the local church.” Throughout the year there were over 2,000 separate ‘chat’ conversations.

In early 2008 we will be re-launching our English language website for those wishing to pray for the work of the BCC. From this new web-site you will be able to get up to date information, read testimonies and find links to other news relating to the work in Turkey. Why not have a look at www.bccturkey.org and tell us what you think?

Pray

• That the evangelistic videos we will be posting on YouTube in 2008 will bring fruit.
• For more chat operators to be involved in Internet evangelism.
• The Internet is a great "net" for finding contacts - but please pray that many would carry on to do a course.
  

Advertising

Advertising in the media has easily been the most effective means of finding Turks around the country who are interested in the gospel, Bible or Jesus Christ. Newspaper and magazine advertising had been the key means to find seekers for almost 20 years. With the advent of the internet, web based advertising has now become the main response mechanism for interested enquirers. Newspapers continue to reach people, such as the less educated or those in isolated areas, that cannot be reached by the internet. They also result in more long term contacts. But the internet is here to stay and we are so encouraged by how God is using it.

Due to increased giving for internet advertising, the BCC had 19,617 initial contacts in 2007 – and more than 85% of them were as a result of web based evangelism.

	Have you ever read the New Testament? Don’t lose this introductory opportunity to receive it together with a two hour film on the life of Christ!
	“Benim Adim Kadin” (“My Name Is Woman” – offering a book on God’s view of women.) “Would you like our free book?”
	(On a horoscope website) Do you want to understand dreams that come from God? Request our free book.

Pray

• An increase in the number of students who remain beyond their initial interest. In 2007, only 3.1% of our students completed the course they were sent. This percentage drops annually - this is our number one prayer request! Ask God too what changes we could make to ensure continuity.
  

Personnel

When we first moved into our current facilities five years ago, we were worried that it was too big for our needs - now we can barely fit into it! The two main office rooms have five desks in each one, and most of them are full on any given day.

Our Leadership team experienced some transition this year but God is always faithful to supply our needs and most departments are covered. We are grateful for our full-time local staff. We rejoice in the many volunteers who come to help with bookkeeping, data entry, materials management and hosting office guests and short term teams.

A special word of praise goes to the “Thursday team” – a group of ever changing volunteers who come in every Thursday to pack and post the materials going to the course students who wrote in the previous week. They had many weeks in 2007 where they prepared more than 800 packages!

Life in Turkey is often hard for Turkish believers; they struggle to find jobs, and the jobs that they do find often pay very poorly, with long work hours and harsh working conditions. Not surprisingly, few Turkish Christians have time to help their church beyond weekly attendance. Therefore, we are thrilled that some Turkish believers in Istanbul volunteer their time to help at the BCC.

One example is Abdullah. He’s been a believer for over 20 years, and now works night shifts as a security guard for a hospital. As often as possible, though, he’ll come to our office on his way to or from work, and help by chatting online with our website visitors, or—what he loves to do most—joining our weekly street evangelism team. He often replenishes his supply of tracts and booklets from our storeroom because he gives away Christian literature to people he meets wherever he goes.

Pray

• A Turkish manager for our internet ministries. We need someone who can maintain our websites and generate timely articles on current topics for the web.
• More Turkish believers who would be willing to follow up contacts in their region or on the web.

Follow-up and "Road-Shows"

Fruit from the BCC is not as much a result of what happens in the office but the fruit of the caring, prayerful follow-up of more than 100 individuals and churches. Courses are graded and students are followed up by those in their same geographical regions. One of our goals for 2007 was to strengthen the partnership with our coworkers in our follow-up network. This is done in “road shows” around the country as our co-workers are encouraged and equipped in follow-up. We also receive much valuable advice and input on how we can serve them better.

We find that many of the church plants or tiny fellowships face similar problems. Sometimes it is pressure from the outside in the from of problems with the police, threats or even physical attacks. Sometimes it is disunity among the believers. With very few exceptions they all need a lot of encouragement not to lose the vision for outreach, trying out new methods and taking the risk of boldly following up the many enquirers and seekers.

We are blessed by the number of brothers and sisters who are bold in outreach and eager to improve their ministry to course students. 2007 has been a difficult year for our follow up network with the brutal murders of our brothers in April (who were responsible for five provinces for followup) and also the persecution of Hakan and Turan (whose courtcase still is continuing) and who also have been courageous coworkers of ours. These events have had a negative impact on all of our coworkers but in spite of this, some have continued their ministry in a bold way.

Many churches and church planting teams rely on the BCC to get in contact with seekers and enquirers. Though many are not sincerely interested, among the thousands who contact us there are still many genuine seekers among them. In 2008 we are introducing “e-coaching” in order to shepherd enquirers who find us via the internet into becoming true seekers. This will require more volunteers to help – and you to pray for them!

Pray

• that our follow up partners would be faithful in following up contacts even though many are not serious seekers.
• that no true seeker will "fall through the cracks" and that God will raise up "e-coaches" to help with this.
• that the "road shows" in 2008 would be a great encouragement to our partners.

TACO

TACO was an early expression of the “creative and courageous” outreach ministry of the BCC. It continues in that function though now as a separate ministry team that travels not only within Turkey but to other Muslim countries as well.

In 2007, TACO led seven different tours and also facilitated a creative arts camp for Turkish believers that was a great success. Almost 400 people requested the BCC and we hope to continue to use this creative means of outreach to reach many Muslims who cannot be reached in any other way. We love testimonies like the one from Hatay province…

The Lord has truly used TACO & the BCC in our church. When we started the church in Antakya we started with 3 people. Now, most of the 30-40 people in our church have come to faith through the TACO events in our area – the rest have come through the Bible Correspondence Course! There are also believers in other surrounding cities and towns because of TACO and we continue to follow them up also.”

The members of our church use the TACO events as a chain. Those who come to our church by means of TACO are connected to others in the church. When they come to faith, they in turn, tell others who they meet and follow-up through the TACO events, sharing the gospel with them and they in turn then come to faith. A good example of this is a wonderful young believer in our church by the name of Ali. Four people who came to TACO events this year were followed up by Ali and have come to faith.”

With a life history marred by rejection, poverty and disillusionment, Haluk observed the practising Muslims in his neighbourhood while growing up in a small village. Haluk discovered that although acting righteous on the outside, the people continued to live in sin inwardly. In his teenage years he responded to an advertisement to receive a New Testament, but the New Testament was in old  Turkish and hard to understand. At the age of 17 or 18 he dropped his search for God and became a leftist and well educated in Marxism. Great emptiness remained in his soul. In 2001 Haluk and his family started attending  TACO concerts presented in their town. Through these events, reading his Bible, completing courses through the BCC and the follow-up received from the local Antakya church, Haluk came to know God and his family also took the step of faith when they witnessed the changes in his life. Haluk and his wife got baptised and found a new family amongst the believers. He is now a leader in the Antakya Church. Now in the center of Haluk’s family is Christ, peace and a reason to live!

Pray

• for fruit that remains!
• that follow-up form the events will be done faithfully  and thoroughly by local churches and sponsors.
• that more churches, church planters and national workers would recognise this ministry as a partner in reaching their communities with the Gospel.

Television follow-up

2007 was the second year of our partnership with Turk 7, Turkey’s first Christian television channel. But it also marked the beginning of a new partnership. ECTV (EurAsia Christian Television), the second Turkish Christian channel, decided in November 2007 to entrust the inquirers of some of their programmes to our follow-up network.

The response just from the last few weeks of the year seems very promising. We received about the same number of responses in one month from ECTV as we did from Turk 7 for the whole year. Compared to the flood of people who write in by internet, our television contacts are still a tiny number but we already can say that they are more sincerely interested. Of course, the total number is far too little to be representative but about 30% of the Turk 7 contacts have returned at least one course answer sheet to us.

For ECTV it is still too early to say but of the first 12 contacts that responded, we have already received answer sheets from two of them so it can be expected that this number will still increase.

The vast majority of those who phone in show very much interest in the gospel and some of them seem to be believers or at least close to a decision to follow Jesus. As ECTV’s programmes are directed more to a non-Christian audience, one would expect more negative responses but the number of threats, curses etc. is not unusually high.

“Ceviz Kabuğu” as noted (right) is a private TV station that broadcasts quite slandering talk shows against Christianity from time to time. It is interesting to note that even these types of programmes result in positive responses for the Bible Correspondence Course.

Pray

• for excellent contacts from both television stations.
• that God would turn to good any media exposure that Satan would intend for evil.
• for safety and protection at our office as contact details are more widely distributed.

Women and the BCC

A major goal for the last few years has been for more women to contact the BCC. In 2005, less than 15% of respondents were women and since then, we have made this one of our key prayer requests. One of the most exciting events of 2007 has been the fantastic increase in the number of women who have enrolled in the BCC. There are also far more women continuing on beyond the initial first contact with us. Why is this? Donors gave specifically to this project. YOU prayed. And God answered. Rejoice in what God is doing amongst Turkish women as you read the following testimonies:

“We had a phone call from a woman who lives in a town outside of Istanbul who had come to visit the city. She is well educated, a retired teacher from a wealthy family. However, since her marriage broke down, she found her life was empty. She read the Koran but could not find the answers she was looking for. She somehow received a New Testament and started to read it and realised immediately that this was what she was looking for. Then she was reading a newspaper and was surprised to see our Christian advertisement there. She cut it out and kept it in her wallet for over eight months. Again and again she thought about phoning us but she was afraid and remembered a lot of rumours she had heard about Christians. One night she had a dream about a man wearing a white dress who told her to follow him. She woke up and remembered the piece of paper, and phoned us, asking to meet us. We met and prayed with her. She chose to follow Jesus and thanked us for the newspaper advertisement.”

“Pınar Hanım is a retired nurse and lives on the edge of Istanbul. One day she phoned our office and said she had received scriptures three years before that she had given away to her friends and family. She saw Jesus several times in her dreams before she first contacted us. But now she wanted somebody to pray for her because of the difficulties in her marriage and her unfaithful husband who was cursing her faith in Christ. The next day two of the ladies from our office met her. They discovered that the police had arrested her for distributing the Bible but she remembered the verse that says she had to share her faith even if the authorities were against it. When we met her we could see she knew the Bible and believed in Jesus. When we met her a second time we explained about baptism and she said she wanted to be baptized. We invited her to come to church and we hope it will be possible to baptize her and she can continue to share her faith in her area.”

Pray

• that women would continue and be discipled in the BCC.
• that God would raise up Turkish Christian women to be e-coaches and other discplers for these women.
• for strength and wisdom for those women who attempt to follow Christ in difficult circumstances.

Persecution, Martyrdoms and Court Cases

What can be said about the last year when it comes to the subject of persecution in Turkey?! Over the past 1.5 years, there have been 5 murders/ martyrdoms, many attacks on individuals and churches and several disturbing court cases. Sadly, it is often people professing interest in the gospel, and occasionally BCC students, who are wielding the knives. The latest event was in December, 2007 when a supposed seeker, and former BCC student, attacked and stabbed a priest in Izmir. Salih, a former course student, and now a pastor and church planter in Eskisehir, had followed up this fellow and was one of those that was supposedly on his “hit” list. See the following links for key articles/videos regarding the current climate:

www.itnet.org

www.compassdirect.org

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10337900

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1053

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EpamcN3hYg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgxttwTsuU&feature=related

Hakan and Turan, local brothers who for years did follow up for the BCC, were arrested in 2006 for insulting Turkishness, reviling Islam and secretly compiling files on private citizens. This past July, even the state prosecutor called for their acquittal, declaring that no credible evidence had been produced against them. One judge has already resigned from the courtcase, due to threats.

The most prominent charge, “insulting Turkishness”, carries a maximum three-year sentence under the Turkish Penal Code’s article 301, which the European Union insists must be abolished or changed to meet EU membership standards. Several hundred intellectuals, including Turkish Nobel Laureate novelist Orhan Pamuk, have been charged under this law.

Much of the recent violence towards Christians has been attributed to “Valley of the Wolves Iraq” – a popular television series that is intentionally anti-Christian. Turkish believers have started a protest campaign against the series which has repeatedly dramatized popular misconceptions of the Turkish populace against missionaries, the Bible and the “proselytizing” of Muslims. In a thinly veiled reference to the Malatya murders, one episode even portrayed a teenage boy commissioned by a nationalist group to kill a Christian book publisher. Episodes in November implied Christian missionaries were enemies of society and guilty of links ranging from the sale of body parts to prostitution.

Pray

• God would protect His children. The perpetrator of the December incidents has been released for being "under age".
• Believers would stand firm in the face of persecution.
• Hakan and Turan's trial will finally be resolved in their favor, giving them freedom to continue public ministry.
  

“News from the East” — A report from the church in Samsun

We are using assorted methods to share the good news in our church but none is more effective than the Bible Correspondence Course. Many people are afraid to come to the church until they know Christ. But these people by means of the BCC are able to reach a level of maturity before they come to our church. They then come and it is a much easier transition to baptisim and church membership. One example of the people that God has sent our way through the BCC is Savas.

Savas

“I was born in Samsun, the oldest of 4 siblings. I attended university in 1975, which was a very chaotic and dark time in Turkey. I started my working life as an independent accountant and also married and had a son.

Six years ago as I started to approach my time to retire from my occupation, there were major world changes with the breaking up of the Soviet Union. These events caused me and many like me to feel lost and empty. In the end, I started a religious search. Up to that time I didn’t put much emphasis on religion and thought it was something that people used as a drug. I had once been a very religious Muslim who kept the fast during Ramadan, did the ritual prayers faithfully and went regularly to the mosque for special times of worship. But in spite of this, these religious activities were not doing anything for me spiritually. I did all these religious acts but they had no effect in changing my heart and also did not deal with my main problem – SIN. How could I save myself from drowning unless someone threw me a life preserver from the shore and drew me to safety?

But one day I saw an ad in the newspaper that offered to answer my questions and send books and cds on the life of Jesus Christ. Looking for answers, I contacted these people. Through doing the courses sent from the BCC, I understood that through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross we could be forgiven from our sins and be saved by God’s grace. Through doing the courses everything made sense and I came to understand these truths and became a follower of Jesus. I later met with the pastor of the Samsun Agape Church and started attending the meetings there. I now go regularly and through God’s grace I now long to live my life with Jesus Christ as my Lord and leader and have given my life for the purpose of consciously running to do his will for the rest of my life.

Pray

• the persecution that the Samsun church is experiencing would bring glory to her King.
• Savas would continue to grow in the Lord.
• Many provinces in the east have no resident Gospel witness. Please pray for local believers to move to outlying areas for the sake of church planting.
  

“Testimonies from the West”

Taner lives in Balikesir with his wife and child. Hasan, who follows up in the Balikesir area, first met him after he had done several courses of the BCC. After a time, he stopped writing and we lost contact. But God had other plans …

A few months later we met with another BCC student, Ozgur. Ozgur was in the hospital for an illness and while there met Taner who was also there, and in the same room, because of an illness. They spent long evenings talking together and the subject often turned to the Bible, Christianity and God. Because Ozgur was interested in such topics he contacted us after leaving the hospital. After the initial contact Ozgur came to meetings continually for 5-6 months. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and was baptized in our church.

Also in Balikesir was a brother by the name of Hasan who was contacted through the BCC. When we first met him he said he no longer wanted to live in this world and he had no hope left to live. The brothers in the Balikesir church took a deep interest in Hasan’s condition and spent lots of time encouraging him and sharing with him. Hasan eventually came to faith and was baptized. He has since returned to his hometown of Antakya to finish his education and after finishing his education is now waiting for a teaching assignment. Within a few months he will be a school teacher.”

This young man who was thinking of suicide is now a faithful follower of the Lord.

Of the hundred or so Christian meetings happening in Turkey, the majority of them are happening in the west of the country. Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul, as the largest metropolitan cities, have an increasing number of churches. At the same time, there are still many provinces that have no resident Christian witness at all.

Pray

• that every province in the west of Turkey would have at least one local church and that the church of Western Turkey would be a holy, worshipping Bride.
• that teams would be faithful in following up contacts
• that conferences, camps and seminars would equip the Body and be a source of unity.

New ventures

We could not be more excited about our new partnership with the producers of More Than Dreams, an excellent dramatization of five testimonies of Muslims who have come to Christ through a dream or a vision. One of the testimonies is that of Ali, a Turkish pastor in Ankara. We hope to distribute tens of thousands of these DVDs in 2008. We will have a designated website where those who would like more information can write in. We plan to do significant advertising in both newspapers and on the internet. Check out the English at www.morethandreams.org to read a synopsis of each of the testimonies.

Zeynep is a course student who lives in Konya. She is a fourth year medical student but is consumed by fear and anger, a condition for which she is on medication. She wrote us to say that she needed help and wanted to be free of these things. Pervin, a Turkish believer with a master’s in Biblical counselling, phoned her up and worked with her over the phone. Pervin will maintain the relationship.

Because of the BCC’s need to disciple those who are unable to be involved in local churches, we have begun a ‘counselling service’ for course students like Zeynep who don’t know where to turn. We see many course students who struggle with anger, fear or insecurity. For those not yet believers, this counselling service will also be evangelistic.

For decades, the majority of students writing into the BCC have generally been ones who have already rejected Islam as a source of life and values. As the Turkish population gets more religious, we are looking for ways to engage them. We have recently produced a new course on the revelation of Jesus, not in the Bible, but in the Kor’an, as the One who is holy, has power over death and who knows the way to heaven. We have made ads for the booklet for both newspapers and the internet.

Pray

• that the "More Than Dreams" DVD would spark real revival in Turkey!
• that caring, compassionate counselling would result in more people turning to Christ and new belivers being effectively discipled.
• that the "Jesus in the Kor'an" book will encourage more religious Turks to investigate the claims of Jesus.

Who are we?

The Bible Correspondence Course (BCC) is one of the oldest ministries in Turkey, having started in 1962. The course is advertised through both newspaper advertisements and the internet, giving us access to provinces, towns and villages where there is no resident witness. We also use magazines, book fairs, radio and street evangelism to seek those who are searching for truth. Those who contact us receive an introductory course introducing them to the life of Christ, a New Testament, course coupons they can distribute to friends and information about the church nearest them. After the first course, they receive a list of books from which they can choose according to their interest. The student’s answers help us gauge their interest in spiritual things. Students are visited at any point in the course process when their interest appears serious, sometimes even before they have completed a course. To do this, we partner with over 100 local and foreign believers and churches around Turkey. Regular “road shows” brings training in follow up on the road, and our partners also give regular input and advice into the BCC in order to keep it relevant. A survey done several years ago identified that nearly half of the Muslim convert believers in Turkey had charted their spiritual pilgrimage through the Bible Correspondence Course.

Since 2006, we have been the primary follow up vehicle for evangelistic efforts on Turk-7, the first Christian television station in Turkey . In 2007, we began partnering in followup with ECTV, a newer television station and the first to broadcast 24 hours a day.

In order to reach the majority of the population who are ‘functionally illiterate’ we endeavor to use films such as the “Jesus film”, “God’s Story” and “More Than Dreams” as much as possible. All our materials are given out at no cost to those receiving them.

Many course students are hours away from the nearest Christian fellowship and so we offer more than 75 courses, as well as a telephone and internet discipleship by Turkish believers in Istanbul.

Please partner with us! Those interested in partnering financially may use the lınk on bccturkey.org for more information on giving within your country of residence.

Visit our website for partners at www.bccturkey.org. There you can receive current information, updates for prayer and other ways you can get involved. We are always delighted to receive partners who want to help for as little as a few days or as long as a few months… or years! There is much administration work involved in the BCC with which you can be involved. Come join us in street evangelism, packing and posting materials, and especially in prayer.