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“I was born in the province of Gaziantep into a classic Muslim family. We kept the fast of Ramadan, we prayed 5 times a day, and in the summer holidays we children were sent to the mosque and taught the Koran. While I was growing up, my family often watched foreign films on television where they would see people go to church. My parents would often say, "Look at these infidels, they are better than us." This thought stayed in my head even when I was older. When I was 15-16 years old, I was often wondering why I was a Muslim, and what would have happened if the French (who briefly occupied the area around Gaziantep after World War 1) had stayed--would I have been the son of a French person and then a Christian?
 As time passed, I drifted away from Islam. The prophet I was looking for didn’t live for himself but for my benefit and the benefit of mankind. I knew enough to know that Christ was the type of prophet I was searching for, and accepted this even though I still knew next to nothing about Christianity.
In time I did my military service and got married. Soon after that there was a bookfair in Gaziantep which had a Christian bookstand. During the fair an Islamic terrorist organization bombed the stand and one person was killed. This was enough to cut my ties with Islam permanently, for what kind of religion would attack another religion's holy book and must kill people?
At that same time I was reading the newspaper one Sunday morning at breakfast and saw an ad offering a free New Testament, and immediately ordered one and waited expectantly. When I returned home one evening a few weeks later, my wife said that an empty envelope had arrived for me. I immediately understood that this must be the package that I had ordered, since I knew no one in Istanbul. So I called and asked them to send another New Testament.
About one week later, I received a correspondence course and gospel of John but I was afraid to read it. I was fearful that I would do something wrong in reading it. Should I do some kind of ritual washing before reading it?
How was I supposed to hold it? I put it on the shelf and did nothing for two days, but while lying in my bed I heard a voice and was shocked. The voice said something to the effect of "Get up, the words you were so anxious to read are there and you refuse to read it!" All my fear left me and I read the whole gospel of John that night. It was that day that I met Jesus. It was God himself who showed this to me.
The business I was working at in Gaziantep closed, and I was without work. But a miracle happened and I was offered a job that paid much better. Since the job was in Antalya, a city many hours from Gaziantep, we moved there. In this new workplace I eventually became a manager responsible for 300 workers.
While there I became friends with an engineer who also worked in management there. While eating dinner one evening, this friend said, “I need to
confess something to you; Orhan, I'm a Christian. One day I received a course and New Testament after writing in response to an ad in the newspaper. These people directed me to a church in Istanbul and I continue to attend there when I am in Istanbul. I wanted to share this with you."
This was like a miracle. God secured this job for me so I could be among brothers and sisters who would help me grow in my faith. I became a member of the church in Antalya and eventually found a job in Israel. I called the correspondence course people in Istanbul to see if they knew any Christians in Israel who spoke Turkish, and they gave me an address through which God provided fellowship for me even there.
Eventually I returned to Antalya and in 2003 I moved to Samsun on the Black Sea Coast. My wife and I, along with one foreign family, prayed that there would be new believers and we waited. The Lord answered our prayers and through the Bible Correspondence Course we were able to meet and talk with many people. Today God has allowed our church to grow and I'm leading a church of 38 people in Samsun, half of whom came through the BCC. I am so indebted to the BCC but even more so to our Lord.”
“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations.”
Isaiah 42:6
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