Ferdi

We've been lamenting that Coronavirus means that our church, as in many parts of the world, cannot meet in-person currently. And like many other churches, we've been meeting virtually for our weekly prayer meeting and Sunday service. I've read some really good articles on what it is for the local church to meet together and how we long to be able to do that again (here's one). Meeting via Skype or Zoom, or livestreaming services, is just not the same. 

I'd like to tell you about Ferdi.*

Ferdi is a young man who lives in a city 80 miles away from our city but we count him as part of our church family. He started reading the Bible and researching Christianity on the Internet. His city has a population of nearly half a million people but there's no Turkish church there. Eventually he ended up in contact with the pastor of our church. When our pastor visited Ferdi's city, he met up with Ferdi. Ferdi has decided to follow Christ and a couple of months ago was baptised. 

But 80 miles is a long way and we are his nearest church. His circumstances mean that he isn't usually able to get to us for a Sunday service. In fact, his first church service with us was the one he was baptised at. When people from our church can, they go to visit cities like the one that Ferdi lives in so they can encourage any believers there. But our city has a population of 1.5 million and we're the only Turkish church in our city so we can't even keep up with the needs here. 

Last Sunday, as we all logged on to our devices and joined the call, nearly all of us were deeply saddened that the current situation means we were unable to be together in one place. Touch matters (between members of the same sex) in Turkish greetings - the women kiss, once on each cheek, while the men usually shake hands. But we waved hello instead. Some of our musicians led us in sung worship but singing in our separate living rooms clearly wasn't the same as lifting our voices in praise together. Our pastor prayed and preached to us but we felt the lack of being together. It was a meagre substitute. 

Yet while we were feeling the lack of church, Ferdi's experience was much closer to church than anything he usually has. Just as the rest of us joined our Sunday church Skype call from our homes, he joined in from his home. Security and technology constraints preclude us from livestreaming our normal Sunday services but last Sunday, he was able to be as much a part of the group as anybody else. Just like everyone else, he was able to sing along at home, to say amin to the prayer, and listen to our pastor preach, to talk briefly with everyone afterwards.

We can't wait until we can meet together again as the embodied local church. We know what we're missing out on. But we also remember that while we're meeting virtually in order to obey our leaders and love and protect our neighbour, trying to make the best of the situation in this sad and uncertain time, in terms of meeting as a church, this is a better-than-normal experience for Ferdi.

So as you look forward to meeting in-person with your church family again, will you pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ that have no local churches to attend? Will you pray that more churches will be planted and established in this country? That there would be enough local believers - even a handful - in a city of half a million people that a church could be formed and that people like Ferdi would be able to meet each week with the people of God? That there would be mature believers able to live in such cities and lead the churches?

*Name changed for security reasons.