"God has a plan for each of us..." - Rudolf Klassen Talks About Missionary Activity in Turkey
On Tuesday, April 7, Master's student Rudolf Klassen spoke in a general university meeting telling us about his own missionary activity in Turkey. After the meeting, Rudolf agreed to given an interview for SPbCU's web site.
Rudolf Klassen is German by parentage is German. He was born in Kazakhstan, then emigrated to Germany. He became a specialist in the mechanics of making things from plastic and rubber. But the ways of the Lord are unknown and instead of a peaceful, measured life in Germany, Rudolf found himself in Turkey with his family, were he spent 6 years in missionary service.
"As you know, Germans don't love Turks. Many were surprised that I could, in fact, return to the world that I had come out of." For many, both Kazakhstan and Turkey are primitive, undeveloped countries. However, in Germany Rudolf and a Turkish family were brought together, thanks to which he started a new life full of the unexpected.
Rudolf had been searching for his way in life, and in time he felt a strong desire to preach. In 2002, he and his wife decided to move to Turkey. With two small children in arms, they packed their things in a minivan and drove, not knowing what their destination would be or what awaited them there. It's not strange that Turkey is one of the nations least reached by the Gospel. Out of Turkey's 75 million people, only 5 thousand are Protestant; that's less than in Iran.
We moved to Turkey without knowing the language. There was no school, no formal means to learn it. At first we ended up in the city of Selchuki (Ephesus), population 25,000. We studied the culture and got accustomed to things there. My daughter was one year and 7 months old, my son was 9 months. My third child, a daughter, was born there. We lived with Turks and quickly became friends with many. I must say, Turks are very hospitable, cheerful people. And there was an abundance of enthusiasm, although there was no theological training whatsoever!"
Afterwards, the family moved to Soke, which is near Izmir (Smirna), population 120,000. "Only don't say that you are missionaries," we were told. That wasn't surprising, because the people have lived a long time with fear. They were especially suspicious of missionaries and foreigners. Even now Televison continually shows propaganda against missionaries.
Gradually we began to speak openly; we decided to quit being afraid. Our missionary strategy was uncommonly simple. We would go out on the street, walk around, and when the Turks saw a crowd of tow-headed children, they began to ask who we were, where we came from, what kind of work we were doing. And gradually our talk would get to the place of speaking about the Gospel.
We made friends with a Kurdish family and together even celebrated the traditional Muslim holiday of Kurban Bairam. During this holiday we told them about the Passover. I explained to them, that Jesus became a Redeeming sacrifice for us, that he was crucified on the cross for our sins and therefore there is no more need for us to bring God a sacrificial lamb. It was understandable and interesting for them when we didn't talk as from a textbook but out of practical things during our time of celebrating together.
In Soke my wife made arrangements to work in a kindergarten. She had children from 7 months to 2 years of age. People started to trust us when they saw that we presented no danger to them. And added to that, finally, we became familiar with the Turkish language.
Shortly after that our church was started. In the beginning, people gathered in our home. We organized social assistance. You see, the Gospel is always "Word and Deed;" one is not separated from the other. We gathered money, bought coal for the poor, which is needed for heating homes during winter time, and prepared bags with food. We came to the conclusion that it is very important to have a place to gather these things. As a rule, terrorist groups gather in homes in Turkey, so in order to not draw the attention of legal authorities, we purchased a house and arranged it under the church. After this, we put an ad in the newspaper. And right away correspondence began to pour in. There was no persecution.
I want to tell you about Brother Axmed. He is one of the only people in the village who turned to Christianity. He had to go through a lot, in as much as leaving Islam is not acceptable in this nation. Besides, he had been a communist and revolutionary in the past. In punishment for his action (in becoming a believer), they utterly burned Axmed's car.
...We often mistakenly imagine that Turkey is a homogenous country with only one nationality. But in fact there are 30 different ethnic groups. This is an amazingly rich and interesting country, to which one wants to return over and over!"
Rudolf is now 33 years old and has 4 children. He is a student in the first year of Master's studies, arriving for the spring session at SPbCU. His family returned to Germany for a year, hoping to soon go back to Turkey --this time, for 5 years and maybe to stay for life. As God provides....