ANTIOCH, Turkey – One of many cities affected by the Turkey earthquake holds biblical significance. Antioch performed a outstanding position within the lifetime of the apostle Paul, and it additionally served as a basis of the early Church.
Based on the New Testomony Guide of Acts, it was in Antioch that followers of Jesus had been first referred to as Christians. Town was devastated by the February sixth earthquake.
Like many cities and cities all through this area, Antioch took a very laborious hit.
CBN Information visited the destroyed home of a pastor and his spouse in Antioch. Close by, the buildings of their beloved neighbors stood. Lots of the neighbors did not survive the earthquake and others had been relocated away from their leveled houses, so the pastor’s household misplaced those they’d been serving and sharing about the love of Jesus for a few years.
Turkish pastor Elmas Akin instructed us about that terrifying night time.
“I simply can’t discover the phrases to explain it and I don’t assume you possibly can actually perceive what occurred at the moment,” she mentioned. There was a deep noise from the bottom and it wasn’t ending and it was a very long time. Each my husband and I simply checked out one another and hugged one another and we began praying.”
They anticipated to die.
Elmas defined, “After which we mentioned with my husband later and we realized we each thought the identical factor so we thought possibly that’s is Lord, we’re coming, so is that this our final day. Are we coming to satisfy you?”
As an alternative, they rushed exterior.
“After which after we got here out and utterly exterior and I seemed and I noticed that every one these buildings had been collapsed and that was so painful as a result of this has been our ministry to our neighbors,” Elmas mentioned.
For years, she ministered to about fifty neighborhood kids, instructing them the Bible.
“They know me as their Aunt Elmas, typically Mom Elmas, as a result of we’ve been having them at church and taking part in video games, sharing the Gospel for a lot of, a few years. They grew up in our personal palms, so to talk,” she recalled.
She cried as she mentioned, “And now they’re all gone now. I’ve misplaced all of them. A few of them died and a few of them are simply unfold across the nation or medical assist or they’ll’t stay right here anymore or they’ve moved to different cities and I’ve misplaced all of them.”
Extra Ekener of Turk Sat 7 got here right here to doc what occurred to the church after the earthquake.
“Lots of the church buildings are utterly on the bottom,” she mentioned. “They misplaced, our brothers and sisters, they misplaced their church buildings. Congregations which the Physique of Christ truly unfold all over the place as we communicate. A few of them stay behind to assist with the rescue efforts, distributing assist, every thing they’ll. And the entire church within the nation has been using assist, sending assist, sending folks to spherical wherever is in want of assist and by praying.”
Ekener additionally discovered a church in a single accord.
“How God is definitely displaying Himself in folks, being Christ to 1 one other because the Physique of Christ in unity, wonderful unity and simply functioning as His Arms, as His Toes reaching out to folks,” Ekener defined. “So I’ve been seeing that, I’ve been making an attempt to console. Phrases aren’t ample, in fact, and it’s time to only cry with them over their loss and likewise simply be Christ to those who they’re by no means alone and we’re on this collectively as a result of you possibly can’t actually detach your self from what your brothers and sisters and nation going by way of (in) this devastating earthquake. ”
Pastor Elmas’s church was destroyed as nicely.
Our CBN information crew discovered that lots of the streets of Previous Antioch are impassable now due to the rubble. The Akins’ church that lasted for 23 years was down one alley that could not be reached due to all of the particles. Solely the signal remained seen.
“Nothing is left,” Elmas mentioned. “And this has been our church for 23 years. All these years of affection and for caring for everybody. Every thing is gone utterly.”
Nonetheless, Pastor Elmas has a constructive outlook.
“However my hope is nice. As a result of we’ve been renting the previous church constructing and we had been asking the Lord to offer our personal church constructing and a 12 months in the past we noticed land and we began to construct. So this has already began, the brand new church constructing’s development,” she defined.
Though the previous church was destroyed by the earthquake, a brand new constructing they had been getting ready has not been destroyed, and it is already open for ministry.
“There’s no extra Antioch left however there can be a brand new Antioch. There can be a brand new church. And God has already give us that constructing for that. In order that would be the new church and there’s no injury on that church,” Elmas mentioned.
She requested for prayer for a brand new starting.
“Please, please pray God will see us by way of to the completion of the brand new church constructing. The place the necessity is a lot extra evident. Please pray for that.”
She continued, “And please pray for us since for church now, it’s simply me and my husband. We’re that church now. And thank God now many different Christians from across the nation are coming to assist. However we’d like Human Sources. We want folks to face with us. Please pray. Please pray that God will ship the best folks to proceed this work.”
Ekener says now greater than ever, it is necessary to wish for a transfer of the Holy Spirit.
“They’ve been praying thank God. However I might ask that they pray that there can be many divine encounters with Jesus,” she mentioned. “He can attain. He doesn’t must be broadcasted. Everyone knows that. He can attain to ever human by way of His Holy Spirit with visions and goals and indescribable consolations to the human coronary heart. So simply pray that individuals discover consolation in God.”
