On February 6, 2023, a massive earthquake hit southern Turkey near the Syrian border. The earthquake was a 7.8 on the Richter Scale, it was followed 11 minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Then 12 hours later a 7.7 aftershock hit the area again. The Red Cross referred to them as, “the worst earthquakes the region has seen in 20 years.”

A member of the Bible Mission team sat down with Elmas, a Turkish woman who lives in Antakya with her husband Hhmdullah. They are Christians in the predominantly Muslim country, and Elmas told her story. 

From 2014 to 2019 Elmas and Hhmdullah lived in Krykhan, near the Syrian border. When war broke out in Syria, they began to do refugee ministry. The Lord specifically gave them a calling for the children there. They started a school and were able to teach 52 kids in the refugee camp how to read and write.

When covid began Elmas and Hhmdullah were restricted from doing their refugee ministry. They moved back into Antakya. Faced with a new mission field, they thought: ‘why don’t we do something for the children in Antakya?’

Elmas said, “One of our ideas was to teach them writing by writing the New Testament. After the children started writing the New Testament, their mothers wanted to do it too. By the end we had 68 people writing down the New Testament by hand.”

Over the next 3 years they served the people of Antakya, helping to feed those who struggled during the pandemic and investing in the lives of children. They were doing all of this out of their house. “For 22 years we were praying for a place of our own,” Elmas said. “Finally, after 22 years, miraculously God provided for us the place we could have as a church.” In September 2022 they began construction on a church building.

Hmmdullah and Elmas were asleep when the earthquake hit. The earthquake lasted for one and a half minutes. Elmas said, “We woke up and took each other's hands and started praying. We didn’t try to escape.” She described the noise being, “like mountains hitting each other.”

When the earthquake subsided they didn’t realize how big it had been. As they moved to leave their house they saw the floor was covered in dishes, dirt and everything else in the house. Thankfully the house didn’t collapse.

“When we opened the door of the house and went out onto the street, we were shocked,” Elmas said. “In front of us there were normally six tall buildings, four of them were down. It was raining, and you could hear screams all around you.”

Over 50,000 Turkish people were killed in the earthquakes, more than 8,000 more people died in nearby Syria. 115,000 people were injured and over 1.5 million became homeless. The official count was 325,522 buildings severely damaged or destroyed. All of this is the span of one day.

Elmas said, “When we opened the door suddenly people started running into our house asking for help. Everybody who was on the street was wearing their pajamas. Everybody was wet, they didn’t have food, they didn’t have shoes.”

Hhmdullah and Elmas opened up their cars for people to sit in and recover. Elmas went and grabbed all of the blankets, clothes and shoes they had and distributed them to the people. As the aftershocks hit over the following hours, they weathered them in their cars full of people from the streets.

Elmas said these were the people who had no family in the city, they rested and dealt with the shock. Those with families sifted through the rubble frantically hoping to find their loved ones.

“I didn’t feel the fear anymore,” Elmas said, “but we had been doing the children’s ministry, and these same children could be in the destruction. It was not fear anymore, it was shock. I can’t describe the feeling. Sadness is not enough to describe this feeling.”

Elmas described that most of the survivors lived in their own separate houses, many from apartment buildings died. Over the next days Elmas and Hhmdullah reunited with some of the children and families they had been ministering to. 

People from other churches started to come to Antakya to support those in the earthquake. “On the first day after the earthquake one family, believers from Ankara, came to us,” Elmas said. “They brought us blankets and food. Then the Diablakar Church came, and they had packs with them. They had tents, food, blankets, stoves and anything else that we needed at that time.”

“It wasn’t our original plan; how could it be? But automatically we started this ministry,” Elmas said.

Their house was too damaged to use as a base of operations for disaster relief, so Elmas and Hhmdullah moved to where they were building the church. Miraculously the church construction was not badly damaged and served as a great place for the ministry.

Elmas said, “for several months I couldn’t believe that the earthquake really happened. I couldn’t believe that a city could be gone in a minute and so many of my loved ones gone.” 

However after this tragedy the Lord has brought light to Antakya. Throughout the year of providing relief to the community, God provided support and volunteers. As the community grapples with the effects of the disaster the church in Antakya is growing and solidifying together.

“We started a children’s ministry, a women's ministry and last week we started men’s gatherings,” Elmas said. “And you know what? Last week at least 1,000 people came to our church. We’ve done youth ministries, we’ve done teen gatherings, children’s gatherings.” More than 280 people are writing the New Testament by hand. 

“I think we are having a revival right now in Antakya,” Elmas said. “This is unbelievable. When people come here, they say, ‘we’ve never seen anything like what happened in Antakya.’ At services we share the Gospel and ask who wants to receive Jesus, and 20 people stand up and come in front, that’s unbelievable. Maybe some of them come to seek help, but their hearts are open.” 

The way Antakya has responded to the earthquake has created an opportunity for Jesus Christ to be shared in a meaningful way. Elmas said, “We don’t know how long we have this period, so however we can, whatever we can, we should do, because we have limited time.” 

Within Antakya Elmas described that people are coming to Christians for help and to ask their questions, not to the Muslims. Elmas believes it’s because everyone saw the Christians helping in their time of greatest need.

Elmas said, “These people are very thankful. They know that this is because of Jesus Christ, whatever we do.”

The earthquake recovery in Turkey is still ongoing. You can connect with Bible Mission to follow what’s happening.

‍

Psalm 46: 1-3

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

‍