Hakan's atheist friend suggested to him that his wife could be delivered from her demons in church

A few years ago, the church where Hakan (alias) works, and with which the Danish European Mission cooperates, was subjected to a harsh smear campaign. The situation is better now, but we don't want to take any risks and therefore use aliases. 

Eagerly gesturing and with his open smile, Hakan answers my question about how he became a Christian. 

- The short answer is that the first time I went to church, it was because my ex-wife needed to be delivered as she was tormented by evil spirits. I saw with my own eyes that the demons left her in the name of Jesus. In addition, the love of Christians for each other and other people made a very big impression on me.

- During the deliverance, I left the room where my wife was being prayed for and went to the office where I took a Bible. When I started reading genealogies, however, it became too boring and I put the Bible back on the shelf. But at that point a man came and he asked: "Do you know Jesus?" Yes, Jesus, he's my prophet, I replied as a Muslim. "Did you know that the Old Testament talks about Jesus?" he continued. He took the same Bible I had put back and said: "Read 1. Genesis 3:15, where the woman's offspring shall crush the serpent's head. Who is that referring to?" he asked.

- The connection between the Genesis verse and the deliverance of my wife suddenly made sense. I thought it must be Jesus. Downstairs, the Christians had been praying for my wife, and I realized that in the deliverance, the power of the serpent was crushed in my wife's life.

- I became a Christian because of: 1. the love of Christians, 2. miracles and 3. the conversation in the office. I always believed in the existence of God, but these three things were crucial. When I started reading the Bible daily, my life changed. That was in June 2005. 

Deliverance behind locked door

The door to the church was locked during the liberation, says Hakan. Why, I ask. - "The door was locked because there can be shouts and screams when the demons come out. Church strangers should not be exposed to that.

- Here in Turkey there is a problem with evil spirits. Many Muslims go to mosques for help. My wife had been struggling with evil spirits for 15 years and tried everything, but it had not helped.

- A friend, who was an atheist, had read the whole Bible and saw that only Jesus could cast out demons. That's why we went to church, because an atheist told me about Jesus," says Hakan with one of his many smiles. 

Words of wisdom for man with a big toe that needed amputation

Hakan is part of the leadership training program supported by Danish European Mission's improvers and donors. The goal of the program is to equip ethnic Turkish Christians to take leadership responsibility in the church now that the Turkish government expelled 78 missionaries and their families from the country in 2019-2021. The expelled missionaries have left a gap for local Turkish Christians to fill.

- I have a heart for evangelism, so these lessons have helped me to share the gospel in a more effective way. When we read the Bible, we get an understanding of what God is doing and I learn new things," he says. 

Hakan also regularly goes on mission trips to Turkey, where he shares the gospel with others from the church. - We see the same miracles that happened to my wife. We pray for God's guidance. In Malatya, the Holy Spirit led us in a specific way. We felt we were going to Tunceli. There is a river called Munzur, over which there is a small bridge. When we prayed, we were given a picture of a man whose big toe was bloody and wounded. We thought that in Tunceli we would meet a man who needed healing. 

- In Tunceli we met a great man. We used the river to tell him about Jesus as the water of life. He was about to leave and we gave him a book. I thought of the picture and asked: God has told us that you have a problem with your big toe. The toe was completely blue and on the verge of being amputated. We prayed for him and he left. A year later we came back and we met the man in a restaurant! The man hugged us and bought us food. 

- The man told me how he had been healed and that it had changed his life. I could now share more about the gospel. The daughter, who was also there, called out to several men who also heard it.

- This is just one example, and there are many more examples of what God does on the journeys, Hakan concludes.