Just two hours after the earthquake on February 6, 2023, a team from a church that the Danish European Mission works with drove emergency aid to the earthquake zone. It may sound unbelievable, but a group of Christians had prepared a relief effort in case Turkey was hit by earthquakes, as it regularly is.
Pastor Mehmet says: "I shut everything else out and focused only on the victims. The whole church stood together, prayed together and prayed for the earthquake victims. Every second everyone was thinking about the earthquake, as it is a catastrophe in the history of modern Turkey."
Also in our conversation is Bayram, who is one of the leaders being trained in the Danish European Mission's leadership training project. The conversation revolves around sensitive topics and it is clear that Mehmet and Bayram are affected by the issues. The team made contact with a pregnant woman who told Bayram that she wanted to commit suicide. "When I met her, she was in shock. The woman who had been rich said, 'I have lost everything, my house, my gold.' She said, 'Last night my husband and I thought of committing suicide.
May I pray for your husband and you?
"Right after the earthquake, several people thought about suicide, and some even committed suicide," Mehmet adds, and Bayram continues his story. "I said, 'I see you are pregnant. I'm a Christian - can I pray for your husband and you? Everything is not over. Jesus will transform everything. I believe in him.' She said ok, and when the prayer was over, she said: 'That's what I needed, much more than food and drink. I needed to talk to someone. You listened to me'. I got her phone number and we visited her every 14 days. Three months later, she gave birth to twins. The relief team sent a cot and everything she needed, even a washing machine, so she and her husband could survive. I met her family and brothers."
"We are not supermen - we need help too"
- Bayram, who suffered post-traumatic stress from relief work
In the end, Bayram had to stop serving on the relief team and had to travel back to Izmir as he needed psychological help. "We saw many dead people in the streets and in the hospital, just lying on the floor. I started thinking about death, I started getting numb and couldn't manage to talk to anyone. I would go to church services, but not other church activities. I didn't want to go to birthdays either. I had nightmares at night and started to feel like I lacked purpose." Bayram was also affected on a personal level: "I'm from Antioch and four of my family members died in the earthquake."
Read more about the church in Turkey here...
"The psychologist told me that my reaction was completely normal - in the face of all the death and destruction I had seen with my own eyes in Antioch. 'You have post-traumatic stress,' she said. After a while, I felt fine again."
Mehmet concludes by saying: "The church has grown in the earthquake area. The churches in Antioch now have maybe twice as many visitors as before. The churches are like islands in a sea of problems. People trust the churches because the churches have done many things: set up tents, distributed food, met children's needs and provided trauma care. In the worst of times, the church was there. In the dark night. We have good relations with the authorities and special permission to work in the earthquake area," Mehmet concludes.
Due to the support of the Danish European Mission's improvers and donors, 4,500 food parcels and 4,500 hygiene kits were distributed to families in need in the earthquake area.
