{"id":7081,"date":"2017-04-19T11:50:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T15:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=7081"},"modified":"2017-04-19T11:50:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T15:50:50","slug":"turkey-the-malatya-murders-and-ten-years-of-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=7081","title":{"rendered":"TURKEY: The Malatya Murders and Ten Years of Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: International Mission Board, April 18, 2017<\/p>\n<p>Ten years ago in the city of Malatya, Turkey, three Christians were martyred for their faith by men who pretended to be interested in the gospel.<\/p>\n<p>In the days following, the press spoke to one of the widows, and she declared her forgiveness for the murderers. In Turkish culture, [it] was unheard of that someone could forgive such an act of evil. So the story spread, and people across Turkey were talking about it in their homes, tea houses, and places of business.<\/p>\n<p>During the fifty-plus years of evangelical Christian work in [modern] Turkey, this message of forgiveness has been proclaimed hundreds of thousands of times. Sometimes it is proclaimed through God\u2019s Word, sometimes through preaching and prayer, but rarely has it been declared more vividly than in the sacrifice of our brothers and in the words of this widow.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the evangelical church of Turkey lists its number of believers at around six thousand, a number that is about double the number of believers in 2007, the year of the murders.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imb.org\/2017\/04\/18\/the-malatya-murders-and-ten-years-of-forgiveness\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.imb.org\/2017\/04\/18\/the-malatya-murders-and-ten-years-of-forgiveness\/\">Read full story<\/a> and see also a few additional stories of forgiveness, both connected to Egypt\u2019s Palm Sunday attacks: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendoorsusa.org\/christian-persecution\/stories\/wife-slain-security-guard-egypt-forgive-husbands-killer\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.opendoorsusa.org\/christian-persecution\/stories\/wife-slain-security-guard-egypt-forgive-husbands-killer\/\">Wife of Slain Security Guard in Egypt: \u201cI Forgive My Husband\u2019s Killer\u201d<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendoorsusa.org\/christian-persecution\/stories\/egyptian-widow-of-palm-sunday-martyr-speaks-out\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.opendoorsusa.org\/christian-persecution\/stories\/egyptian-widow-of-palm-sunday-martyr-speaks-out\/\">Widow of Palm Sunday Martyr: \u201cHe Asked Me to Wait for Him\u2026 But He Never Came Back\u201d<\/a> (Open Doors).<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb April 18 was the Global Day of Prayer for Turkey in commemoration of the Malatya martyrs (watch a four-minute video below). Also pray for Turkey\u2019s future on the heels of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-38883556\" data-cke-saved-href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-38883556\">significant political referendum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/21004598\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7082\" src=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/PrayforTurkey.jpg\" alt=\"PrayforTurkey\" width=\"675\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/PrayforTurkey.jpg 675w, https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/PrayforTurkey-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: International Mission Board, April 18, 2017 Ten years ago in the city of Malatya, Turkey, three Christians were martyred for their faith by men who pretended to be interested in the gospel. In the days following, the press spoke to one of the widows, and she declared her forgiveness for the murderers. In Turkish &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=7081\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">TURKEY: The Malatya Murders and Ten Years of Forgiveness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7083,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081\/revisions\/7083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}