Adem and I travelled around Turkey, I am lecturing, and he is interpreting. On one occasion we were visiting a Turkish engineering company in the Bursa Valley. The Bursa valley is known for its agriculture but here, completely out of character, was a metal casting company. The room we were using was relatively small with a galvanized metal roof. It was also packed full with engineering personnel. It seemed to me that the whole of the company staff were crammed in there and it was unbearably hot. I was using an overhead projector which to operate I had almost to lie flat on the table. During my lecture I felt something was amiss. It was normal for me to engage with my participants through plenty of eye contact and not worry too much about my interpreter other than to pause appropriately in my delivery giving him sufficient time and with not too much material so as to possibly misinterpret. Adem was standing close-by, but I sensed he was not correctly interpreting what I was saying so I stopped and challenged him as sensitively as I could. It so happened that he had got hold of some of my lecture notes, fortunately on the same topic, and was using them rather than listening and interpreting what I was saying. Actually, I quite admired the way he was doing it since I think he had fooled our participants and I credit the Lord for making me aware as to what was happening.
A similar thing happened during my Korean trip. This time the interpreter had no notes but suddenly and quite spontaneously my arm shot out and I exclaimed, “That was not correct!” Upon my repeating what I had said he acknowledged he had got it wrong and reinterpreted it asking me if this time he had got it correct, to which I replied in the affirmative. After this little episode no one would believe me when I said I did not understand or speak Korean, but I do know who does and again the credit goes to Him, the master linguist. Thanks Lord!
Adem and I were staying in the company guest house. In the evenings we would usually go for a walk together chatting about various things, discussing the day’s proceedings or sometimes engaging in a little English or Turkish language learning. On this occasion however, I felt the Lord wanted to take our conversation a little deeper. So, within my spirit I asked what He had in mind. “Talk about Original Sin” was the response. Now that really did throw me! Might well have been all right within a home group with people of a similar culture as myself but here, in a totally different one, not to mention the prevailing religious belief, I had no idea where to start. However, as a professional teacher and lecturer, I am a firm believer in the power of visual aids, so I simply asked the Lord for an appropriate one.
Now, we were walking along a tarmac road complete with rainwater gutter between road and pavement and alongside which was a privet hedge about four feet tall. I was actually walking about two feet from the edge of the gutter and Adem alongside me near the middle of this narrow road. Suddenly, out of the hedge and alongside me appeared a snake. It wormed its way across the pavement into the gutter, then simply continued making its way along the gutter close to my feet. I was surprised I did not flinch but calmly continued walking. So, this was to be my visual aid and of the Lord’s provision, wow! I turned my head towards Adem and asked what the Turkish name of this creature, crawling along the gutter was. Needless to say, when he saw the snake, he recoiled and was quite alarmed, but it certainly opened up a conversation about how Eve was deceived by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Once the impact of my living visual aid had done its job, the snake simply climbed out of the gutter, made its way across the pavement and disappeared, once again, into the hedge.
One thing I have learned over the years is that the Lord is not particularly interested in philosophic, academic or theological discussions but rather ones which result in real conviction of where an individual is in relation to Himself.
Notwithstanding this I began to explain, somewhat academically, what ‘Original Sin’ was. However, it was only when I asked if he understood the concept of sin, followed more directly by asking if he had ever ‘sinned’, that he clearly became uncomfortable, a sure indication of conviction I thought, and tried to avoid my question completely. I now clearly seemed to sense that it was time to move from the general to the specific, which prompted the next question asking if had he ever looked lustfully at a woman. This was not quite the question I would have chosen to ask any man, especially a Muslim, but assuming the Lord knew best and that I was hearing correctly, it had to be asked. Again, while he did not quite answer the question directly, it was clear that, like me, he had and could not deny it.
Of course, it is one thing to be led by the Spirit to bring conviction and totally unfair to leave it at that without offering a solution or cure. Biblical Christians, as I would claim to be, believe the solution lies in Christ and in Him alone. So, this unavoidably led to an offer of the forgiveness of sins and whether Allah could, or more importantly did, forgive sin. This was a question he had no real answer to. He talked about balancing good deeds against bad deeds. If the good outweighed the bad then, well maybe, that might be good enough, but there was no guarantee. The possibility of lasting peace and an assurance of real forgiveness there was none. I hope my presentation was adequate and that I was faithful to the leading of the lord.
Adem brought up the matter of Christians believing in three gods. Once again, I needed divine inspiration since I had not seriously considered this question before. My response went something like this. “Do you have a father?” “Yes”, he replied. “So that means you are a son?” “Yes”. “Do you have a son?” “Yes.” “So, you are both a father and a son”, “Yes” he replied. My next question was, “Do you believe you have a spirit?”. “Yes, of course I do.” At this point he became quite annoyed with me due to the fact that I had not discussed this with him before. He clearly understood the concept.
Did Adem come to faith? Not as far as I know but then, that is surely not my responsibility for ‘some sow, others water, but it’s God who gives the increase’.
Adem and I travelled quite a lot together, I am lecturing, and he is translating. Istanbul was rather interesting in that lectures took place on a pier. Each time one of the ferries crossing the Bosporus from old Istanbul to new Istanbul docked, the whole lecture room would violently shake disconcertingly until one became accustomed to it or anticipated a new arrival.
On one occasion I travelled to a small industrial town on the Black Sea accompanied by a professor of Islamic studies. We had quite amicable and deep discussions mainly centring around Abraham.