I went to Germany for a weekend to teach a seminar at a national youth conference. On Sabbath afternoon, we took Turkish Bible lessons and materials and went door-to-door. This was a great joy to me as we can’t do house solicitation in Turkey. More than 3 million Turks live in Germany, so entire neighborhoods and cities are Turkish. What a wide-open opportunity!
A Turkish market owner was delighted that I spoke Turkish, and a warm banter began. He said religion was far in his past. However, he would like to read the Bible lessons we were giving. Enthusiastically, I stretched out my arm to give him a book and accidentally hit an egg carton. Crunch. Six boiled, dyed Easter eggs fell to the floor like Humpty Dumpty. I apologized and offered the man five Euros for his cracked and now unsellable eggs, but he wouldn’t take it. Instead, smiling, he gave us all the eggs, which were still good to eat. I could see it pleased the man greatly to give us those boiled eggs. Everyone feels good when the aroma of forgiveness and generosity fills a room.
I have observed that effective witnessing is often like that. We go out to give, but real heart connection takes place when we receive from others. Their giving softens their hearts more than my giving. This is probably why, in Luke 10, Jesus twice says to His disciples, “Eat or drink whatever they give you.” In a nutshell, Jesus is saying, “To reap the ripe harvest, you must receive grace from others. Only then they will take yours.”

All this talk about boiled eggs made me hungry, so here is a Turkish recipe for you:

6 medium potatoes
3 eggs
1 bunch of green onions
1/3 bunch of fresh parsley or dill
Salt, red pepper, sumac (or lemon juice) and cumin
½ cup of olive oil

Boil potatoes and eggs. Peel them. Chop the potatoes into a bowl. Add the chopped green onions and parsley. Add salt, red pepper, sumac (or lemon juice) and a little cumin to taste. Mix together. Dress it with chopped eggs and pour the olive oil on top. It is ready to eat!

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