Oddly, the cameraman was in the picture. Only 20 feet behind this videographer zoologist was a steamy jungle and a family of chimpanzees.

I was en route to Turkey and watching a very interesting TV program, a behind-the-scenes look at how nature documentaries are filmed.
Beneath the steamy jungle canopy, the sweating cameraman was telling about his lonely life capturing the chimps on film. The interviewer asked, “How is it that these wild creatures trust you enough for you to get so close to them?”

The bearded man replied, “Patience. An extreme amount of patience. For the first few years, I would wait ten hours in a tree for a two-second glimpse of the chimps. The trust they have in me now has taken me five years to build.” Five years!

Patience, to win trust, is our very life work now in Turkey. As my wife and I walk with our Turkish language cue cards, as we sit on the steps of the mosque and look out over millions of homes and hundreds of minarets, we can’t help but get excited. No, we aren’t excited because of our current state of ignorance or friendlessness. We are excited that we are on the only road that will gain us the trust of these people. The two-second glimpse of a fruit vender’s warm smile begs me, “Keep learning. Someday your patience will be rewarded and you will speak of Jesus to me.”

Learning Turkish well enough to witness will be slow, arduous work. Understanding Muslim thought and winning friends will take years. Five years? Shocking in an impatient age of instant mashed potatoes and ten-day mission trips. So we lay our heads on our pillows, filled with Turkish verbs, nouns, and adjectives, knowing that someday we will be able to get close enough to befriend one of these millions. Pray for our patience, that trust may be established so that truth may one day flow from us.

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