Driving to a Bible study, I glanced out the window at the stadium mentioned in Acts 19, where the Ephesians rioted because of the effectiveness of the Apostle Paul’s ministry. There was no riot to be seen this typical Tuesday, just tourists and ancient stones. As I passed by, I imagined I was Timothy ministering on the streets of Ephesus. Studying the Bible with a family so near this hotbed of apostolic work gave me great personal satisfaction.

The couple I was studying with was a retired Turk and his Swiss wife. They loved Jesus very much and were fervent in prayer and worship. They were simply “Jesus followers,” not attached to any denomination, church or group. The man, Erdinch, had turned from Islam when Jesus healed him after a heart attack. From that time on, he could not speak of Jesus without grateful tears in his eyes. We had met through a friendship with their lovely daughter who, after a time of rebellion in her teens, was now a vocal advocate for her Lord and Savior, even on her secular Turkish university campus, where praising Jesus was anything but popular.

Week after week I traveled over an hour to their home to teach them. Like Aquila and Priscilla pulling Apollos aside, I made my best effort to affirm the fire they had while teaching them additional truths that fueled me. Acts 18:26 says, “Priscilla and Aquila heard him [Apollos], and they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” (Adventist evangelism that teaches other Christians a doctrinal point is often belittled, but we see this is exactly what happened in the case of Apollos.)

Erdinch and his wife and daughter loved the Bible studies and ate up what I taught them. But after about 10 lessons we came to the topic of the Sabbath. Over three studies, I gave my best effort to explain the beauty of resting in Christ and the Sabbath’s link to the gospel. They couldn’t accept it, and after a time of reflection, they rejected it. It was a sad time for me. They were people of such strong faith, and we so badly needed capable Turkish-speaking Adventists to further the work in Turkey. But they had come to what they felt was a reasoned decision.

Despite the rejection, our friendship remained strong for 12 years. I respected their Christian experience, and they in turn respected me and my wife’s Christian experience and showed their love for us again and again by including us in their spiritual life. When their Swiss sister accepted Jesus, they asked me to baptize her. Later, when they applied to attend a Pentecostal Bible school in Europe, they needed a recommendation from their “pastor.” Though they weren’t members and didn’t attend our church, they asked me if I would write a letter in their behalf as the closest shepherd they had. On another occasion when the news came that my mother had cancer, Erdinch’s wife immediately shaved her head to show my mother her solidarity and love!

Once when visiting America, they drove all the way from Chicago to Nebraska to visit my parents. One problem: they didn’t have my parents’ address or phone number. After eight hours of driving on I-80, they got off at the first Lincoln exit. Lincoln has a population of about 300,000 people. With a heavy French/Turkish accent, they asked the first person they saw at a gas station, “Do you know where Mr. Hope lives?” (Using my dad’s real name). The man pumping fuel into his car said, “Sure, I do,” and proceeded to give them directions! The man they had asked was a realtor and knew my dad and his address! God was surely watching out for them.

We and Erdinch’s family shared dreams and plans together, and we prayed much together. They hoped to start an international prayer ministry near Militus. We listened to their dreams and prayed in harmony with them. We have tried to be spiritual allies with them through their victories and disappointments. Truly, their friendship was one of the highlights of my time in Turkey. However, beneath it all, my heart always ached at their rejection of the Sabbath message so dear to me.

Last week they called my wife and excitedly told her they had big news. Though they had planned on keeping the secret until they could speak to my wife and me together, their enthusiasm overflowed, and they told her: “We have discovered the Sabbath! Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath! This is our third Sabbath, and God has opened our hearts. Your husband tried to tell us. Now we see everything.”

A few days later, I called to get the news firsthand. They were so delighted, I could literally hear their faces beaming over the phone. Erdinch began by quoting six texts in a row about holiness. Then he said, “God gave us the key to grow in holiness! The Sabbath is holy. We are His holy people. God wants his Holy Spirit in us, and he has invited us into His holiness by making holy time. His Sabbath is ours now!”

I got off the phone so happy. I was happy to hear their zeal for Jesus and for the Bible, and for the ever-higher climb of faith they were experiencing. (It was interesting to me that he shared no texts about the law, nor about obedience; only about holiness and righteousness. Surely these are royal reasons for a true worshiper to keep the Sabbath!)

I take joy in this because it is a reminder to me, 12 years after I planted those Sabbath seeds, that other seeds I have planted are also germinating. I spread seeds all over Turkey during the decade I lived there. God says in Isaiah 55:11, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” The greatest encouragement to us all is that Jesus will not leave undone the work He has begun through us. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will carry it to completion” (Phil. 1:6).

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