It has been amazing to me that while the U.S. economy has lost so much ground, our project supporters have not fallen back in their giving by a single nickel. People giving money to missions in hard times preaches to me. For example, our family has a regular supporter who gave us a dollar she had saved when she found canned green peas on a two-for-one sale. That kind of spirit tells me that until the “sky recedes like a scroll, and the islands drop into the sea,” mission supporters will be mission supporters. They have a Godly addiction to giving. In the English language, there are about a dozen words that describe someone who is addicted to saving money, and more words for those who are addicted to spending money. But the English language lacks an antonym for miser. There is no proper English word for someone who deprives themself and lives meagerly for the benefit of a cause they believe in. For lack of a better word, I call those people Dear Saints.
Dear Saints, I have listed some of our project needs below, but please don’t interpret them as a call for you to give more. I am listing these needs so that other readers may be inspired to join your ranks!

These needs are not for me or my family, they are for the Turkish people. Daily, I walk about with freedom and joy in God’s promise of eternal life while others are born into circumstances that prevent them from knowing this joy. The list of needs below represents our attempt to open the possibility of this joy to Turkish hearts.
People often say to me, “If there is anything we can do to help, just let us know.” I will now do just that, starting with our biggest need.

We need a building for evangelistic outreach—a place where we can safely, legally and regularly gather people who are interested in learning about Jesus. Having been in Turkey for four years, we have learned what is legal, what is tolerable and what has won success for other protestant groups. The Adventist world church officially owns no church property in Turkey. One building used as a church in Istanbul has been closed because rightful ownership is contested.
However, a group of Adventist migrant workers are renting a Catholic church in a very large city here and having blossoming success. They keep their doors open two days a week in addition to Sabbath, and new walk-in interests arrive every day. One day, 20 Turks stopped in off the street to take Adventist literature! With a building, our literature and message becomes findable for the spiritually interested. We have decided we must become findable in our city by securing a permanent location that people can access seven days a week.

Here are the financial facts: we need $625,000 for the purchase of a building. (If a single Adventist investor wished to buy the property and guarantee us the right to assemble, that would be fine, too.) If this were a want ad, it might read: “Nehemiah seeking a King Artaxerxes,” or “Christopher Columbus needs a Queen Isabella.” Turkey’s population is twice that of California. Can you imagine if California had no Adventist church? If you don’t have $625,000 sitting around, maybe you know someone who does. Or maybe you belong to a group of friends who could team up to make that happen. Maybe your Rotary Club. Maybe you could rally 6,250 people to give $100 each. Be creative, and become part of our miracle. If you would like to correspond on this subject, please email gospel2spread@safe-mail.net.

If need number one sent a wave of Holy-Spirit excitement through you, and you already can envision yourself setting an appointment with your financial advisor, or you are already thumbing through your address book to find your wealthy aunt’s phone number, then by all means complete that Holy-Spirit assignment before moving on to read need number two! However, if you need time to think and pray over need number one, then let your curiosity propel you through the rest of this article.

Our team has a couple of technology needs:

We need a digital SLR camera and zoom lens(es). Canon or Nikon,  eight megapixel or greater, for professional-quality photography, both studio and outdoor. These photos will be used in the first Adventist Signs of the Times-type journal now being published by our very own AFM team in Turkey. If you would like to upgrade your camera or recently bought one and find it too complicated, then please send it to us!

We need a new or lightly used Apple MacBook Pro (average cost $1,400) for our Turkish magazine editor. If you have one or would like to purchase one for us, go ahead and make our day!

Here is a hands-on adventure that a group or family might like to help us with:

We need professional-quality video footage of Turkish life and Turkey’s amazingly diverse and exotic mountains and countryside. We will use this footage as backdrop for several DVD projects involving scripture reading and storytelling. Fly yourself to Turkey for a few days or a few months and leave us with the gift of a hard drive full of video! April, May and October have the nicest weather.

We need a professional photographer (or several) to come here and take pictures of Turkish people and life in various settings. We will use these photos to make our outreach journal compelling, professional and a real cultural fit. (Stock images make a magazine seem foreign.) If you are a professional photographer, we will supply you with a bed, a map and lots of fresh Turkish pastry!

We need a skilled computer programmer to create a database website. We have hundreds of translated Ellen White quotes we would like to put online for Turks to discover. Currently, when Turks google Ellen White, six or more negative websites come up near the top of the search results. (Both Muslims and Protestants attack Ellen White.) Rather than debate, I would like people to be able to read her actual words online with a searchable interface. If you have ability and time to see this project from start to finish, please email me.
 
Here is another great opportunity:

We have a young woman from Germany who is a Turkish Adventist. She is willing to come and colporteur our books and magazine door to door. It’s a daring job, and one that takes faith and a good command of the language. She has all the qualifications and a deep desire to come and do Bible work. All she lacks is a sponsor. We need about $800 a month to make her dream a reality. She will certainly stir up many interests and put wings on our printed materials (Hab. 2:2). Perhaps a church or Sabbath school could sponsor her. If you are interested in this, email me at the following address: gospel2spread@safe-mail.net.

Our Turkish team is moving full-speed-ahead into media ministry. Since the days of H.M.S. Richards, media has proven powerful for pushing back gospel frontiers. If you would like to sponsor airtime for radio broadcasts or translation of gospel programs, you can get involved on the ground floor. The list of needs for publishing is too long to list here. If you believe in using technology to get the gospel message out and want to put dollars toward reaching Muslims, please email me.

I pray this article gives someone the opportunity to join the elite ranks of our Dear Saints. A rousing round of applause and an encore of heartfelt thanks to the thousands of Dear Saints who truly are changing the world through their addiction to giving. May someone find you on the sea of glass one day and say, “I am here because you found a two-for-one sale on canned peas.”

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