ISTANBUL, Turkey, January 12, 2003 (ANS) — "There were many problems distributing New Testaments on New Year's Eve on a main street of Istanbul, but God is greater!" says a Christian worker in a report received by the US office of Turkish World Outreach (TWO) in Grand Junction, Colorado.
In a rare move by Turkish authorities, the Christian workers were given written permission to distribute New Testaments on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
The Christian worker, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said," After distributing New Testaments for a couple of hours, the street police came and told us we had to stop. They said that the permission we had was to be on a back street, and ordered us to move there immediately.
"We explained that we would not move because it was written down in our permission that we are to be on the main street. It was a showdown, and I threatened them that we would file a complaint against them, and also call our Embassies. They then changed their minds, and said we could continue distributing as long as we moved our booktable one meter backwards. We complied and continued distributing."
"Soon after, the security police arrived and stayed with us, which was intimidating at first, but we got used to them and we continued to distribute! Every now and then, the police would tell us it was enough, but we continued to stand our ground that we had official permission to distribute."
"A girl stopped at the stand, and said she wanted to talk about becoming a Christian. She had a dream two years ago where Jesus told her in the dream that she is chosen by Him. She already owned a New Testament and had been reading it. As she was coming down the street, she was so excited to see us. One of the women talked with her, and she wants a visit, and wants to go to church.
"Two young Islamic fundamentalists with long beards stopped at the stand, and were so surprised to see many New Testaments going out. They then began to preach to the crowd, holding up a New Testament saying, 'This New Testament is a fake and has been altered! These people are trying to steal our country from us.' A crowd was gathering and we took the opportunity to distribute the Book they were preaching against! The security police came and eventually told the Islamic fundamentalists that we had permission to distribute New Testaments . The two men were told to leave or they'd be arrested.
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