Window on Gamboula Luke, Leanne, Benjamin, Bobby and Timoté Turk with Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship in Central African Republic Volume 5 Issue 2 Gamboula, Central African Republic lukeandleanne@gmail.com PEF 100 5th Street, Suite 330, Bristol, TN 37620 August 28, 2017 Dear Family and Friends, Greetings from Watkinsville, Georgia! We realize that it has been many months since we have sent out an update. The truth is that we have started a newsletter several times, but life has swept us along with unexpected waves that seemed to make each letter obsolete before we even finished writing it. We apologize for not staying closer in touch, and, at the same time we thank you for your prayers and support even when you didn t know the details and why God laid us on your hearts. So this letter is really just a catch-up letter to give you a glimpse through the Window on Gamboula and our lives over the past several months.. CONSTRUCTION BEGINS! In January, we finally started breaking ground for the construction of a new dormitory for the nursing school, as well as remodeling the existing dorms to make them more amenable for family living. But construction in our corner of the world is very much a do-it-yourself undertaking, beginning with making the bricks out of the clay dirt that was in the spot we wanted to build on! It means going to two different villages a few hours away to find wood for the framework, connecting with multiple individuals to collect sand and gravel for the cement work, and traveling to the neighboring country of Cameroun for the hardware. And it relies on the hard work of multiple people helping to make the bricks, lay bricks, make doors and windows and furniture, dig outhouse holes and drainage systems, and lay electrical wiring and water pipes. Our goal was to complete the project before the students return for the new school year in early September; unfortunately we won t quite make the deadline, but Once the bricks are made, they are built into a kiln under which a fire is burned for 3 days to harden the bricks and make them weather-proof we do see the light at the end of the construction tunnel! The construction is predominantly funded by gifts to our ministry fund. Thank you to all who support the ministry there!!!! HEALTH ISSUES There has been a startling number of health issues that have hit our mission community in the past 6 months. 5 missionaries a Bible translator, another professor at the Gamboula nursing school and Bible school, and a long -time teacher as well as the chaplain at Rain Forest International School have had to leave the field emergently some very emergently for significant health problems. This also included us needing to fly to South Africa twice for our youngest son Timoté to have shoulder surgery after a bad soccer injury. This past week a dear Camerounian colleague who played a key administrative role in helping missionaries and mission organizations keep up with the huge amount of legal paperwork in Cameroun (where our boys attend school) died suddenly, eaving a huge hole at multiple levels behind him. Please pray for the protection of our mission community in both CAR and Cameroun. The enemy fights his battle to obstruct God s work on many fronts, and it seems he has been especially choosing to use illness, injury and death to mark his path in these past several months.
TRIBUTE In the midst of the above series of issues, on March 6, 2017, our family grieved the loss and celebrated the life of someone else very dear to us. Luke s father, Dr. Robert Turk, finished his long-time battle with Alzheimer s disease and went to live in the joyful presence of the Lord. Our lives were graced with a man who loved his family and who served the Lord in so many ways. Although we have, in a sense, been losing him for several years, the final good-bye is never easy. But we were thankful that all five of his children were able to come together in Asheville, NC from various corners of the world (California, Texas, CAR, Madagascar, and Scotland) to celebrate his life and be with our mother. His was a life well-lived, for which we are so grateful, and we miss him. CHANCES TO SHARE The Lord continues to give us opportunities to share his love, truth, and good news of forgiveness and hope, mostly in the context of our every-day activities as we work with people, as we care for patients, as people come to visit with us at our home. Here are a few opportunities we ve had. A man struggling with alcohol stopped by our home one afternoon. He often comes by, usually drunk; however, that afternoon he was sober, which opened up an opportunity to tell him how much the Lord loves him and has the power to deliver him from the clutch of alcohol. He didn t accept the Lord that day, but he quietly and intently listened. Pray that the Lord would continue to reveal His saving grace to this man. Pray that the Lord would give us more opportunities to share with him. A dear teenage boy named Blaise was admitted to our hospital in February after being run over by a large truck that severely wounded his right leg. We all knew it would be a slow and painful process to clean the wound and allow it to heal, and the whole nursing and medical staff, including the nursing students, rallied to help Blaise heal and cope with the process. Early on, Leanne asked Blaise if he knew Jesus, and his response was to just sadly shake his head in a wordless denial. But, as the health care team cared for him, we slowly gained his confidence and found different opportunities to share about the Lord. On one occasion, shortly after Blaise had received a blood transfusion, Leanne shared with him how Jesus blood saves our lives spiritually. And, in one of the last conversations she had with him, she shared again with him how much he was loved by Jesus who was offering him His grace and forgiveness with a promise to never leave his side. As she shared that time, tears just started quietly streaming down his face. Although Blaise didn t verbally confess putting his trust in Christ at that moment, there was a noticeable difference in his demeaner in the days that followed. He began smiling and talking. Shortly after that conversation, while Leanne was in South Africa for Timoté s surgery, Blaise died from secondary complications. Blaise lost his physical life, but our hope is that, through his time in the hospital, he personally met his Savior before he died. Leanne later had a chance to visit his mother and shared the gospel again with her and other family members. Another young man who played with our boys as a child years ago, was admitted to the hospital a few months ago and quickly slipped into a diabetic coma. He is a kid who has wandered far in his life, and we had been out of touch for several years. But we had the privilege of praying for him as he lay unconscious, and he miraculously pulled out of the coma. Leanne quickly took the opportunity to help him see that God was graciously giving him more days in his life so that he could come to Him. Luke had a chance to talk with him as well. Unfortunately, his way of life has left him with significant mental limitations now, so we aren t sure how much he understood of what we shared, but we asked the Lord to finish the conversation deep in his heart where the Spirit can speak in a way that surpasses human words. He left the hospital against medical advice, so please join us in praying that the Lord will preserve his life until he gives his heart to Jesus. PEACE A colleague recently commented, It s easy to start a war, but it s hard to end one. That is so true! While things are generally a bit calmer, there are still pockets of extreme violence and the politics are becoming more and more confusing! So we continue to covet your prayers for peace. However, true peace will only come and the Lord s grace touches hearts with His love and truth. That typically happens one heart at a time, but pray with us for God s Spirit to sweep through in a fresh way in CAR to touch many hearts and revive His Church. In the meantime, please pray for the missionaries and church leaders who are conducting trauma healing workshops with the many victims of the war s atrocities.
GRADUATION AND COLLEGE!! In June, Bobby, our second son, graduated from Rain Forest International School! It was a lot of fun to celebrate with him and his classmates and we are very proud of him. Our niece, Kylie Festen, graduated in his same class, so the Festens (Leanne s sister and family) were also there, making it a family reunion at the same time! After spending a summer at home in Gamboula, Leanne and Bobby flew back to the US at the end of July to help get him situated at LeTourneau University in Longview, TX. Luke came to the US a few weeks earlier to help his mother with the selling of her home. So, with the exception of Timoté who is back in school in Cameroun already, the rest of our family has been together in the US this month. We have had some great times with family, Benjamin (now in his senior year) and Bobby have settled into LeTourneau as roommates, and we are now trying to pull together the last details and purchases before we leave to return to CAR on August 30th. We apologize that we have only had a chance to see a few of you during this quick trip home, but know that is not for lack of wanting to! PRAISES.. We are thankful that Timoté s shoulder surgeries were successful, and he has full use of his arm again. We are also so grateful for the way the Lord provided for us through friends and strangers alike in making that surgery in South Africa possible. We are also grateful for God s provision of necessary care for all our other missionary colleagues who have recently dealt with health problems. The nursing school finished it s school year well, despite multiple setbacks with professors needing to leave because of medical issues. We have a good group of 27 students who will continue on into the second year of the program, beginning Sept. 11th. We re excited that Luke s brother, Tom, will be coming out to help teach during the month of September! God provided hostel parents for our kids this next year! Carl and Marcia Elwood have stepped in to be mom and dad to our kids while they are away from home. Thanks to the help of a good friend here in the US, we have found a replacement signal booster for the one that lightning knocked out in a big thunderstorm in June. So we should be back in the communications loop from Gamboula soon!.and PRAYER REQUESTS For the family and friends of our colleague, Norbert, who died suddenly this past Sunday. Pray that the Lord will provide someone capable of filling Norbert s very big shoes! For a free weekly Bible class that the Bible school professors in Gamboula are leading for anyone in the village who wishes to attend. Pray that many would continue to come and that the professors will continue to have the time, energy, and vision to lead the class. For the nursing school students and professors alike as it begins a new school year. Pray that we will be able to complete the dormitory construction quickly. Please especially pray that the Lord will bring us additional nurses with the necessary qualifications to help teach courses and supervise clinical practicums. We really need them! We are also praying that the Lord would help us identify a Central African nurse with the qualifications to replace Leanne as the director of the nursing school. For our family as we become more stretched and spread out, as Benjamin and Bobby settle into college life and seek the Lord s leading on their lives, as Timoté adjusts to living without either of his brothers around, and as we try to wrap up details here in the US this week and then travel back to CAR. Pray specifically for communication capability between us! For continued opportunities to share the gospel with people who cross our paths wherever that may be. Thank you so much for your prayers, your support in a variety of ways, and your encouragement of the ministry in CAR. May we all stand in awe of how we see the Lord at work in our lives and in this world. In His grip, Luke and Leanne, Benjamin, Bobby and Timoté
Children s Corner For this edition, we just want to share with you a couple recent fun interactions we have had with some special animals! Ndani, the orphaned Spot-Necked River Otter whom we adopted for a few months. We had plans to release her back into the wild, but unfortunately she suddenly got sick and died before we were able to do so. She was so much fun to get to know up close she was very social with lots of personality! And the forest elephants of the Dzangha-Sangha Bai that we went to see in July We followed their paths through the rain forest till we came to their special clearing (called a bai ) where about 60 of them were hanging out! As we left the elephants, we sang together How Great Thou Art. Isn t our Heavenly Father an amazing Creator!!!!