A Day in the Life
My name is Emre and I am ten years old. I live in a city in Turkey where the minarets rise above the rooftops like tall white fingers pointing at the sky. I love my city. The streets are full of sounds, car horns, the clatter of dishes from restaurants, vendors calling out prices, and five times a day the ezan, the call to prayer, rolls across every neighborhood like a wave.
Every morning my mother makes breakfast and it is the best part of waking up. She puts out a whole spread on the table: white cheese, olives, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, a boiled egg, honey from the jar, and always a basket of simit, round bread covered in sesame seeds that is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. We drink cay, which is Turkish tea served in little glass cups shaped like tulips. The tea is dark red and sweet if you add sugar cubes. Even kids drink it here. Do you drink tea where you live, or do you think that sounds strange?
After breakfast my father walks me to school. We pass the old bazaar where the shopkeepers are rolling up their metal shutters and stacking oranges and pomegranates in pyramids. The smell of roasting chestnuts floats through the cold morning air in winter. My father always buys me a handful wrapped in newspaper, and they warm my fingers through the paper.
I love football more than anything. After school my friends and I play on a concrete court between apartment buildings. We use our backpacks for goal posts. My best friend Kerem can dribble past anyone. When he scores, we all shout and grab him and pile on top of each other laughing. One day I want to play for the national team. My father says I have to study first, but he always comes to watch our neighborhood matches.
On Fridays my grandfather takes me to the mosque. He is old and walks slowly, and I hold his arm on the steps. The mosque is quiet inside and the carpet is soft and red. Afterward he buys me dondurma, which is Turkish ice cream. It is thick and stretchy, the vendor plays tricks with it, pulling the cone away from your hand with a long metal stick before he finally gives it to you. My grandfather laughs every single time like he has never seen it before.
In the evenings my whole family gathers at my grandmother’s apartment. She makes borek, thin layers of pastry filled with cheese and spinach. My uncles and aunts all talk at the same time and the room gets loud and warm. My little cousins chase each other around the table and nobody tells them to stop.
What does your family do when everyone gets together? I think the food and the noise are what make it feel like home.
Fun Facts
- Turkey sits on two continents, Europe and Asia, with the city of Istanbul straddling both sides of the Bosphorus Strait.
- Turkish people drink more tea per person than any other country in the world, even more than England or China.
- Dondurma (Turkish ice cream) contains a special ingredient from wild orchid roots called salep that makes it stretchy and resistant to melting.
- The Turks brought coffee to Europe in the 1500s, and the word “coffee” comes from the Turkish word kahve.
- Turkey is home to some of the oldest known human settlements on Earth, including the 9,000-year-old city of Catalhoyuk.
How to Pray for the Turk
- Pray that Turkish families who gather every Friday at the mosque would hear the good news about Jesus, fewer than 1 in 10,000 Turkish people follow Him.
- Pray for Turkish grandparents like Emre’s grandfather, who pass down traditions to the next generation, that God would reveal Himself to whole families at once.
- Pray for courage for the tiny number of Turkish believers, who often face pressure from their families and communities for their faith.
How Kids Can Help
- Pray: Pray for Turkish children every time you drink a cup of tea or hot chocolate, let it remind you of the little tulip-shaped tea glasses they use.
- Learn: Look up Turkey on a map and find the Bosphorus Strait that splits Istanbul between two continents. Share what you learn with a friend.
- Share: Tell your church or Sunday school class about the Turkish people and how very few of them have ever heard about Jesus.
- Give: Ask your parents about organizations that send Bibles and share the gospel with Turkish-speaking people.
Scripture to Remember
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14, ESV)