Update: Turkey
*Editor's note* We received the following update/correction to this story from our source today (April 24):
Some of what I wrote yesterday was from newspaper reports and was apparently exaggerated, particularly related to the torture involved. An autopsy report reported 20 knife wounds for the German brother, Tilmann, not 150. Fingers and ears being cut may also be fabrications.
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We received the following update on Saturday from a source in Turkey. The writer asks, "Is this the watershed we have been yearning and praying for these many years?" Let’s continue to pray that it is.
Many of you will have heard the most recent news of the torture and murder of 3 of our Christian brothers in Malatya, eastern Turkey.
This afternoon, the German brother Tillman was buried in Malatya. His wife and four children have decided to stay in that city. Nejati's body was flown to Izmir and we have just returned from the funeral. Over 250 believers, the provincial governor and mayor of a part of Izmir were present.
This event has shaken the country. It is one thing to be shot down and killed instantly but as details emerge on Turkish TV of terrible torture (Tillman's body has 156 stab wounds) before their throats were slit, many many Muslims in this country are in total confusion.
Pray that God will turn this around for His greater glory and more fruitfulness than we ever could have imagined.
As Nejati's wife said at the funeral this afternoon… " my husband was as Jesus to me, and now he is with the Jesus he loved so much. I am deeply honored to go on serving that same Jesus on earth…"
Is this the water-shed we have been yearning and praying for these many years?