I had been thinking for some time that I wanted to start blogging again and started writing this blog from my lovely hotel room in Van, Turkey, and then life happened as I returned home! So it is time to tell a bit of the journey.
 |
| Lake Van |
For years, I have looked forward to travelling to East
Turkey with a friend who I worked with on the Reconciliation Walk. As the director of the Lutheran Orient Mission Society (LOMS), he has developed programs for the Kurds over the last twenty – five years that I have always wanted to visit. In a region of political instability, LOMS work has developed the lives of Kurdish families and especially young women
through the arts and various traditional handicrafts coops.
I arrived in Turkey on the 19th and heard on arrival that President Erdogun had declared a state of emergency in the country. So
the backdrop of the trip was this amazing time in Turkey's history and seeing the streets filled with followers of
Erdogun waving Turkish flags and beeping their horns until late in the night. Even as we arrived in Van, there were daily and nightly demonstrations of allegiance. Besides this, we heard about the ongoing destructive work of the PKK trying to stir up war with the Turks despite most
Kurds in the area wanting to be at peace and having seen life improve under
President Erdogun. With the war in Syria and Iraq not too far away, it made me want to know how are these people dealing with life.
 |
| Main Street |
In the midst of this uncertainties, what has struck me the
most was how life just went on as if all was normal. There was bustling commerce and building going on, and we attended a beautiful wedding event. They have had political
struggles for 40 years and yet they have seen a steady growth of more freedom and less
violence until recently.
But with all of that happening around them politically, we visited two LOMS projects that inspired me. We met young musicians and singers working on their artistic skills led by a woman
singer who is famous in this region for her Kurdish folk songs..songs mainly sung by men.
Eating dinner with her and her extended family, we heard stories about the battle
for more freedom to express her craft. The next day we visited her music
school across the street from our hotel, and met about 10 young musicians, male
and female who spontaneously started performing with a young woman who was travelling with us. She is a musician and had been working with LOMS teaching music and English for the past year. Like all musicians, it wasn't too long until they were jamming together with different voices and instruments leading the way. Wonderful.
We also visited a woman’s coop where the women learn traditional carpet weaving skills and they make the pieces into purses that are exquisite. LOMS website http://lutheran-mideast.org/ ) shows the bags that one can purchase and tells a bit about the women. Click on the tab "Girls Believing in Themselves". The coop also runs sewing
classes to help the young women develop their sewing skills as well as running a variety
of life skills courses that help them improve their lives. The money earned from these crafts helps raise more income for their families and often then it allows them to send their daughters to school. In a region were
the percentage of illiteracy for women has been high, LOMS has documented how
more young women are going to school and are marrying at an older age with more
choices in choosing who they want to marry. It has been the steady investment of a Christian organization helping Kurdish Muslim families that just inspires me.
As I have walked through these days discovering the beauty
of the people and their land which sits on roads leading to Armenia, Iran, and
Iraq, one feels the weight of history. The words of Isaiah’s vision for God’s
Kingdom filled my mind. “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There He will teach us his ways, and we will
walk in his paths....The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle
international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and
their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation,
nor train for war anymore. Isaiah 2: 3 – 4
This was my prayer for this region where the scars of war and
ethnic divides have destroyed so many lives, and yet there is hope in the midst
of darkness. God's ways of peace are being learned as young people learn to develop their talents, and young
women design purses and crafts that show the beauty of a tribal craft. Lives
being built up instead of being torn down. God is good!
