Several years ago we got to know David and Ulrike Byle. They are living in Istanbul, Turkey. Among other things, David volunteers with the Bible Correspondence Course, that seeks to bring the Scriptures to the Turkish people. This is the group that teams with TACO (Turkey Africa-Asia Creative Outreach) and does correspondence Bible studies.
Emergency Landing from New Covenant is going to Kyrgyzstan this summer on a short-term missions trip sponsored through TACO. You can learn more about this outreach ministry and how to support them by reading here.
In his latest email update, David writes about Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel, and Tilmann Geske - the three missionaries who were martyred in eastern Turkey for their faith in Christ. Necati and Ugur were Turkish Muslims who had converted to become followers of Jesus Christ.
You can read more about the details of the slaying here.
On the morning of 18 April, two of the murderers came to the office of Zirve Publishing House in Malatya. Among other things, they discussed the Christian faith with Necati Aydin, as they had done frequently over the previous months. On this particular morning, in addition to Tilmann Geske, the bookkeeper, Emin M., was also in the office. Everything seemed to be completely normal. In the course of the morning, M. left the office, not suspecting that he would never see Aydin and Geske alive again.
Shortly thereafter the three other assassins arrived and tied up the first two victims, while they threatened them with pistols. As soon as the victims were tied up, the murderers began stabbing them with knives all over their bodies. A short time later Ugur Yuksel came into the office; he was immediately grabbed by the murderers and tied up.
When the police arrived a few minutes later, the victims were still alive. The police demanded that the criminals open the door, at which they slit the throats of the victims. When the police forced the door and stormed the office, they found Aydin and Geske already dead. Yuksel was still alive and was rushed to a local hospital. In spite of emergency surgery and 51 units of blood, he died of his numerous and massive knife wounds.
The autopsy reports lead to the following picture: The bodies were covered with about 156 knife wounds in the pelvis area, lower body, anus, abdomen, and back. Their fingertips had been sliced repeatedly; and they had massive slashes on their necks which severed the windpipe and oesophagus.
The distinctively ritual manner of the murder, particularly the slicing of fingertips, is convincing observers of the consciously religious motivation of the assassins. The perpetrators seem to have been following the instructions of Sure 8:12, from the Koran. There it says (in the Rudi Paret German translation of the Koran), "I will strike terror into the hearts of unbelievers. Flay their necks (with a sword) and strike every finger." The last half of the sentence is translated in even more striking terms in some versions. In the Rassoul and Zaidan translation it says, "chop off every finger;" the Azhar and Ahmadeyya translation says, "chop off every finger tip."
David Byle, who himself has been jailed numerous times writes:
"We’ve seen this play out many times now: after persecution, the natural human response would be to become fearful and more cautious, but what often happens is that the persecution—far from making believers more timid—actually causes many of them to become MORE BOLD, to take MORE RISKS for the gospel—just like it happened with Paul’s imprisonment mentioned in Phil. 1:14."
"You can't imagine the sense of honor and pride there is in helping to bury a true martyr of Jesus Christ. In Turkey it is customary for all able-bodied men to help shovel the dirt on the casket immediately after the graveside service. This was an honor that I shall never forget..."
You can read an email from Susanne Geske, the widow of Tilmann Geske here. You can watch a YouTube news report of the incident here. And this YouTube video call Thou Shalt Not Share Christ is very good.
Turkey is a country of 66 million people with only 2500 known evangelical Christians. Please pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who daily suffer persecution, rejection and possible death.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony: they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11
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