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Making a Difference for Syrian Refugees in Southeastern Turkey
Episode 5 • 10th July 2023 • Listening for Clues • On the Journey with Jon & Lauren
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Listening for Clues is pleased to present our new series, "Good News!" featuring weekly conversations with people who are making a difference, large or small. We want everyone to know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how. So, our listeners and viewers can experience the good news and go out and make a difference themselves.

Making a Difference for Syrian Refugees in Southeastern Turkey

We are honored to have Jeff Hual as our guest for this episode, a story of friendship and collaboration between two faithful persons, one a Muslim and the other a Christian..

The Reverend Jeff Hual is an Episcopal priest serving at All Hallows Parish in the Diocese of Maryland. Together with his longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Hakan Gulerce, Jeff works as an advocate for the rights and needs of Syrian refugees in Southeastern Turkey, a migrant group whom the world has largely forgotten and who for the most part live in the most dire circumstances.

Highlights:

[00:00:00] Introduction and Welcome 

[00:00:50] Why the Program Started 

[00:06:38] Donations Begin to Make a Real Difference 

[00:09:13] Near Eastern Approach to Problems: All About Relationships 

[00:10:11] Challenges Along the Way 

[00:11:25] This Program is Based on Love

[00:14:29] Barriers 

[00:17:04] How is Fundraising Going? 

[00:18:13] The Holy Spirit at Work 

[00:20:25] How Can People Help? 

[00:21:53] How to Reach Fr. Hual 

[00:22:53] Thanks

For more information or to contact Fr. Hual:

Jeff's Website

Jeff's Facebook page

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Listening for Clues invites you into conversations that discover clues, rather than solutions to life’s problems. Join the journey with Jon Shematek and Lauren Welch, Episcopal deacons, as we explore whatever lies ahead. Check our website Listening for Clues.

© 2023 Listening for Clues

Transcripts

Jon:

Welcome to Good News, brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Lauren:

We are Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek Deacons in the

Lauren:

Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

Jon:

And today we're gonna have some good news about Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Jon:

We have a special guest with us today, Father Jeff Hual, who's the rector of All

Jon:

Hallows Church in Davidsonville, Maryland.

Jon:

And Jeff, you've been involved with Syrian refugees in Southeast Turkey

Jon:

for some time and we're just really excited that you're here today and

Jon:

can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Jeff:

Thank you very much.

Jeff:

Thank you for having me.

Lauren:

So, Jeff, Jon and I were really inspired at the election convention

Lauren:

when you spoke about this ministry.

Lauren:

So now we want you to share how you got involved and what you were doing now,

Jeff:

you know, that's not a short answer as far as how I got

Jeff:

involved in this because it was something that just happened.

Jeff:

you know, in our line of work, we tend to say that the Holy

Jeff:

Spirit caused this to happen.

Jeff:

And that's the best answer that I could possibly give because, you know,

Jeff:

if we claim love as God's principle attribute, this is a ministry that

Jeff:

grew out of love and friendship.

Jeff:

It started nine years ago with a friend of mine I went to Turkey on a seminary

Jeff:

immersion tour that was sponsored by a small religious association in Istanbul.

Jeff:

And I became friends with the director of this little association, a guy named Hakan

Jeff:

Gulerce and this association was Because of the theologian that they follow.

Jeff:

A 20th century scholar named Said Nursi, they were seeking to foster

Jeff:

relationships with Christian communities.

Jeff:

This was something that Nursi felt was very important.

Jeff:

And so they sponsored us, you know, as a way for us to get to know them

Jeff:

and for them to get to know us.

Jeff:

Yes.

Jeff:

And then shortly after that, Hakan was sent by the association to do

Jeff:

a one year diploma in Christian Studies at my seminary, and that's

Jeff:

where we really became close friends.

Jeff:

And then when we graduated in my graduation photo, he and I are

Jeff:

actually sitting side by side in that.

Jeff:

I wish, wish I had a copy of it, but little did I know.

Jeff:

So this was back when Virginia Seminary still had the second three years program

Jeff:

where after you graduated from three years of seminary, they tried to help you with

Jeff:

your first three years in ministry to make sure it was a positive experience.

Jeff:

And one of the things they would do was to give you a grant to travel

Jeff:

somewhere to do some project.

Jeff:

And so, I traveled to Istanbul in in February of 2016 to meet with

Jeff:

Hakan, and we assumed we were gonna write an article about, you know,

Jeff:

a faithful Muslim and a faithful Christian who had become close friends.

Jeff:

But this was around the time that the news of just how bad the Syrian

Jeff:

refugee crisis was starting to finally bubble up onto the Western news.

Jeff:

And so I contacted Hakan and I said, we gotta make this something that

Jeff:

highlights the Syrian refugee crisis.

Jeff:

So I went off to Turkey in 2016 with the biggest luggage I've ever carried.

Jeff:

I had camping gear.

Jeff:

I didn't know if we were going to Greece.

Jeff:

I didn't know if we were going to Izmir.

Jeff:

I didn't know what we were doing.

Jeff:

And when I got there, Hakan said the Syrian refugees are right up the

Jeff:

hill from us, 50 meters up the hill.

Jeff:

Was a huge concentration of them living in overwhelmingly difficult conditions.

Jeff:

So we decided the best thing that we could do would be to make a video as a

Jeff:

faithful Muslim and a faithful Christian, encouraging Muslims and Christians

Jeff:

worldwide to find ways to cooperate to try and alleviate the suffering.

Jeff:

And we always viewed that as being an ongoing project that, I plan on

Jeff:

traveling back there in the summer and we would do more work together.

Jeff:

But then the failed coup attempt happened and suddenly everything exploded and my

Jeff:

friend disappeared from social media.

Jeff:

Oh, I had, I had no idea what had happened to him.

Jeff:

I had no way to get in contact with him.

Jeff:

Mm-hmm.

Jeff:

I would reach out to the seminary and ask, have you all heard from him?

Jeff:

And no one really knew what to think.

Jeff:

Little did I know though, that over those three years, Hakan was basically

Jeff:

whether he was doing it or God was doing it, his life was being rearranged.

Jeff:

Such that he, everything became about positioning him to be able to

Jeff:

do this work with Syrian refugees.

Jeff:

He completed his PhD in sociology and moved to Şanlıurfa, which

Jeff:

is southeastern Turkey, about 24 miles from the Syrian border.

Jeff:

It's the highest concentration of Syrian refugees.

Jeff:

When I say that it's a half a million refugees, which is.

Jeff:

Roughly the same number of refugees as in Istanbul, but in Istanbul there

Jeff:

are, you know, 15 million people, of which half a million are Syrians.

Jeff:

Whereas in Şanlıurfa it's one and a half million people took

Jeff:

in half a million Syrians.

Jeff:

So one in four citizens, there is a Syrian refugee.

Jeff:

It is considered possibly the poorest metropolitan statistical area in the

Jeff:

country of Turkey, especially since they took in so many Syrian refugees and Harran

Jeff:

University hired Hakan to be a professor of sociology and to be the director

Jeff:

of their Center for Migration Studies.

Jeff:

Which all of a sudden gave him carte blanche, quasi-governmental

Jeff:

authority to do the work we're doing.

Jeff:

And it was about that time he popped back up on Facebook.

Jeff:

So I said, How can we get involved?

Jeff:

How can we help?

Jeff:

He said, Abi, that means brother Abi.

Jeff:

We need wheelchairs.

Jeff:

Apparently a lot of people had either lost wheelchairs in getting

Jeff:

out of Syria, or they now needed wheelchairs because of the bombings.

Jeff:

And so All Hallows, I held a fun drive and we raised enough money to buy.

Jeff:

I think a dozen wheelchairs.

Jeff:

And we sent that over and Hakan bought wheelchairs for people who needed them.

Jeff:

And then I said, okay, what do you need now?

Jeff:

He said, well, we need educational materials.

Jeff:

So I started a fund drive to raise educational materials.

Jeff:

We raised we raised $2,400 to buy the wheelchairs, and I think we raised

Jeff:

$1600 to buy the educational supplies.

Jeff:

And then around the end of the year, this was 2019, a member of my

Jeff:

congregation approached me and said, I just inherited some appreciated

Jeff:

stock that I need to give away.

Jeff:

I want to give it to All Hallows, and I want you to use all of

Jeff:

it for aiding Syrian refugees.

Jeff:

And it turned, yeah.

Jeff:

Wow.

Jeff:

It turned out to be, I think it was $30,000 in appreciated McDonald's stock.

Jeff:

Which at the exchange rates at the time, even now one Turkish

Jeff:

lira is worth about a nickel.

Jeff:

So that translated to 600,000 Turkish lira, which means the same thing in their

Jeff:

society that $600,000 would mean here.

Jeff:

And, and so, I called Hakan and I said let's dream big.

Jeff:

What are we gonna do?

Jeff:

And it just kind of grew, started growing organically, but of course I

Jeff:

had no idea what was going on except that I was, I was raising money.

Jeff:

Because, you know, right after Hakan resurfaces and we've got this infusion

Jeff:

of cash and we're about to start making these plans, COVID pandemic hit.

Jeff:

And so I continued raising money here and he built, was building a program

Jeff:

and the only contact we could have was by email, phone, or you know, FaceTime.

Jeff:

And it was not until June of last year that I was able to go visit.

Jeff:

That was the first time since the 2016 visit that I was able

Jeff:

to go over and I was amazed.

Jeff:

Ed, what Hakan and his wife Rukia and some other core volunteers have built.

Jeff:

It is a fabulous, multifaceted, long-term aid program that has all of the

Jeff:

hallmarks of how a near Eastern society would seek to approach the problem.

Jeff:

It is all built.

Jeff:

Relationally.

Jeff:

It is all built on becoming friends, finding out what people need.

Jeff:

This, this is not, you know car drives up.

Jeff:

How many people in your family pop your trunk and we put the

Jeff:

food pantry food in your trunk.

Jeff:

This is, how can we help you?

Jeff:

What do you need?

Jeff:

How can we best approach that?

Jeff:

How can we solve, help you solve the problems that you need solved?

Jeff:

And I was absolutely amazed.

Jeff:

At what we've been able to do.

Jeff:

And I continued to raise money after that.

Jeff:

I think prior to the earthquake in February, we had raised $55,000 at

Jeff:

that point which translated to you know, roughly a million Turkish lira.

Jeff:

And then the earthquake happened.

Jeff:

And Şanlıurfa was 220 kilometers east of the epicenter.

Jeff:

And so the, the challenge there was the government was offering plenty of

Jeff:

aid to help citizens, but there was no help available for Syrian refugees.

Jeff:

So I jumped in and we started fundraising again, and thanks to the kindness of

Jeff:

so many people that was what I stood up and spoke about that day at St.

Jeff:

John's Ellicott City, was the fact that I think to date we've raised

Jeff:

another $45,000 to help Syrian refugees with earthquake relief.

Jeff:

And so it's turned into a hundred thousand dollars program that started out with.

Jeff:

How can we help?

Jeff:

Hey, could you raise some money for some wheelchairs and a hundred

Jeff:

thousand dollars later we're, we're, we're doing all sorts of things.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

That, that is really awesome.

Jon:

What a, what a story.

Jon:

I mean, what's so amazing to me too about this is, this grew out of, as you

Jon:

said, I think at the beginning of, of friendship and something that was based on

Jon:

two people of faith, of different faiths who sometimes don't relate that well.

Jon:

So this is a, this is a, an amazing story of that friendship and what's possible.

Jon:

Yeah, yeah,

Jeff:

yeah.

Lauren:

Well, and, and the fact that the program itself is relational.

Lauren:

Mm-hmm.

Lauren:

Thank you for, thank you for mentioning that.

Lauren:

I think that's really important.

Lauren:

Yeah.

Lauren:

Did that surprise you?

Jeff:

No.

Jeff:

Knowing Hakan the way I do I assumed it would be like that.

Jeff:

Teaching at the university.

Jeff:

, he got a lot of students involved, and he's built a team around the program

Jeff:

of about 30 college age volunteers.

Jeff:

And they're broken up roughly evenly Turkish, Kurdish, and Arabic.

Jeff:

The Arabic volunteers.

Jeff:

Were Syrian students who several years ago the government decided that the

Jeff:

Syrian refugee students would not be able to go to state University for

Jeff:

free, which in Turkey a Turkish citizen who has the grades goes to state

Jeff:

university tuition and books paid for.

Jeff:

When that decision was made towards Syrian refugees, we immediately picked

Jeff:

up a dozen Syrian students that we started paying their tuition in books.

Jeff:

Which sounds like a lot of money, but it actually only turned out

Jeff:

to be $300 a year per student.

Jeff:

Wow.

Jeff:

And yeah.

Jeff:

And then those folks folded into the program as volunteers

Jeff:

wanting, wanting to give back.

Jeff:

Mm-hmm.

Jeff:

Mm-hmm.

Jeff:

And, and then the Syrian students and the Kurdish students and the Turkish students

Jeff:

have all become amazing lifelong friends.

Jeff:

And it is that love, you know.

Jeff:

My love for Hakan, Hakan's love for me, our love for the students.

Jeff:

The students love for each other.

Jeff:

It's like the Upper Room, you know, it's like all of that love is just

Jeff:

flowing out from that little group.

Jeff:

Mm-hmm.

Jeff:

And it's overwhelming the number of things that it's able to do.

Lauren:

So it really is about love.

Jeff:

It is at its base.

Jeff:

I mean, it doesn't get any more grassroots than.

Jeff:

Then what this is and the, and, and as we equate God, as love and Christ as

Jeff:

the incarnated expression of that and the Holy Spirit as the one who comes

Jeff:

alongside us and leads us in that love.

Jeff:

Mm-hmm.

Jeff:

I have no other place to attribute this except to God.

Jeff:

Right.

Jon:

And my guess is that your colleagues in Turkey have the same sense.

Jon:

They know they have this, this is something from God.

Jon:

This is something absolutely.

Jon:

From God.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Wow.

Jon:

So, so Jeff, did you have you know, you mentioned so many of the kind

Jon:

of barriers along the way with the the pandemic and earthquakes.

Jon:

And this sounds very, this sounds like the beginning of the church in, in a way too.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jeff:

Well, the failed coup attempt.

Jeff:

Yes.

Jon:

Yes.

Jon:

The failed coup attempt, all of that.

Jon:

Those were all huge barriers.

Jon:

Did you have other kinds of, personal barriers or other kinds

Jon:

of issues that came in there that made this really tough to do?

Jon:

Or were were you just kind of like on a roll for all these years?

Jeff:

No.

Jeff:

Well, bear in mind there was a huge gap.

Jeff:

There was a three year gap when Hakan disappeared, and little

Jeff:

did I know on his end just how much was changing in his life.

Jeff:

And he would from time to time, send me a video.

Jeff:

It was so funny, after I left and, we couldn't get back together.

Jeff:

And then when we got back together and I started raising money here it

Jeff:

was just sort of an academic thing.

Jeff:

Oh, well this is Father Jeff's project, you know, and he's raising money for it.

Jeff:

But it didn't really come up on a lot of radar.

Jeff:

Until April of 2022, when suddenly I had just had covid, my whole family

Jeff:

had it, and I had recovered from it.

Jeff:

And for the first time since 2016, I.

Jeff:

The State Department suddenly lowered the travel warnings to, you

Jeff:

know, two, which four is do not go.

Jeff:

Two is exercise, increased caution, which you know, most of Europe is two

Jeff:

but then I made the decision to go and that was when I started getting

Jeff:

pushback locally here and there.

Jeff:

Things that I didn't expect from people I wouldn't expect, and I,

Jeff:

I don't want to put point at any one person or group, but I started

Jeff:

catching whispers in the background.

Jeff:

Why are we doing this kind of work with Muslims on the other side of the world

Jeff:

when there are people here who need help?

Jeff:

Well, and my answer to that was always, well, for whatever reason, God has

Jeff:

shown me this clear path to do this.

Jeff:

Right now, Beyond Jeff Abi and Hakan Abi and this little team of volunteers

Jeff:

right now we're, we are the last NGO standing in Şanlıurfa . Yeah.

Jeff:

Everybody else is pulled out

Jon:

So your main kind of intervention in a way at this point, or the main

Jon:

thing you are doing personally is besides maintaining the relationship, which I

Jon:

get is absolutely key is fundraising.

Jon:

Is that right?

Jon:

And how fundraising, yeah.

Jon:

How are you doing that, Jeff?

Jon:

How's that going?

Jeff:

Asking people asking Any chance I get and also helping to educate

Jeff:

Americans about the Syrian refugee crisis.

Jeff:

This has largely not made our news media at all for 12 years.

Jeff:

And there have been little times when it's bubbled up, you know in 2016,

Jeff:

there was the image of a drowned refugee child washed up on the shore.

Jeff:

We all remember that.

Jeff:

There was an image about five years ago of a little girl who froze to

Jeff:

death in one of the encampments.

Jeff:

But by and large, we've ignored the situation.

Jeff:

And so part of what I, I feel I do is I'm that guy in the corner of the room

Jeff:

standing on my chair yelling at everybody.

Jeff:

What about the Syrians?

Jeff:

They need our help.

Jeff:

And, you know, if I can get an audience and I can talk to people, it doesn't

Jeff:

take long for them to see that we really should be involved in this work.

Jeff:

And that, that's mostly what I find my work is, is I be it, you know,

Jeff:

on, on this side of, of the Atlantic.

Jeff:

I try in my own small way and, and it seems to be growing you know mm-hmm.

Jeff:

The Holy Spirit is growing it, but in my own small way to be a voice for the need.

Jeff:

Sometimes I have people say, what, that's still going on.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Jeff:

It's been going on for 12 years.

Jeff:

And then when I'm on that side of, of the Atlantic when I'm with them in

Jeff:

Turkey, we go to the homes of our Syrian refugee families that we're working

Jeff:

with, and they want to meet this guy.

Jeff:

They, you know, if, if they could have their druthers, they'd all like to fly

Jeff:

over here and meet us because they can't believe that a western Christian community

Jeff:

has reached this, this far across the divide in love and is doing this kind

Jeff:

of work, is funding this kind of work.

Jeff:

It just, at every turn I meet people who are surprised.

Jeff:

It breaks their stereotype of what a re Western Christian is.

Jeff:

And isn't that a big part of what we need to be doing?

Jeff:

As I, I see with the work that I'm doing there is missionary work.

Jeff:

It's, you know, it's missionary work is not just about proclaiming the gospel.

Jeff:

Sometimes it is about changing people's minds, opening pathways.

Jon:

Yeah, living the love.

Jon:

I mean, it's so clear that it's coming from your heart, this whole this.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Absolutely clear.

Jon:

Oh yeah.

Jon:

Wow, Jeff.

Jon:

Amazing.

Jon:

This is what a fantastic story and and I'm just I'm so honored to hear

Jon:

it and to get to meet you this way.

Jon:

This is just great.

Jeff:

Well, thank you for inviting me.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

So let me ask, since I know you say you just ask people and they give you

Jon:

money, hopefully, how can our viewers and listeners support you, support

Jon:

this ministry, this mission, this outreach of international healing?

Jon:

How can they help?

Jeff:

Well, help me get the word out.

Jeff:

Educate yourselves.

Jeff:

We need to educate ourselves on the Syrian crisis.

Jeff:

We need to be aware of it.

Jeff:

Probably the best source is if you have PBS Passport, go back

Jeff:

through past episodes of PBS Frontline who did a brilliant job of

Jeff:

covering when they could the Syrian conflict and the refugee crisis.

Jeff:

Reid the wonderful book by Christine Leftier, "The Beekeeper of Aleppo;"

Jeff:

it is a fictitious story that very accurately details what it was like to

Jeff:

be a Syrian refugee trying to escape at the height of the crisis in 2016.

Jeff:

Google, Turkey, Syrian refugees.

Jeff:

Pull up the news, look at it, be aware of it.

Jeff:

Also, beyond that, if you are in my geographic area and

Jeff:

you need a guest speaker for anything, Please reach out to me.

Jeff:

I'll come tell the story.

Jeff:

I'm glad to I talk about it with any group.

Jeff:

Any group that will have me

Jon:

Great, Jeff.

Jon:

So how can actually people reach you?

Jon:

Would it be through the All Hallows website?

Jon:

Contact information is on the All Hallows website allhallowsparish.org.

Jon:

. On Facebook.

Jon:

Great.

Jon:

We'll have those links in the show notes for people to yeah.

Jon:

Access easily.

Jon:

So we wanna definitely make sure that that people can reach you and be part of this.

Jeff:

And also if you would like to give a donation, mm-hmm.

Jeff:

You know I tell people all the time, you're never going to find a more,

Jeff:

what do they call the, the people who rate charities a blue chip charity.

Jeff:

I mean, literally every single dollar that gets donated goes

Jeff:

directly to a Syrian refugee in need.

Jeff:

There's, I mean, occasionally we have to pay a $50 Trans

Jeff:

International bank fund transfer fee.

Jeff:

That's the only overhead.

Jeff:

Mm-hmm.

Jeff:

Wow.

Jon:

So if anyone wants to support financially, learn about this, act on it.

Jon:

Yes.

Jon:

Be part of it.

Jon:

It's there.

Jon:

It's there for you.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Well, thanks.

Jon:

Thanks once again.

Lauren:

Thank you.

Jon:

It's been an honor.

Jeff:

You're welcome.

Lauren:

Thank you for being with us.

Lauren:

You, you've inspired, I know the viewers and our listeners,

Lauren:

just like you did Jon and I.

Jeff:

I hope so.

Jeff:

I hope so.

Lauren:

So we want to thank all of the viewers and listeners today.

Lauren:

We are really grateful for your participation.

Lauren:

We cannot do this without you.

Lauren:

We ask you to please comment, like, share this on all of

Lauren:

your social media if you wish.

Lauren:

Until next time, peace and blessings.

Jon:

Good news is being brought to you by listening for clues.

Jon:

You can find us on our website listeningforclues.com our YouTube

Jon:

channel or Vimeo channel, and just about every podcast platform that there is.

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