21st April, 2010

MICHAEL IRELAND

Assist News Service

In the past twenty years, Kevin Turner has been shot at, shelled, avoided roadside bombs, attacked by an angry mob and has borne witness to some of the most horrific atrocities imaginable.

"The work has been incredibly rewarding for Turner, such as the time he witnessed a wheelchair-bound girl stand up and run in Pakistan and when his team was able to show the 'Jesus Film' to armed Muslims inside Osama Bin Laden's former home in Sudan."

During that time, he has also endured a severe bout of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a case an experienced physician said was "the worst he had ever seen."

But Turner has also seen countless lives transformed through his efforts and on April 13th, 2010 he marked twenty years of working internationally in war zones, disaster areas and places where Christians are persecuted.

"It has been an incredible journey and given the opportunity, I would do it all over again," said Turner, president of Strategic World Impact (SWI), an international ministry that is committed to working in the world's "hot spots."

"There have been times when I've thought I would never make it this far, but by the grace of God, I have endured," he added.

Turner's remarkable journey began shortly after a conversion to Christ on January 22nd, 1989. His past efforts included stints with New Frontiers and The Voice of the Martyrs before founding Strategic World Impact in 1998.

During that time, he has traveled and ministered in over 120 countries, which include Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Sudan, Pakistan and Burma.

The work has been incredibly rewarding for Turner, such as the time he witnessed a wheelchair-bound girl stand up and run in Pakistan and when his team was able to show the Jesus Film to armed Muslims inside Osama Bin Laden's former home in Sudan.

But the danger and intensity of the ministry have exacted a heavy toll as well, affecting Turner's physical and emotional health.

His PTSD condition, diagnosed in 2008, was the result of years of prolonged trauma exposure, triggered by witnessing such things as vultures eating the bodies of children in Sudan and several women being cut down by helicopter gunships while running at his side in that same country.

"In this line of work, you see things that change you forever," said Turner.

"But at the same time, I've been blessed with being a part of some amazing and miraculous events, and have been given the opportunity to be salt and light in some very dark places of the world."

Discipled by the late revivalist Leonard Ravenhill, Turner has spoken in churches all over the world, often emphasising the cost of discipleship and the willingness to put the needs of others before oneself.

At 41, Turner has no plans of slowing down. SWI currently has ongoing projects in Haiti, Africa and Central Asia, and will be hosting its annual, week-long Disaster Assistance Response Training (DART) conference in June.

In an interview I conducted with Turner in August, 2006, he called himself "a Terrorist of Love, consumed by a King." Some have even called him "a real-life Indiana Jones."

Turner admitted to freeing enslaved children, having been marked for death by Islamic fundamentalists, having narrowly escaped death multiple times, and being an eyewitness to unspeakable suffering.

Turner's ministry, Strategic World Impact (SWI), is an international mission organisation headquartered in northeastern Oklahoma, which focuses on areas of war, disaster and Christian persecution, and has sent humanitarian teams over the years to some of the most dangerous areas in the world including Iraq, Sudan, Burma, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"We're the tip of the spear," said Turner, who along with his wife, founded the organisation in 1998. "There's so much suffering in these areas and we're willing to place our lives on the line to help those in need."

Turner is all too familiar with the dangers.

"I often say that if you want to minister to terrorists, you have to become one for Jesus Christ."

In the past, he has been fired upon by helicopter gunships, attacked by an angry mob in Africa, and was moments away from being killed by Muslims who had put a contract out on his life.

However, SWI, which is mainly comprised of specially-trained Disaster Assistance Response Training (DART) teams, continues to press on despite the dangers.

Turner says his organization's services are necessary and relevant due to events unfolding in the Middle East and other areas of the world.

"With an exponential increase in war and natural disaster, it's important to be on the front lines, sharing our faith and offering hope. Foods, blankets, shelter and medicine are used as a key to unlock the hearts of the oppressed," he added.

Turner often campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers, oppression, and atrocities he's seen in his past 20 years of mission work, and has testified before the US Congress on several occasions.

"The things we experience and witness are unimaginable to most people. However, members of our teams continue their efforts in these difficult areas because they are willing to live for something greater than themselves."

For more than ten years Turner's Midwestern missions relief agency has trained Christians in how to respond to tragedy in some of the world's troubled hotspots, including bringing relief to some of the 53 million refugees in many countries around the world.

In June, Christian believers from across the United States will meet for the ministry's annual conference, known as Disaster Awareness Response Team (DART) Training - which started with little more than a dozen attendees and offered two classes: community health and disaster assessment.

The number of conferees has grown and the slate of course offerings ranges from Missions 101 to Biblical Storying, Understanding Islam and Disaster Medic Training, to Stewardship, Trauma Counseling and - my personal favorite - Land Mine Awareness, where this reporter defied middle-age and diabetes to crawl on his belly like a snake in order to be certified to travel to some of the world's most difficult locations with this one-of-a-kind missions group.

DART Training is the brainchild of Turner, who spent 15 years on the mission field in humanitarian relief work, including a 5-year stint in Bosnia where he narrowly missed being hit by incoming 155 millimeter shells.

Turner and the Bartlesville, Oklahoma-based ministry, specialise in bringing relief to war zones, disaster areas, and the persecuted church, which suffers human rights abuses in many areas of the world.

Turner's ministry organises the yearly conference to help teach Christians how to become involved in rapid response teams to areas of the world where terrorism, human rights violations and natural disasters abound.

"This is one of the best civilian training courses for missionaries and NGOs," says Dave Hamon, one of the many experts Turner has recruited to teach some of the skills necessary for Christians to be effective in areas of conflict and disaster around the world.

Turner faced his own personal crisis that led him to faith in Christ on Super Bowl Sunday in 1989.

"I didn't know the Gospel," said Turner in an opening session of the DART conference. "But I experienced it."

He tells of "being apprehended by the 'Hound of Heaven,' " until he experienced abandonment to Christ in his relationship with God.

During his time in Bosnia, Turner "learned to sleep with his boots on," he said. "The things I have seen changed my life."

He recalls seeing a five-year-old girl die from a shrapnel wound, the result of incoming shells fired from 18 kilometers away.

"It takes away your innocence," he said.

He challenges conferees to pray about positioning themselves not in maximum safety or with minimal risk, but in a place of maximum obedience to God, what he calls "a place of abandonment."

"Danger or risk is a misnomer in the Christian life - the Father of Lights doesn't abandon His sheep. God is never caught off-guard. Risk in His will is impossible," Turner said.

He called upon Christians to surrender their lives to follow Christ wherever it may lead.

"We live in abject poverty because we fail in obedience to Christ," he said.

Turner described experiencing "the Divine Apprehension" to such a degree that the world sees such obedience as reckless. Instead, he believes Christians should view the approach as "radical."

"Let it be said of us that we turned the world upside down. It's not extreme, it's your destiny."

~ www.swi.org

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