Meridian grad leads Christian mission in Turkey

Timothy Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

David Byle

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Believe it or not, being beaten with sticks by “angry nationalists” and then spending nights in jail is not the toughest part of David Byle’s work with Bible Correspondence Course (BCC) in Turkey.
  He said the hardest part is simply getting to all the work that needs to be done with limited time and resources available.
  Byle, a 1987 Meridian High School graduate, now has a variety of roles with BCC, including as chairman of the BCC’s leadership team and head of the personnel department.
  He is also the leader of the weekly street evangelism team that is linked through the BCC and is comprised of Christian believers from various churches and groups in the area.
  “Each week we go to various parts of the city,” he wrote in an e-mail interview. “Sometimes we will use various methods to draw a crowd to listen to us tell them about Jesus, or we will walk up to people and start conversations with them to tell them about Jesus.”
  Byle also puts together evangelistic activities for short-term mission teams coming to Istanbul and heads a team of workers that come to Turkey to help where needed.
  He said that being able to share his faith so freely (especially in a Muslim country that actually has religious freedom) and seeing God change lives has been the most rewarding aspect of his work.
  And while he has been punched and beaten with sticks and spent nights in jail because of the street evangelism, the pressure of having so much work and interpersonal conflict are the biggest challenges he faces.
  After graduating from Meridian, Byle earned his bachelor of arts degree from Wheaton College in Chicago in 1991 and then his masters of divinity in 1994 from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois.
  He read the biography of Amazon missionary Jim Elliot, titled “Shadow of the Almighty,” his senior year at Meridian. The impact prompted Byle to do two short-term missions to Hungary during his years at Wheaton, which confirmed his desire to make a career of mission work.
  After seminary, Byle spent one year traveling with George Verwer, the founder of Operation Mobilization, and met his German wife Ulrike while in Turkmenistan.
  Because he was a Christian, the couple was forced from Turkmenistan. They then landed in Turkey.
  David and Ulrike have five children: Johannes, 9; Rebecca, 7; Esther, 6; Amy, 4; and Daniel, 2.
  The family usually makes it back to Whatcom County every two years and hopes to return in the summer or fall of 2008.
  E-mail Timothy Newcomb at tim@lyndentribune.com.