For ten years the church slowly grew as new believers joined. During this time, the small congregation met in houses, picnic areas and other places. In 1999, The International Church of Antalya built a building in the busy Kaleici area of Antalya. Paul Cultural Center and was built to facilitate cultural activities as well as church meetings. Since then the Turkish congregation has rented space fo
r its church meetings. We started meeting there with just twenty-two people. For 16 years the Turkish church has met, served others in this building and has now appr. 180 members and many visitors on a regular basis. Our ministries include: Women, men, youth, children, home groups, prayer, biblical education, decipleship and leadership training, evangelism and outreach. In 2014 we opened up a branch in Alanya with now appr. 20 believers and in 2016 we will open up a 2nd church in Antalya. Turkey is the home of many places in the Bible, such as Ephesus, Colossae, Cappadoccia, Galatia, Perga, Antioch, and the seven churches of Revelation. Although Turkey is steeped in Christian history, today it is 99 percent Muslim. There are appr. 80 million people living in Turkey, but only between 4-6 thousand are Protestant Christians. Turkey is the only country which lies on two continents: Europe and Asia. Turkey is neighbor to Bulgaria and Greece in the west, Russia in the north, Syria and Iraq in the south, and Armenia and Georgia in the east.
