Growing up in Tuscaloosa, Farris Turner attended First Baptist Church with her parents, who emphasized a relationship with Jesus over religion.
The Tuscaloosa native said she always felt called to ministry. In just second grade, Turner told her mother that they needed to move to China because there were people there who did not know Jesus.
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“Even when I was little, the Lord had already kind of laid on my heart the gospel being for everybody — for all people of all nations,” Turner said. “That’s always been something I’ve been passionate about.”
During high school, Turner went on her first long-term missions trip, which was to Ukraine and Romania. She enjoyed being on the missions field but decided to attend college at Belmont University in Nashville, graduating with a degree in global leadership studies and psychology.
Turner then interned with S-Cape, an antitrafficking organization in Cape Town, South Africa. She quickly fell in love with her work and the country.
Turner said that while she was there, she wrote in her journal, “Lord, please call me back here full time.”
God continued to work on her heart as she came back to the U.S. and received her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from the University of Alabama.
Turner then moved back to Nashville and became a therapist who specialized in working with teenagers and perinatal care for women. She attended The Church at Woodbine in Nashville, a branch of Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Wrestling with God
Turner recalls sitting in church soon after moving back to Nashville. An international missionary was telling his story.
“That whole sermon, I was wrestling with God,” Turner said. “I was pulling a Jonah.”
She told God He would have to make it clear if going overseas was His will for her. A woman approached her at the end of the service and gave her the answer.
“I don’t know what the Lord’s doing in your heart, but whatever He’s telling you to do, you need to go do it,” Turner recalls the woman saying to her. “I feel like I’m supposed to tell you that you’re sent.”
Turner said she feared going back overseas as a single woman. The lady also spoke to this fear.
“She goes, ‘I feel like I’m also supposed to share with you that I got called to go into ministry in South Africa as a single woman, and the Lord took care of me.’”
Farris Turner has been hired as the new, part-time young adults director at King of Kings Baptist Church in Cape Town, South Africa, beginning in August. She will also be a part-time therapist at Bright Hope Pregnancy Care Centre.
“The pieces have just kind of fallen into place of a position and a ministry in South Africa that fits perfectly with my passions and what I’m good at,” Turner said.
An eternal impact
Turner will work at the church’s new pregnancy crisis center with young girls who are pregnant due to assault.
“I’m hoping that the impact that I have is showing the power of the gospel through meeting the physical need of helping these girls heal their wounded hearts,” Turner said. “If we just tell them about Jesus and walk away, that’s not really showing the gospel in action.”
Providing other options
Abortion is not very accessible in South Africa. Many women give birth and abandon their children. Turner said baby boxes — places at churches where women could give up their children in hopes of giving the baby a better life — were recently outlawed.
“Our church just developed this pregnancy crisis center as a way to say, ‘There is another option.You have people that are going to walk alongside you,’” Turner said.
The center offers counseling and discusses adoption and is open to anyone, not just believers.
“The dream would be that these girls and young women would feel comfortable coming to our church and continuing to flourish in discipleship through the church,” Turner said. “That’s a long-term goal.”
Entering young adult ministry
The connection between Turner and King of Kings Baptist was forged long before Turner’s move. Turner actually visited once during her college missions trip, and her church in Nashville had a partnership with them. She recalls that while she loved the church, there were not many young people. Before starting her current position, she met with the pastor on Zoom, who voiced her former thoughts and expressed the need to launch a young adults ministry.
Turner’s special gift is discipleship. She said South Africa is a Christian country, but many people tend to mix their belief in Jesus with other spiritual forces.
Preparing for Africa
South Africa is a developing country, and Cape Town is very Westernized. However, wealth is still stratified as the country transitions from apartheid.
The process to obtain a work visa in South Africa usually takes around two to three months; however, God worked it out so she received her visa in two weeks.
South Africa also has strict work visa laws, so legally Turner cannot get paid for her ministry. She has trusted in God’s provision.
“I have to be fully funded by fundraising,” Turner said. “I was overwhelmed by it at first, but God has just shown up again and again and again.”
Turner is covered for her first year of missions in Cape Town. She has also started setting money aside for her second year. She said she will launch Aug. 3 and be gone for a minimum of two years. (on the mission field for two years? Launching the fundraising on Aug 3?)
“I am definitely open to staying,” Turner said. “I’m hoping the Lord just makes it super, super clear what I’m supposed to do at the end of the two years.”
Equipping the called
Turner said she encourages anyone contemplating missionary or ministry work to speak with someone doing it full time and to go forward since we are all called to share the gospel.
“Pray and ask the Lord to open opportunities for you,” Turner said. “He’s never not answered.”
Turner said she does not feel qualified for her job, but she knows God equips those He calls.
“The more broken you are, the more God’s power is going to show through you,” Turner said. “Don’t let the enemy point out your flaws when those are going to be the things that the Lord’s able to use to reach others.”
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