Life audio. Hi from the Salvation Army, and you're listening to Words of Life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Welcome back to Words of Life.
This is part three of a three-part conversation we had with our guest, Lieutenant Colonel Eddie Hopkin. He joined us to share his testimony as well as talk about his latest book, which documents the life of Joe the Turk. If you'd like to grab a copy of this book, check out the show notes for any of the last three episodes, and we'll have links on where to purchase. You have been a part of groundbreaking work for years. I mean, you started the work that ended up being Transmission, which is, you know, the Southern Territory's still current contemporary Christian group that's creating resources for people to use and worship.
You were a big part of that. You've published a book about that character that you performed in Washington, D.C. back in 1992. And that had become a passion for you. I remember you collecting articles and just constantly doing work at home that none of us really knew the depth of until you started showing us some of the things that you were finding.
Yeah. Tell us about that. Who is this guy, Joe the Turk? I was first of all introduced to Joe Turk as a junior soldier because For those of you that don't know what Junior Soldiers is, but it's really kind of like junior church, a Bible study for elementary age kids. And in the day when I was a junior soldier, it was a combination of Bible study and Salvation Army history.
And one particular season, the Salvation Army produced these trading cards, like we do the baseball cards of Salvation Army heroes of the faith. And Joe the Turk was one of those heroes of the face.
So that was my really first introduction to him, but it was just a trading card, his picture on the front, and about. a paragraph about him on the back, and that was it.
So when I was asked to do this presentation about Joe in Washington DC, I started doing some research, and there was nothing to be found. I mean, scarce little to be found.
So after that, I'm like, you know what? I've got to find out some more stuff about this guy because he's so interesting. I don't know what it is, but I feel this kinship to him.
So whenever I would have the privilege to go to the National Headquarters of the Salvish Army in Washington, D.C. and the territorial headquarters in New York, I would always schedule a day to stay over just to do research. And so I started digging through the files and old war cries, the National Periodical of the Salvation Army, the war cry, back to the very beginning of it, its history in the United States, and started finding article after article after article. And then I took out a subscription for a year to newspapers.com. and started going through every one of those years to see what newspaper articles I could find.
And I accumulated twelve four inch binder note books full of War Cry, newspaper, personal correspondence, Salvation Army correspondence. And so I had this like this real treasure trove of stuff and found out things of Joe that nobody living would have had any idea. About, and so I'm like, okay, this is this has got to become a book, but you know, I'm not a book writer. I probably could have done it years earlier than I did, but I just didn't feel like I had that kind of capacity in me.
So I kind of put it off and I made up the excuse. I need to transcribe it all into Word documents because some of it was pretty tattered and torn and had to get a magnifying glass to read some of it. But I did. I got it all done and then I had no more excuses. And by this time, I had retired from active Salvation Army officership.
And so in my evenings, I would take a couple of hours each night just to get it all organized by year, chronologically, and then started going through and picking out what I thought were the most interesting and obscure. Stories about Joe. And it took me about eight months to actually write the book. Actually, my excuse helped me write it a lot more easily than I could have because I had it transcribed. And I could just copy and paste and copy and paste.
And then, you know, Write it out into my own words.
So, yeah. Right. Hey, you're listening to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. We're going to take a quick ad break, and we'll be right back. At Thrive Ent, planning your finances is bigger than money.
It's a way to support the people, causes, and community you love. Because helping you put your faith into action is at the heart of what we do. ThriveEnt, where money means more. Connect with us at Thriveant.com. Eddie, the thing about your story to me and Joe the Turk and all of the parallels that exist are, you know, this guy's a colorful character.
He was someone that wanted attention, but not for himself. He was trying to draw people to Jesus, which has defined your life. Tell our listeners more about Joe the Turk. Who was this guy? Yeah.
Well, Joe was a a Turkish immigrant. Actually, Armenian immigrant born in Turkey, and he had to flee Turkey because of the persecution of the Armenians by the Turks. Armenia is a Christian nation. And because the Armenians would not convert to Mohammedism, they were persecuted. And by the hundreds of thousands, they were murdered.
So Joe fled Turkey. And uh Went to live with his brother Simon, who lived in the United States in Worcester, Massachusetts. Along the way, he missed his connection. The ship missed its connection in England and had to spend eight days in Liverpool. While he was in Liverpool, he encountered the Salvation Army.
He didn't speak any English, so he didn't really understand, except there was a priest who was traveling with him who spoke English.
So he understood what was happening and said, you know, these are religious people, they're good people. But he saw them being persecuted. Back in the day, we're talking the late 1800s. Joe was born in 1860. He left in the early 1880s to come to the United States.
So the Army was being heavily persecuted by another Army called the Skeleton Army, which were these ruffians that were hired by bartenders and drug dealers to run the army off because the army was getting people saved left and right at their open air meetings. And people were getting saved, stopped drinking, stopped doing drugs, stopped being prostitutes. And so these people who were benefiting off of this work didn't like it.
So let's get rid of the Salvation Army.
So the Army was getting beaten up left and right badly.
So Joe saw this happening. Before the eight days were over, he was following behind the Salvation Army parade with a big stick, whacking anybody that came up to try to bother them.
So he leaves, he goes to America. He forgets about the Salvation Army. He lives with his brother Simon for about a year. And then he gets this urge to go west, young man. And so he does.
Makes his way to San Francisco, California. And he falls into this kind of bad life himself, drinking and fighting and brawling and all this sort of stuff. But about six months after he arrives in San Francisco, the Salvation Army does as well. He reconnects with them. And again, he sees the Army being persecuted for the very same reasons it was in England.
And he kind of becomes the Army's unofficial bodyguard, doing the same thing, beating people off, not getting converted yet. But one night he witnesses an open-air meeting where the bass drummer gets smashed in the face with a whiskey bottle and just destroys the guy's face and he falls to the ground. And the guy Although he's bleeding profusely and he's in this pain, he finds his drumstick and he starts beating it and encouraging the salvationists: you know, I'm messed up here, but you're not. Keep preaching, keep playing, keep praying. And that melted Joe's heart.
And that night, he knelt on the street corner in front of that drum and he gave his heart to Jesus Christ. And he, shortly thereafter, became a Salvation Army officer. He spent the next 38 years of his life traveling the United States. preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray that you're enjoying and being blessed by this conversation.
We're going to take one more ad break and we'll be right back. At Thrive Ent, planning your finances is bigger than money. It's a way to support the people, causes, and community you love because helping you put your faith into action is at the heart of what we do. Thrive In, where money means more. Connect with us at Thriveant.com.
You talk about innovation and things like that. It's funny. When I flew into the airport this morning, there's a big sign coming down the escalator that says innovation, pass it on. And every time I see the word innovation, I think of Joe. He was the master of innovation.
And you got to remember, all salvationists in those days were innovators because they were doing something that had never been done before. Church on the street, you know, the military church, all these things that the Army brass banding, all of that was brand new. The Army was incredibly innovative in its early day. And Joe, I think, took it a step further because while he wore the traditional black uniform, he didn't like it. And so he adopted these multicolor uniforms that were very Turkish and Armenian in nature.
And they got him noticed when he would march up and down the street. He was a great musician. He could play instruments by ear, cornet, saxophone, clarinet, and he would utilize those in his open-air meetings. He'd stand on a chair, he'd play, and it would be like the Pied Piper. They would just come out by the hundreds and sometimes the thousands to hear him preach.
He looked at things that were just ordinary objects and figured out how he could use them for the gospel. A zona phone, which we know as a gramophone, which we know as a record player. When it first came out, he bought one and he got records of orchestras playing. And because he could play by ear, he would play along with them.
So it was like he was giving a concert. I say he was the original karaoke guy. That's right. You know, so those kinds of things, you know, the umbrella that had gospel slogans on it, you know, walking testimony everywhere he went. Just incredibly innovative.
And it was those kinds of things that drew people to hear him. The other thing, while he was not technically Turkish, You know, he was haphazardly given the nickname of Joe the Turk. That was not his name. His name was Nishander Garabedian, Joseph Garibed, shortened when he came to the States. But an Irish drinking buddy called him Joe the Turk one day.
You don't look like John, you look like a Joe, and you're from Turkey, so I'm going to call you Joe the Turk. And it stuck. But what you have to understand is during those days, the Turks, and you got to understand how rural America was. There was no television, no radio. It was the newspaper and the telegraph.
That was pretty much it. Turks were known as barbarians around the world because of the massacres and also because of their history of all the other nations that they conquered. And so when it was announced in the newspaper that a real live Turk was coming to town. Especially in the smaller communities, people would just come out of the woodwork to see this barbarian. And so all of these things he used to his advantage or to the advantage of proclaiming the gospel.
And of course, the other thing that he's very famous for is he was thrown into jail fifty two times during his officership. For preaching the gospel on the street corners. There was no such thing as freedom of speech for the Salvation Army in those days. Wow. And many, many times, and not just Joe, but across the entire United States, salvationists were thrown into jail for standing on the street corner and preaching the gospel because.
Many people, especially religious people, believed it was crude and crass and not dignified to present the gospel in that manner, that it was not really a gospel for all people.
Okay. Eddie, there's just not enough time in a day for me to get this story out of your soul and into the ears of our listeners. But I must say, I think one day, just like you've written a book about Joe Laturk, someone's going to write a book about you. And I thank God for you.
Well, thank you, Bernie. And I thank God for you.
We've had some amazing experiences over the years. I've been involved in some serious ministry. Absolutely. And, you know, and I give God all the glory for that, but I also give God glory for the Salvation Army. Amen.
Because if it were not for the Salvation Army, I wouldn't be sitting here today. Yeah. And I've never known you. That's right. And what a blessing you've been to my life.
Where can our listeners find this book or learn more about? the things that you've been able to produce. If you're interested in any of the musicals... www.tsamusicals.org. We'll have all of those there.
Free. Free, absolutely, and downloadable.
So, you know, the soundtracks, the backing tracks, the sheet music scripts, all that. And even one of the recorded performances of Joe the Turk is on there as well. If you're interested in the book, it's called The Sanctified Salvation Showman. And if your trade department does not have it, You can get it at uh www.christianbook. There you go.
Eddie, thank you so much for coming back home to Atlanta today to share your story with our listeners. God bless you. Thank you. The Salvation Army's mission, doing the most good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army.
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