I'm Back!

We got back from Turkey last Saturday night. What an amazing place it is. We started in Istanbul and traveled around the country, stopping to see ancient cities including the ruins of the 7 churches in Revelation, Nicea and Cappadocia. Cappadocia looks like it belongs on another planet and in fact they used it for scenes in Star Wars. Our trip ended in Antalya.

Along the way we distributed Turkish New Testaments or Incils (pronounced Injil - I believe it means holy book) and the Jesus Film also in Turkish. The natives are a very hospitable people, extremely nice and inviting. A person will quite often be offered tea or coffee when entering a nice shop. In fact the first time this happened to me I was a little suspicious as to what might be in the tea, but the older women I was with were drinking it so I figured it'd be ok and it was.

During our distribution there were some rejections, most of them polite, but their were so many people who were overjoyed at receiving our "gifts", some would hold them to their heart, kiss it, and some would even want more for their friends and family. Many were pleasantly surprised that we were giving these gifts to them for free.

Shopping in Turkey was a new experience for me as well. In this country you have to haggle for prices. This is something I was not very proficient in. I'm a very honest person, so I much prefer someone just tell me what an item costs or is worth take it or leave it, instead of having to ask for a price then try to get them to come down to a more reasonable offer and sometimes having to walk away in order to do so. However I did get some nice items, like a silk scarf and a Pashmina scarf (90% cashmere, 10% silk) both for about $10 each. I also got a few pieces of jewelry and onyx and a nice table cloth for my dining room table.

We all had a wonderful time, even when some of us had nice head colds by the end of the trip (and it's not the avian flu because I brought my cold with me to Turkey - I developed a sore throat the day before we left). I miss everybody that was on the team. I got so used to seeing everyone everyday for 2 weeks that I'm going through people withdrawals.

Coming back to work wasn't bad either. Things weren't in a really terrible shape atleast not that I've noticed so far. And all my friends said they missed me and were glad to have me back (it always makes a person feel good to know that they've been missed). Well I think that's about it for now. There's so much that happened on the trip I can't write it all down without producing a book. I'll post a few pictures soon, I got tons.