My Travels...

I got back home Tuesday at about 4am. I returned from spending two weeks traveling outside of Africa. I went to Turkey. The country claims to be 98% Muslim; they are also very proud of the fact that they are a "secular country." It works out to be perhaps 25% - 30% are actually practicing Muslims.

We had a great visit. We got to see lots of cool places. In Istanbul we stayed inside the walls of the old city. We saw St. Sophia - a super old church that then became a mosque that is now a museum with aspects that represent Christian faith and others that are Muslim. We roamed all over the place and got to meet lots of interesting people.

It was quite different from being here. Poverty is still an issue there as I understand it, but it looks very different from the poverty that is here. The country is much more commercial and modern. I ate at TGI Fridays, Starbucks, Burger King, Arbys. (Wow those were good!) New Years Eve we had Burger King and then went into this place that was similar to a Super Wal-Mart. It was overwhelming. I had forgotten what it was like to be in a store with that much stuff.

The highlight of touring was visiting the 7 churches mentioned in the beginning of Revelation. Ephesus and Laodicea were my favorites as they are the most restored. Earthquakes have destroyed all of the cities we visited. It is hard to believe that these places were significant enough that they were being written to in scripture. Now they just look like a bunch of rocks...old rocks. It was really neat to visit them though.

After the tours I spent a week at a conference (this is really why I was traveling). All of the people that work in our region joined together for fellowship, refreshing, and training. It was good to spend time with coworkers especially my supervisors that I hadn't seen in a year and a half. They are still in the states until March, but it was good to spend time with them there. I have a better grasp now on what my work will look like over the next years.

It was a good trip but exhausting. By the time it was over I was ready to be home. Now it is time to jump back into the swing of things here.