FROM TURKEY – ISTANBUL AND ANAKARA

Saturday, June 4th:

I ended yesterday with: “Saturday begins early, 8:00 AM with more sites to see here in Istanbul then a 3:00 flight to Izmir – old Smyrna of the Book of Revelation where we will attend Church on Sunday and tour the old city on Monday.” Guess what? Incorrect!

Here is the correct information: “Saturday begins early, 8:00 AM with more sites to see here in Istanbul then a 3:00 flight to Ankara.”

But we did get started early and the morning was filled with a visit to the Mosque: Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia means “Holy Wisdom”. It was first a Church and then was converted to a Mosque and is now a museum. It is amazing the amount of space it contains, the type of construction used with the pillars inside, and the gold in the murals and some of the fixtures in the front. And to think that it was burned two times by riots caused by believers because of suggested usage of non-Christian concepts, purposes, etc.

From there we went to the Grand Bazar. If you wanted it! “IT” was there! Jewelry, leather, trinkets, clothing, and on and on. I stood with three others for about 15 minutes talking just inside and decided to walk out and find a place to rest and eat dinner. It was the best decision. O, don’t worry! I will buy something, but it is too soon to do it now and then have to carry it around on the next two in-country air flights and from hotel to hotel. Besides, I do have at least one weakness: Leather!

From here we headed to the airport to take our flight to Ankara, the capital city. And would you know it! Matt Bennett signaled me and said lets go to Starbucks and get on-line with our iPads. WHAT? NO ONE TOLD ME STARBUCKS WAS IN THE AIRPORT. So we headed that way only to hear the announcement: “Flight to Ankara is now ready for boarding.” What a sad sound it was! I did not have time to get my “fix” and get back to join the others for boarding, so I walked away with only an “eyesight satisfaction.”

Now do not get excited. This trip isn’t all historical, non-biblical sightseeing! We will be touring the seven cities of Asia Minor and we will go to Church. So “un-lax” my friends, the history of the country is all entwined with the Biblical, secular and “religious.” One cannot be fully understood without the other. And I am getting a lot of pictures, film and recordings of the guide’s sharing about each place, as well as purchasing some written information.

Anyway we are now in Ankara which is named after the Angora goats. Supper is finished and we have the rest of the evening to relax. Tomorrow we attend the IPHC Church here in Ankara and have lunch with the pastor and his family. Then we head to the Ankara Castle and finally board a flight to Ismir – ancient Smyrna.

Just think: There are only about 3-4,000 believers in the whole country of 71 million Muslims. And this was at one time the “hot-bed” of Christianity.

So that ends the information for today. Thanks for reading. Thanks for your prayers.

Dr D