Family and friends! I have been in Turkey for the the last month and time is flying! So this morning I figured I’d catch you all up to speed. And to do that we’re going to take you all the way back to our first week in Turkey!
On February 23rd all 26 of us reconvened in Tirana, Albania to drive 20 hours through the night to Istanbul, Turkey.
Our drive was filled with many border crossings that required the unloading and reloading of everything we owned on and off the bus.
We arrived in Istanbul at 6:30am on the 24th and proceeded to take toss our bags in our hostel and take a quick nap before we hit the city.
For our first week we remained in Istanbul and our mentor and coaches flew in (from America) to do some discipleship teachings, cultural lesson, mini language lessons, and prepare us for our time in Turkey.
It was sweet to have this time team together as a team before dividing out into teams again for the next month and a half/two months.
We quickly learned that Istanbul is a lively and colorful city, filled with lively and colorful people! Our squad met people from around the world in our week there. Which meant we were able to have many captivating conversations and share in many conversations about Jesus and the gospel and our beliefs.
Many of us also adventured to the Hagia Sofia, a well known mosque that was once a Catholic Church that was later converted. The purpose in us going was to learn more about the Islamic belief system and gain more perspective during our time in Turkey. Because it is largely a tourist destination today, they had a little information booth in the mosque with free materials. Many of us engaged in conversations with the women at the booth, allowing us to inquire about their faith and acknowledge the similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity and the driving factor between why each of us believe what we do. These past seven months have really taught us the power that our testimonies have and it’s been cool to see that play out in each place we go.
That first week we also stayed in a hostel in the heart of Istanbul which was an adventure of its own. Our hostel was seven stories tall, with three of those being bars. Every night we fell asleep to the lullabies of the karaoke bar, screamo music from the bar adjacent to us, and the floor shaking from people dancing. There was a neon sign in our hostel that said “100% Music” and it was definitely an accurate description! Haha! If I could travel back in time, I would have told myself to pack ear plugs!
Our days in Istanbul usually finished with more teachings and worship in the crows nest of our hostel, which looked over the entire city. Istanbul is a sprawling cityscape littered with buildings and minarets for as far as the eye can see. The view (and the music in our hostel) was a constant and humbling reminder of how many people in the 10/40 window have yet to hear the truth of the gospel.
The interactions and conversations we had with people in that first week showed us that Turkey is a living picture of Luke 10:2 which says “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”. I speak for the squad when I say we are so humbled to be able to work and serve and love the people of Turkey during our time here.
As we wrapped up our week long debrief, we took a family/squad trip to an island off off of Istanbul on the last day. We took the ferry over, rented bikes for $9, and got to escape the hustle of the city and make some sweet memories before we had to say goodbye.
The next day, we broke off into our teams, said our goodbyes, and my team caught a flight out to Kapadokya, Turkey our home for the rest of our time here.
More updates to come 🙂
Mikahla
So many beautiful places! The colors and bustle of the places you’re seeing are so incredible. I’m glad you can also find the quiet in all of it to meet people where they are in their faith journey as you listen and get to know them. Your ability to share the gospel with them in such an open conversation of simply comparing your daily relationship with Christ to their relationship which their God is so powerful! Keep planting seeds, and let the Holy Spirit change hearts!
Mom