Pictures are back

Paul's house in Tarsus. You look down on it and it is covered with glass.




The well next to his house. They brought up some water for us.




Sheep and goat headers are nomadic still, stayIng for a short time and moving on to greener pastures.




The outside of the cave church where Christian were called Christians for the first time.



Inside the cave. The new Popes always make a pilgrimage here when they are first appointed.




Karen and I at the Baptismal "font" or hole in the ground. Water seeps into through the rock.




Went to a Turkish rug factory.




Place where Christians lived in Cappadocia. They carved their homes in the soft rock.




A resteraunt carved into the rock. See the long table on the left?




Cappadocia.




Karen and Kay took a balloon ride over Cappadocia.




Karen getting "helped" out of the balloon!




This is a underground city in Cappadocia. When enemies came they could live down here with their animals. This city went down seven stories.




Pottery studio carved into the hillside.




The master potter....looks like Einstein!




Outside the pottery studio carved into the hill.

Cappadocia

Every morning after breakfast we have a devotional worship service. I love these because I am not leading them! It is nice to worship and just sit there and take it in.

Then Pastor Don, our leader, tells us some things from the bible that took place where we are going to be that day. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH! The New Testament is coming alive in a way that suddenly makes everything fit!

Today we were in the region of Cappadocia. This is in Southern Turkey and is in a region that received volcanic ash years ago and then it turned to rock, but not a very strong rock. Just strong enough that people could carve out homes in the hillside. This may have started just after the time of Moses about 1300 BC.. But what is more important to us is that during the first few centuries AD Christians lived here and lived here until 1920!

There could have been up to 30,000!

The area of Cappadocia is mentioned in Acts at Pentecost as one of the languages that were suddenly understood because of the Holy Spirit.

We walked into several churches carved into the rock with paintings of Paul, Jesus, the disciples, Mary and even Onesimus. He is in the bible twice. Look him up in I Timothy 1:10. He is a runaway slave that Paul saves and befriends.

The whole valley is filled with holes were homes, churches and resteraunts once were. Pretty cool....

We also went to a Turkish rug factory. We bought a small rug that was within or budget, but that was not easy as they were all so beautiful and hand made.

We also went to a jewelry store and bought nothing because none of it was in the budget! But all of it beautiful! Turquoise was dominant there because it originated here in Turkey. The name tells you! Turq or Turk and quoise or quaw which means rock. So Turkey rock! Did not know that.

We just returned from a cultural evening where we say Turkish dancers perform. It was amazing! The dancers were very good.

I will have access to a camera in a couple days, so the pictures are coming back.....be patient.

Blessings

Pastor Dave


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Antioch

This was an exciting day. We went to a cave up in the hills where the earliest church met. The cave could hold a couple hundred. It has a clear view of the valley so they could see the Roman troops coming long before they were there. It also leads to miles and miles of caves. They would never find them! Acts says this was the place where we were called CHRISTIANS! Paul and Peter both preached here. Pretty exciting!

I am taking pictures and will share a slide show when I get back. I hope to have pictures back on the blog in a day or two.

Blessings!


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Paul's house in Tarsus

No pictures today, I have miss placed the cord that inputs from my camera to the iPad. I will try to get that fixed. I will still give a summery of each day by words!

Today we went to the grave site of modern Turkey's first President. He unified the country and modernized it after WW I. His name is Atiturk. He was a lot like George Washington in that he was brilliant and yet not interested in being king. He brought Turkey into the 20th century. Americans should be thankful for him because without him Turkey might be like Iran and Syria. Turks admire him greatly. Recently, when the government wanted to make the government more religious 1.2 million people protested at his grave. Those changes were never passed. He was a brilliant man, great military mind, gave women the vote, made education possible and free for all Turks, separated church and state, spoke 5 languages ...... the list goes on and on. He was also very good looking and dated Greta Garbo for a while. He died in 1938.

Next we went to the Hittite museum. Hittites are mentioned many times in the bible. Abraham bought a plot of land from them to bury his wife in Genesis. And, when King David sleeps with Bathsheba, committing adultery, Bathsheba's husband is a Hittite. It was a very interested museum!

Then a long buss ride all the way the southern coast to the house Paul grew up in. It has been excavated and has glass over the site so you look down into the house. It was fun to be at Paul's house in Tarsus. I took water from his well and made the sign of the cross on my forehead.

Hopefully I will have the camera thing fixed soon, but I will try to write everyday till I do.

Blessings,
Dave


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Galatia

Before we left for Galatia, we toured the city of Istanbul. This is a wall around the old city that protected the city from invaders. It was built by the Romans.



They are restoring the wall slowly, here is a section finished as it looked 2000 years ago. It goes on forever! People garden in the foreground where there used to be a moat.



We took a boat tour down the Bosphorus Straight. On one side of the straight is Asia and on the other is Europe, however both are in Istanbul and both are in Turkey.



On the boat



Karen, Karen's bother Marvin and his wife Kay.



We went to the side market. Amazing spices! Marvin and Kay.


These are all varieties of olives!


A last view of Istanbul. Ian learning a lot about Turkey. Tonight we just arrived in Ankara, which is the capital of Turkey. Our hotel is beautiful, the bus ride was 6 hours and tomorrow we have another 8 hours to get down to Tarsis. We are in Ankara, which is in the region of Galatia in the bible. Galatia is a region where the Galls came many years ago. The Gals were from Gall, France. So this area was known as GALL-atia. So when Paul writes to the Galatians he is not writing to a town but to an area in the middle of Turkey or what would have been then called Asia Minor.

I will write every night I have Internet access. Thanks for following, I am learning a lot every day!

Istanbul

Istanbul used to be Constaninopal. From the emperor Constantine who was the first Roman Emperor who became Christian in about 360AD. Constaninopal was then the seat of the Roman world.

About 600 years ago when the Muslims took over they changed the name to Istanbul. Actually it was Islam - bul. Bul means many. City of many Muslims and it is! 6 million plus and over 90% Muslim. But Turkey keeps its politics and religion separate. And the people here are very friendly and they especially like Americans. They are wonderful people and are sometimes called the smiling Muslims.


- the Blue Mosque. Called that because the inside is mostly blue.




It is dark inside and no flash is allowed.



This is a 800 year old Christian church with beautiful mosaics and frescos.




One of the Frescos.




This is from another Even older Christian church called Agia Sophia.... Meaning church of the wisdom.




This is a Christian church now a concert hall. But it was on this site that they had the Second Ecumenical Council where they adopted the Nicene Creed and decided that the Holy Spirit was a full part of the Trinity.... Very cool!

Tomorrow we head to Ankara, which you would know as Galatia, whom the letter to the Galatians was written.

Blessings to you all!


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We have arrived safe and sound!

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We are tired but have arrived. Istanbul is a beautiful and very old city. The flight was perfect but long.


Streets are narrow and there are tons of people but everyone is patient and kind. The above pic is from the roof of our hotel.






It is tulip festival time. There are millions of tulips everywhere in the city. Tomorrow we tour Istanbul. Tonight we finally sleep. It has been a long day.
Love to you all!

Location:Istanbul