Ok! Here’s Turkey part 2!
The last few weeks of our time in Turkey was especially special!
Starting with Ramadan. So for the Islam religion they are required to fast from sunup to sundown for 1 consecutive month. So that meant they would wake up around 4 in the morning to eat their predawn meal called suhoor. And fun fact, there were drummers that would walk down every street banging on the drums at every building to wake everyone up so as to not miss their suhoor! Then some people would go back to sleep, some would continue onto morning prayers and some went to work. Everything continued on as normal despite the fact that they couldn’t eat or drink water for over 12 hours a day. Some of the eating establishments changed their hours for the late night crowds. Then, at 730ish every night a firework would go off right as an announcement from the mosques would and it would be alerting everyone that they could eat! They would break their fast by eating a meal called iftar. At the iftar traditionally they first eat a date and 3 sips of water as Muhammad had. Then there was a soup of some kind each night (to help rehydrate), then traditional pide bread, a rice course, then meat and sides, then dessert. A lot of food! We had the opportunity to experience this with some of our good friends! They were kind enough to invite us into this important part of their culture. We would gather, eat, dance, play, chat and enjoy our time. For them, even if they aren’t devoted very much to the religion it’s a cultural thing. The people of Turkey’s identity is so strongly rooted in Islam they don’t know how to be different.
We got to do a few iftars with our new friends and it was a really special time. At that same time it was our Holy week. While eating with them and observing their religion we got to tell them ours. We got to explain to them the significance of what each of those days meant to us. And while most responded with Indifference, we know that God used us to plant seeds. And that was really special.
We spent Easter visiting our other p squad teams and got to attend a church service (in about 4 different languages) with them. We celebrated the Resurrection and a birthday together.
Then we went back to Biga, said goodbyes (they were full of tears!) Then headed onto our 10 days of full ATL.
We had decided to see all of the 7 churches from revelations. So we hopped on a bus and headed to Izmir (with no set plans for lodging lol) and by the time we got off the bus we had booked an Airbnb. We kinda set up base in Izmir. We saw each of the ancient churches starting with Smyrna, Thyatiera, Pergamum, Ephesus, Laodicea, Philadelphia & Sardis! While at each church we would read the passage from rev. and meditate on it. It was also a great conversation starter as well! We met some good people at each church and we got to tell them what each of the churches mean for us because it’s from our Holy book! We saw all 7 of the churches is 6 days and used the 7th to rest, to sabbath. Seeing the 7 churches in 7 days was such a extraordinary experience and I’m so glad that I got to do it. And while it was long, hard days full of public transportation, walking, and physically burning yourself out it was SO worth it.
Then we headed back to Istanbul for team changes and travel to our next country!
Turkey is such a beautiful place full of a beautiful culture. My time there was full of laughter, love, tears and joy. It was such an amazing opportunity to get to spend 2 months in that country, to spend 2 months building those relationships. It was hard leaving everything we had built in that time but the gospel is worth it!
As I’m writing this I’m in the ME. Please pray for us as we’re serving here and as we head into our last few months of this adventure!
Please pray for me, for clarity in seeking the Lord’s will for my future after the race. Thanks so much and have a great day or as they say in Turkish, Çok teşekkür ederim, iyi gunler!
Love, Jordan D.
