Day 1 - In Country

Blog by Charlie
July 4, 2010

Despite over 30 hours with but a few wisps of sleep on the plane and finally getting to bed at 1:00 AM Antalya time, I was wide awake at 5:00 AM, which is my usual Sunday morning wake-up time. We are staying in the La Paloma hotel in “Old Town” Antalya (Caleici – pronounced Cally-ee-chee). Beautiful and quaint, right off a narrow cobblestone/brick road. We had a lovely outdoor continental breakfast in the courtyard and I had a chance to walk the streets a bit before we went to church at 1 PM.

Worship was held in an upstairs room without air conditioning. Turkey at this time is very hot and VERY HUMID. Everyone was sweating and waving fans of whatever could be devised. The man next to me kept mopping his brow with a handkerchief. Still, it was packed and enthusiastic. The worship leader, Erkan, acknowledged the miserable conditions and affirmed everyone attendance by stating, “...but we’re here because of God.” We were all asked to come up to the front and introduce ourselves, which we did. The sermon was translated to us via headphones by Pam, an American missionary from Seattle who has been working at the church for about 7 years. She had to be enclosed in a small sound booth and just about expired from the heat. Metin preached, one of the associate pastors and he talked about the importance of silence in order to hear God speak to us. I dozed off just a bit due to my lack of sleep, but for the most part hung in there. The singing was led by a robust little band, of which several songs had been written by one of the band members. The only song that was imported from the United States was “El Shaddai” by Amy Grant. I recognized that tune. Service lasted an hour and 45 minutes. Afterwards we had a “Fellowship” time in the courtyard of Paul’s Place (the international center where the church rents space) and I was treated to a unique drink made of milk, yogurt and something else of which I knew not. It was rather sour, but I suspect I could get used to it.

After that (it’s now about 3pm) it was a medium distance walk to Pasha Bay restaurant with about equal numbers of Impact and church members. I ordered a spicy lamb kebob, which was quite good. One nice treat was getting to see Tim Fearer, and we were able to sit next to each other at lunch. He will be here with us for a couple of days.

After lunch we took the tram to Antalya Beach and played volleyball and swam in the Mediterranean. Now that was a treat – water exceptionally clear and comfortable. Best ocean swim I’ve had in many years. Not nearly as salty as the Pacific...or so it seemed. Then we took the tram to another restaurant and had a light dinner around 10pm, though I just ordered a chocolate milkshake and nibbled on one half of Katie’s grilled cheese sandwich. Then back to the hotel.

The day was filled with a ‘getting used’ to being in Turkey feeling. For the Dobreskis, it was a happy reunion time with many of the friends they had made last year, and for the rest of us it was getting acquainted with new people we anticipate will become new friends for us. I had conversations with many – one young man who is unemployed in part because of his faith (a conversation translated part of the time by Tim, then by Pam, and finally by Murat – it was a tag team conversation!). Another conversation on the way to the restaurant was with one of the band members (guitar player) who shared how he became a believer. Everyone in that church has a story and I look forward to hearing them and getting to know the people behind them.

I close with a somewhat humorous ‘coincidental’ scripture that was my reading for today. From Luke 10, it’s when Jesus sends out the 70 and tells them to “.Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals..” I figured I got the ‘no bag’ part when I left the craft suitcase home.

Grateful to be here and for all your prayers,

Charlie



The Courtyard at La Paloma


Outside St. Paul's Place


During worship


Late Night Dinner

Travel Day

Merhaba! (that’s “hello” in Turkish from Charlie)
July 3, 2010

I’m sitting in the Istanbul airport terminal waiting for our flight to Antalya, after a 10.5 hour flight from Chicago. Everyone on the team fell sound asleep at some point except me. I had moments of semi-consciousness as I listened to my iPod, but that was about it. You can see the picture of us all in our seats. Each seat back had an individual screen and you could pick from quite a selection of movies, TV shows, music, games, etc. I watched Casablanca for the first time.

Cross Training finished with some strong teaching and a very meaningful and moving day of personal sharing amongst the team as we shared our testimonies about coming to faith in Christ, which really became a time of sharing our life stories, or at least parts of them. The evening concluded with a rich time of worship, a footwashing ceremony with each team and then communion.

For me the two things stand out regarding what God was doing in me this week. The first is experiencing a real sense of coming together as a team. There is a deep appreciation for the wonderful variety of people on our team. Times of sharing naturally spilled over into praying for one another as tender pieces of our lives were exposed and offered to the group. We have truly come to enjoy, trust and care for one another in a rather compressed amount of time.

The second thing is what I would call a ‘stripping away’ of my need to be ‘prepared’ to do whatever we might be asked to do. Some of my concern about being prepared has stemmed from the fact that our purpose is more relationship-based than task-oriented. Of course all IMPACT teams come prepared to develop relationships, but there is usually a very clear task or project they will do and they know what it is ahead of time. For us, we are here to be a part of their community – to get to know them and simply share our lives. Yes, we do have some things that we will do, such as a women’s retreat, Sunday School with the children, visitation, etc. But nothing we have been able to get ‘prepared’ for in the manner I am accustomed. I did spend quite of bit of time getting craft supplies for the women (stamps and other materials to make greeting cards, courtesy of my wife) and all the leftover VBS supplies for the children. I felt at least somewhat prepared to offer that toward activities we would be doing. But as the week progressed, we didn’t have enough information to really plan much of anything around these activities, and then, unbelievably, I forgot to pack the craft supply suitcase in the truck that was taking us to the airport. I realized it halfway there, but by then it was too late. All that effort and expense...for nothing. Why God? How hard would it have been to have received just a little nudge from the Spirit to remind me to go into the other room where it was stored? Now I’m not blaming God, as it was me who forgot. But by the time I got to LAX I realized that most all my attempts to plan and be in at least some measure of ‘control’ over what was going to happen, for one reason or another didn’t happen. It was as if God was saying, “Stop trying to hard to orchestrate your experience. Just GO. Take yourself and I will go with you. You need to learn to trust me – and trust yourself.” So I am learning in yet another way to step into something of an unknown future, knowing only that it is the future God has set before me and that he will be in it ahead of me. These words of Jesus continue to have increasing meaning for me in this season of my ministry: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. (Jn. 5.19) I set forth in this new and unfamiliar land to pay attention to what God is doing...and then do it with Him.

In and for the glory of Christ, Charlie