[by Charlie]
Just came back from our River Rafting Trip with 37 people from the Turkish church, ranging from a couple of small children of one of the pastors, to youth, young adults, and a few others who work with and serve the church. We drove for about an hour and a half to get to our destination, with one poor girl throwing up several times along the way. Our van was raucous the entire way with laughing and singing and clapping and even dancing in the aisle between the seats. Mike and Katie were even recruited as dancers at one point.
The day was filled with great fun and interaction with the people of the church. I got to see in a first-hand and close-up way just how delightful and gregarious these folks are. Let’s see...we paddled and splashed each other all the way down the river, leaped from a high rock into a watery pool below, jumped and dove from a platform high above the river in a tree, and even jumped into the river from the balcony of the place we embarked for lunch. Speaking of lunch, oh my, a wonderful spread of bread, rice, a delicious cabbage salad, potato salad (don’t think of American potato salad) and fish cooked in grape leaves that was absolutely delicious. They serve the fish in its entirety...but I opted not to eat the head. Back to the river...it was also full of the usual pulling people into the water, in which I was a victim at one point when Halil decided it was time for me to get wet...as if I wasn’t already.
In talking to one of the pastor’s on the way back to his house (where I’m staying), he shared how most everyone in their church, if not all of them, simply don’t have the kind of discretionary money to go River Rafting, so the only time they have been able to do this is when IMPACT teams have come (in this case for the past three years) and we budget so we can subsidize a substantial portion of the cost for each person. The cost per person was 35 Lira, and we paid 25 so that the average cost was only 10 Lira ($6.44) for a 160 kilometer round trip bus ride, about 3 hours on the river and a sumptuous lunch. Pretty good deal.
My evening concluded with a lengthy conversation with my host family about their hopes and dreams for the church and how important a church building in the future will be in the fulfillment of them.
Each day I am here and the longer I live with and spend time with the believers in Antalya, the more I realize the radical uniqueness of their life in this city and the importance of supporting what they are doing. To be just very, very small part of that feels huge to me.
Tasting a bit of their dream with them,
Charlie
