WE MADE IT!!

by susan

So...after 54 hours, three missed plane flights (out of 7 total), several races through the airports to try and catch planes that had just left--we finally made it to Antalya! Exhausted! Only to find that our luggage was still in Istanbul and we had already been wearing the same clothes for three days! Our luggage finally came to our hotel on Monday afternoon--to a very happy shout of joy and a quick run to our rooms to change clothes!

(All of us had wondered if the Lord was going to ask us to wear the same ones for longer--but thankfully He saw each team member handling it all really well--no complaining at all and much prayer!)

The six of us went for a walk this morning after breakfast to see the Mediterranean Sea, some of the ancient ruins all around the town, the St. Paul's Cultural Center where much new building has been completed to make the church bigger and easier to use by more people.

We met up with Ramazan again today after our sight-seeing walk went over our schedule of things to do for the next week or so, had a tour of the new building being used by the Turkish and International churches, a tour of old town, exchanged our money for Turkish lira, and had lunch of delicious chicken doner sandwiches. Ramazan even took us inside one of the local mosques which was very interesting! We girls had to put on head scarves and long skirts to be able to go in, but it was simple and beautiful inside. (See above!)

We sweated alot in the humid heat, so came back to our hotel and jumped in the pool! We will be moving into our host families homes tomorrow afternoon. We all decided we would like to get up early tomorrow morning and swim in the Mediterranean to start the day...can't wait!

So far we have each learned alot about patience, flexibility, prayer, laughter in the midst of frustrating circumstances, and banding together as a team to get things done. I think we are off to a good start! It's wonderful to be back in Antalya and the team is enjoying it too!

Thanks for all of your prayers--we appreciate them so much!

Love, The Turkey Team 2011