Safe and Sound...

We arrived with ourselves and our luggage intact...a little late as our flight from Istanbul to Antalya was delayed, but no worse for the wear. Pam Shubert, resident foreign worker with local university students and the Turkish church met us at the airport and drove us into Kaleici (the old town portion of Antalya) where St. Paul's Cultural Center is located (where the Turkish church meets and where we will conduct the parenting classes).

It was rather hilarious because Pam shows up in this little Fiat sedan, and we're standing on the sidewalk with 7 large suitcases we checked in (3 belonged to Ramazan and Karen who asked us to bring them with us), 3 carry on cases, a fat backpack (mine), a huge purse (Peggy's) and a laptop case (Ron's). Pam was ready to call a taxi, but I relished the engineering challenge of getting all that luggage plus four people in that little Fiat. After a few trial and error packing strategies, we did it, although it required Ron and me to ride with suitcases on our lap. We actually received an ovation from people waiting for rides and watching us with rather bemused curiosity.

We were warmly welcomed by Yaman, the manager of the delightfully quaint Dantel Pancyion. I have a nifty little one-bed corner room on the second floor, and after blowing a fuse trying to plug in a power strip, am finally settled in. Having slept for nearly 6 hours on the flight over, I feel rather rested. I was fortunate to have the only seat in a row of three, so when it was time to try to sleep, I was able to stretch out over the entire row. The plane was enormous and I was one of only three or four such lucky ones. That definitely helped me sleep as well as I did.

As we drove from the airport to the pancyon (hotel) Pam shared with us that there will be a number of teachers from the community (Muslims), including (potentially) the head of the Ministry of Education. This very exciting and hopefully will lead to an opening for a greater impact in the community. There is some hesitancy to attend because it is being held in the Cultural Center, which is also known as a church. Pray that this will not be an obstacle and that my approach will help remove any barriers or suspicion that this is really a religious “bait and switch” operation.

I will get my first look at the Teen class video, as it never arrived in the US, but a copy that was sent to Antalya arrived last week and will be on display on Saturday. That was an answer to prayer, as the Teen class would have been seriously weakened without it.

Tomorrow we begin. First class will be at from 10am – 1pm and the second class from 7pm – 10pm. Pray for a good turnout and positive response. On behalf of Ron, Peggy and myself, thank you for all your encouragement and prayers.

Faithfully,

Charlie