Monday

June 2 - Last Day in Istanbul

Today we leave istanbul for Kusadasi, near the old Ephesus, to meet up with the Moore's, a missionary family from the U.S. I am copying this from my writing in my journal while on the terrace of our hotel around 11 a.m.

We hiked down a steep street near our hotel to a UPS store and had a bunch of stuff shipped home. VERY EXPENSIVE! But it is the safest way to get stuff home. You can't trust the regular post office; things may not arrive. Obviously UPS doesn't have a ground option to the U.S.

Over 15 million people call Istanbul home. There are approximately 70 million in Turkey. There are only 3000 to 3500 Christians. It is the largest country with the smallest Christian population. A huge mission field, but an extremely hard one.

As I spend my last few moments here, I am awed by the vastness of this city as well as the grip of the Muslim religion. It is an exotic, beautiful city; but very lost and it doesn't want to be found.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trevy is doing well, we saw him last week and will stop by again today or tomorrow.

This city sounds interesting yet, sadening to the heart.

Please send pictures.

Mandy

Anonymous said...

Sounds like an awesome trip! We all miss you. Let me know if you find any carpets in Turkey that work for my house!!

The girls and I stopped by to see Trevi last Friday. He was interested in saying "Hi" for about 10 minutes, and then he could have cared less that we were there. We'll stop by again some time this week.

BTW - we all had fun around here last night. I had some costume spray pink hair color and I sprayed both Ali and Sierra's hair bright pink! They were laughing and thought it was great fun. Their hair was still pink when they got up this morning to go to school. (Of course, I got pictures).

- Linda