My world in Turkey

I am feeling very emotional the last couple of days.  Each new day brings me closer to the time I have to say goodbye to the people I have come to care about so much and to the beautiful land of Turkey.  Some people here are praying that I'll be returning, but at this point only God knows what's in store for my future. 

Let me just give you a few snapshots of the world I live in here:

The Turkish Flag:

One small section of the water channel that flows down the middle of one of the major streets in Antalya.  This picture was taken about a month ago:

Luscious strawberries on sale at the market, yum: 

Birds on the balcony:

One of the flower arrangements Diny made for the re-opening festivities:

And here she is making said arrangements:

This is Aiya coveting every one of those pieces of chocolate cake for herself!  This dear lady is the warmest, sweetest person I've ever met.  She has that big smile all day every day, is warm and friendly to every soul who comes into the cafe.  She is pure sunshine, I will miss her so much!

The stained glass windows finished, installed and dedicated on May 5, 2012 during the Grand ReOpening Celebration.  Seven windows each one representing the seven letters to the seven churches found in the book of Revelation Chapters 2 and 3.

Mark Wilson and Jim will be teaching on them for the next seven weeks:

 Mark Wilson signing copies of his book "Biblical Turkey"

 This is Kyra, Belgin's daughter and the one who puts a smile on my face everyday!

 A hedge made of roses and jasmine that smells heavenly along my route towards home!

This is the street where St. Paul's Cultural Center is located:

Carla painting faces at the May Fair

Baptism's on Sunday May 13 in the Mediterranean Sea: an Iraqi woman, a Turkish woman, an Iranian man and an Azerbijanian man all baptized into the family of believers in Jesus Christ!  What a glorious day!!

A red hat turns everyone into a STAR

And so much more to tell and see, really my heart has been captured.

A welcome rest and now I begin the count down

I took a little vacation.  This time it was for rest and relaxation.  I got invited to a place called "Spa for the Soul" owned by Jeri and Curt Bidinger, located just outside of the seaside village of Kas (rhymes with gosh) in southwestern Turkey.  Here's a picture of the view from my room!!

The area around Kas reminded me so much of the property I lived in near the Napa Valley.  There are lots of stones so walkways, paths, walls and even homes are made of them.  There are olive trees, grapes, roses and a myriad other plants that grow in hot weather.  The one big difference is the very near presence of the Mediterranean Sea with its extraordinary cliffs, blue turquoise waters and white sandy beaches.  I was very happy in Kas!!  The weather was in the 80's every day and this tired, burned out cook needed the peace and quiet of a tiny village ablaze with warmth and comfort from nature and natural beauty.

My first night there was also this young couple staying at Spa for the Soul, Alex and Beth and their 2 month old son, David was asleep upstairs.  They are workers also on a weeks vacation from their duties in Ankara.

Jeri and Curt you might remember live 4 months a year in Sequim.  She really wanted me to see their home/retreat in Turkey and I was thrilled for the chance to get away.  I took a 4 hour bus ride to get there.  Their home is a place of solitude and beauty nestled in the foothills.  Jeri has an eye for beauty and simplicity reflected in every detail of their home.  Meals were delicious made to be not only fresh and healthy but beautifully presented as well, glowing candelight in the evenings set a peaceful atmosphere that made all my cares melt like wax.

Here's a picture of my two room suite and once again the unforgettable view off the balcony:

By the way the island in the top right of this picture is Meis (pronounced mace) you can get there by ferry and it belongs to Greece.

With Jeri and Curt I had some wonderful experiences represented here by the following pictures:  first dinner out with friends of theirs, this is my dinner lamb shish with veggies and potatoes; second picture Turkish breakfast out in a cafe owned by another friend of theirs Halil squatting beside me; third picture Halil's beautiful and percocious daughter Jasmine, shopping for rugs, pottery and lamps and lastly a picture of a blooming rose, so fragrant one can smell it ten feet away! 

My time here in Turkey is getting short.  I have two more weeks of work, hard work:  On May 5 we will be celebrating the grand re-opening of St. Paul's Cultural Center.  One thousand invitations have gone out.  The reception will be from 2-5pm and we are expecting about 500 people to come through the Center.  We're serving punch and about 14 different passed hors d'oeuvres.  We will be very busy this week preparing for it.  Then the following week we are having "May Fair" with a barbecue, book sale, used goods sale, kids craft center, music and other stuff open to the public.  That day Saturday, May 12 is my last official day of volunteer work for Renata.  

The Board of Directors for SPCC also arrives this week for a meeting and to participate in the re-opening ceremonies.  One of them is Steve Dresselhaus from TEAM headquarters and I hope he and I can have a discussion on where, when and if TEAM might send me next. 

I feel a little sad about leaving.  What a tremendous experience this has been for me!  I don't regret a single moment, even when things were the most difficult.  I have learned a lot about myself and about being a short term worker.  I have a little clearer picture of what that means, the sacrifices involved and the committment it takes. 

I will be very sad to leave the International Church which is just a small picture of what heaven will be like with "every nation, every language, every tribe, every people"  represented.  Above all as I have said before, it will be the people I've met who have impacted me the most and I will miss them:  so many smart, gifted and talented people desiring for the people of Turkey to come to know the "Hope of the ages", Jesus Christ;  and the dear people of Turkey themselves with their history and beautifully rich and strange (to me) culture.  Lord, may my time here not have been in vain!

Biblical Turkey

I never realized how much of Turkey, I mean actual land of Turkey is part of biblical history.  I'm sure that I cannot begin to name all of the places in Scripture where the locale is in current day Turkey but here is just a sampling:  Ur is said to be here where Abraham is from, Mt . Ararat in eastern Turkey where Noah's ark landed, Tarsus where Paul was born, all seven of the churches mentioned in Revelation, all three of Paul's missionary journey's, Phillip started a church here was martryed and buried here, John started a church here, lived here, died and was buried here,  Eden, Galatia, Laodicea, Colosse, Lystra, Iconium, Derbe etc etc....

I had the privilege of visiting just a few of these places and am astonished at the history that is buried here.  I'm going to post a few pictures but just want to say that all of the places I visited are just barely uncovered, there is hundreds of years of work to be done to uncover these ancient cities.  That work is reserved for the Turkish people by law with some limited exceptions for archeaologists and people in related fields.  Dr. Mark Wilson who is a member of Jim's congregation has written a book on the subject of biblical turkey and has a research foundation, gets to go on digs sometimes and can take friends!!   If you like jigsaw puzzles Turkey is the biggest puzzle in the world!!

The magnificent city of Ephesus, said to be the 4th largest city in the Roman Empire and guardian of the great goddess Artemis:

Below is the theatre mentioned in Acts 19 where for 2 hours the angry crowd chanted "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

In Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) below, we saw piles of excavated materials waiting to be fit together. The white mountain in the background left is Hieropolis where the springs produce hot water and Colosse where the water from it's springs is cold, is off to the right on one of those hills.  The three cities form a triangle.   

Below is Hieropolis (Colossians 4:13) hot water pours out from natural springs with such high mineral concentration it crystallizes forming beautiful terraced pools and this white mountain that looks like snow from a distance.  The church that Phillip started is here and he was martyred here.  The latest discovery is his burial site.  That area is closed off to visitors right now.

Storms!

Early Tuesday morning I was awoken by a huge storm that roared through here!  Big bolts of lightning and pounding thunder that shook the windows!  I didn't sleep after that even with ear plugs and an eye mask.  My room has windows on two sides and a full balcony so I got the brunt of the wind.

However today Wednesday morning, this is the view I woke up to:

And this is a picture I took last week. It was a beautiful morning as I walked to work and saw this tour boat sailing by flying the Turkish flag in the back:

And here the turqoise waters of the Mediterranean, this is the view I see coming and going to work and I never get tired of it!

I wrote in my last post that I thought things had improved between Belgin and me, but I was wrong.  Yesterday was particularly challenging, she does hurtful and disrespectful little things to me which show me how much she resents my presence.  There are some here who really want to see changes in the food and maybe they will prevail or maybe they won't.  Only time will tell and that time is now less than 5 weeks away for me.

We have a 3 day men's conference beginning tomorrow so we will be very busy.  Afterwards I am leaving on a much needed break from Belgin and the work at the cafe.  I'm taking a 4 day biblical tour of southwest Turkey which will include Laodicea and Ephesus.  Look for pictures and stories when I get back.  Thank you all for your prayers.

Easter and beyond

So much has been happening in my life here that I hardly know where to begin.  First of all I guess Jim and Renata's youngest daughter Talya (age 15) and her friend Jisoo are home for spring break so the house has a characteristic teenage girl vibe going on.  Talya was born in Antalya hence her lovely name. 

It's fun because if you know me you know I love teenagers!  These two active and very intelligent young ladies already have impressive lives.  They are in boarding school at the Black Forest Academy, Black Forest, Germany.  They play piano, violin, sing, write music, speak several languages and like to eat and cook among other things.  Jisoo is Korean but was born in Nepal, parents were on the mission field and now they are in India.  She is a very serious young woman and very talented.

Here is a picture of them with Verna taken at our Easter dinner party, Renata's in the background walking away, woops!  Verna and her husband Ben are from the Seattle area, been here for 10 years but are getting ready to leave soon.  They have sort of taken me under their wing.  As I said before I am meeting so many wonderful people!

Our Easter celebration at St. Paul's began on Friday afternoon with a reenactment of the crucifixion.  We were allowed the opportunity to carry a large wooden cross around the garden or to hammer a nail in it signifying Christ's taking our sins upon Himself.  It was very emotional as you can imagine.  Just before this service took place I met a young lady named Kaitlin who is here as a "worker" also.  She had news for me which was extraordinary that I can share more of when I get home.

On Saturday we had an Easter celebration for the children which was well attended and afterwards me, Talya, Jisoo and 2 other young ladies traveresed the whole entire of city of Antalya to attend a "burn", more on that also when I get home.

Sunday we started with a sunrise service then a breakfast potluck, regular worship service and then 5 guests for dinner at Jim and Renata's house!  If you are on Facebook you can see a picture of us at the table getting ready to eat our meal.  We were 9 people and a baby and we had a great time eating and then playing the Apples to Apples game while eating handmade dark chocolates until it got late.  See chocolates below made by "The Chocolate Hotel"
Yum!

And here's a picture from the Sunday breakfast potluck, this is me with Diny, Amy from New Zealand and Ashye from Antalya.  Carla is taking the picture, she is a sweet young lady from Tennesse, her and Amy are roommates, here with "Y" as "workers".  Below is a picture of Carla that I took on St. Paul's Steps.  She and I have a friendship developing and we spent an afternoon together last week walking around the city exploring.

I think I had a breakthrough today with Belgin the cook.  She has not been the most accepting of me.  Mostly my ideas and my input have been rejected and it's been a real challenge, spiritually and emotionally for me.  But today while discussing the conference that starts on Thursday she actually asked my opinion on things and accepted my input!  It was great and guess what Renata was not around so with my limited turkish and her limited english we managed to communicate (on the subject of food of course!)

Tomorrow evening I will have been here for 5 weeks.  St. Paul's Cultural Center is vibrant with activity and fascinating people everyday.  Antalya is a fast paced, modern city with deep historical and spiritual roots.  On the streets you can see everything from a fully covered woman to a woman in shorts and high heels, a very strange mix.  Young people on the buses offer their seats to the elderly which touches my heart to see!  I, with my graying hair have been the recipient of this kindness.

I am meeting men and women who have given their time and their lives to see the Turkish people come to know the One who created them, who died for them and who lives for them.  It has been an amazing journey so far and I look forward to what lies ahead! 

I want to again thank all of you who have supported me through your encouragement, your phone calls and emails, your finances and your friendship !!!

Hang in there with me we have 5 weeks still to go!








rosalie1011@gmail.com

we made it through!

Oh my we barely made it through the week!  An 8 day conference turned into 9 days of lunches and dinners and coffee breaks!  The group we had were wonderful, dear people and were so grateful for all we did, but the staff and volunteers, well we are all exhausted!

Today, Monday we had an extra level of entertaining to do.  The Dutch Ambassador to Turkey and his 2 associates came to tour the facility and have lunch.  Preparations have been underway since yesterday.  We decided to serve him a typical Turkish meal.  Here are two Turkish ladies from the Turkish church helping make the dolmas:  stuffed grape leaves.

Here is the Ambassador arriving and being greeted by Renata and Carl who are in charge of St. Paul's and Diny who is Dutch and just moved here to Antalya. 

And here is a picture of who was working today to help pull all this together:  this is left to right Belgin, Renata, Brigitte, Ayai and Diny.  Missing from the picture are me and Ayshe.

And here is a picture of the plate we put together of traditional Turkish food:  front is the salad and then to the left are stuffed eggplant, the dolma's made with grape leaves, a stuffed pepper and borek.  On the table we served family style the yogurt dish that went with this and fresh pide bread (in the states we say pita bread, but this one is made fresh and is extraordinary not like the dry flat stuff we know!)

Belgin who did the Lion's share of this meal let me help her make the borek which was hard for her I know because I am an amateur with the yufka, which is the very thinnest of pastries we use to wrap her delicious filling.  I tear it every time, but bless her heart she always says no problem Rosalie!  

My favorite food here are the dairy products.  They have the most unbelievably tasty yogurt, cream, milk, cheeses, cream cheese and a sour cream product called labne (lob nay) which I am crazy about!  The yogurt combined with these stuffed peppers, eggplant and dolmas make a satisfying and delicious meal, truly!  The yogurt gets mixed with various things depending on what it is served with.  How about yogurt mixed with fresh mint, yummy!  Or yogurt with fresh dill and grated zucchini, also yummy!  In spite of all these dairy products I'm consuming I'm losing weight because we eat very little meat and very few sugary things. 

Okay I lost track of my story!  Here is a picture of the Ambassador sitting at the special table we made in the garden for him with his guests:  Diny and Jim to his right and Carl (with his back to the camera) joined him and later we made Renata also sit down and enjoy this very special visit.  Meanwhile we were serving about 50 other people who were at the Center also, so it was really crazy today.  But "we made it through!"  So until next time...

Busy week!

It's Thursday evening here in Antalya.  Tomorrow Jim and Renata's youngest daughter Talya, arrives with her roommate for their spring break from boarding school in Germany.   There is excitement in the air as you can imagine.  Two 15 year old girls will certainly change the atmosphere!

At St. Paul's Cultural Center it has been a week of hectic activity for the staff and volunteers.  Lunch, dinner, coffee and tea breaks all day everyday since Monday.  We are tired but excited for all the spiritual growth that is taking place among our guests.

I dropped my camera and it broke in two pieces.  I have yet to replace it because it I have yet to have free time!!  So there aren't any pictures to share but I hope to have that remedied shortly.

Please pray for "Cyrus" not his real name.  He and I had a few moments to share today.  It is illegal for him to be a Christian in his country.  If the government finds out he will be executed!  He cannot carry his bible, go to church, sing out loud or mention the name Jesus in his country and yet he loves the Lord!  Here at St. Paul's he and his fellow believers feel free now that they have been here a few days and they are singing loud in worship!  I love to listen their joyous praise music.  Last night the international church got to join them in worship and teaching it was a very moving experience.  

I have been struggling with my own attitude as far as the work is concerned so I ask prayer for myself.  Perhaps I am just tired and need a break from the long hours.  In spite of that I am meeting some wonderful people and trying to stay focused on the real purpose here.

I hope to have pictures soon!  until then, gule gule         

Responding to Blog

Happy Lord's Day to all of you!  I have heard from several people that they have tried to respond to me via my blog but have been unable to do so.  I'm sorry I don't know what is wrong or how to fix it.  If you like you can email me instead:

rosalie1011@gmail.com

I enjoy getting news from home!

Today a new group arrived for an 8 day conference.  They are pastors and church leaders from a place where being a  Christian means persecution of the worst kind.  Please pray for the safety of St. Paul's Cultural Center while they are here.

Time to study some turkish kitchen/food words!

Iyi Aksamlar

A Day Off!

I actually got a day off work from Paul's Place yesterday March 21!  There are still some ladies here from the conference and we got together for a harbor tour.  First of all you have to get a simit, the sesame seed pastry that is sold everywhere.  It's really good and goes great with tea (cay).  They carry these trays all over town on their heads.

This is Diny and Johanna from The Netherlands and Bryony in between them.

The going price for the boat ride is around $35 per person if you are a tourist, but because we know Jim and Renata we got on board for $7!  It was a beautiful warm morning as we headed out for the 45 minute ride. 

This harbor is where the apostle Paul would have landed when he came through these parts.  To get up to what is called Kale ici (Old Town) you can climb a set of stairs that are called St. Paul's Steps.  Whether or not he walked on them that is what they are called and they are definitely ancient.  Here I am going up.

 After a respite back at Paul's Place Cafe which is in Kale ici Bryony and I headed to the Antalya Museum.  After the trip to Perge on Sunday I was told this museum is a must see and when I arrived it was quite clear why.  The two go hand in hand.  There is room after room of artifacts from Perge and room after room of marble statuary.  Here is just a small sample of what we saw.  It's really amazing how much has been uncovered.  Since the 1940's archaeologists have been painstakingly putting the pieces back together:

The centerpiece of this collection is Herakles pictured below.  For years the top half of this statue was in a museum in Boston and the bottom half here in Antalya.  In October of 2011 after years of research the two pieces were finally joined. 

Heading back to Kale ici we stop for pictures at one of the most beautiful entrances into the Old Town: Hadrian's Gate

The Old City (Kale ici) is very quaint cobblestone, narrow streets with old stone buildings.  Many are being renovated as tourism here is growing by leaps and bounds.  Antalya is like Florida in the states.  People from all over Europe come here on holiday for sunshine and warm temperatures which just arrived this week!  

Bryony is heading home tomorrow and I will miss her.  Though she lives in Germany with her husband Bernhard who is working here in Antalya at the moment, she is very British and if you begin to notice that my english is becoming quite proper you can attribute it to Bryony who I have spent a good deal of time with this last week and a half.  Uncle Bernhard and Aunt Bryony have been a great addition here.  They are very bright, entertaining and fun.

On Sunday we have a new conference group arriving.  They will be here for eight days and we have to serve them lunch and dinner every day.  It's going to be a long, hard week.

Until next time.....