Thursday, November 01, 2007

Encouragement from Home!

Last week we had a visit from 7 friendly faces from, Pinelake, our home church. We had been looking forward to their visit for sometime and it definitely lived up to all of our expectations! The group arrived a little weary and worn from their trek across the water and time zones, but otherwise ready to get involved and see what our life looks like. We had a jam packed schedule for them as they came along side us and did some of our normal every day activities with us. We introduced them to as many friends as we could and we ran them ragged each and every day and then had wonderful times of fellowship each night. We can say that while we were tired when they left we were filled up with encouragement! Jared took the crew on one long day of seeing the sights along the coast, including the infamous Heaven and Hell (a cavern with over 350 steps down into it), a crusader castle, as well as Tarsus.

The group was also able to see Turkey show some of its 'Turk Kası" or Turkish Muscle as they put out their most patriotic/nationalistic foot on Sunday night. The night exploded with horns honking, flags waving, people in the streets, lots of chanting, lights flickering and general merriment that goes along with a rally. These 'parades' if you will, continued each night while the group was here (as you can see on the posts below). While at first a little intimidating, the group did great adjusting to our new schedule as we all learned to be flexible when some of our plans changed.

One of the highlights of the trip was when we took the group to our English class on Tuesday evening. The students loved having all of those English speakers to chat along with and they all hit it off right away. The night was filled with lots of laughter, a few minor miscommunications and several email addresses being exchanged.

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