Made it back from Turkey

This morning we made it back from our trip to Turkey. It was a wonderful week: cold for the first couple of days, but we were really quite lucky with many days forecasting rain, but we only had one afternoon where it hit us while we were on site. The Turkey trip is just a great trip. We didn’t have one of the buses break down on the way to Gallipoli this trip, so that was a blessing. Both classes met together and I read from some of the journal accounts of a couple of the nurses and one of the signalmen who landed on the evening of April 25. You know when I was growing up, going to the dawn services with Dad and watching all of the parades I really didn’t think too much about the events of Gallipoli. Now it’s pretty surreal about how emotional I get each time that I go there. I think of all of those lives that were lost and I can’t help but think that there MUST be a better way to solve our differences. This year is the centenary celebration of the landing. My cousin has tickets to attend. I think that will be a very special event.

The major purpose of our Turkey trip is three-fold: sites of Paul’s second and third missions; the cities of John’s Revelation; and the sites of the Christian ecumenical councils.

This is my new New Testament class outside of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It is just nearby the Hagia Sophia. It is called the Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles from Iznic (ancient Nicea) that adorn the inside. It has 6 minarets, 9 domes and beautiful stained glass windows. The more I visit it the more I appreciate it’s beauty.

Will, Philip, Mackenzi, Andrew, Alyssa, Thomas and Hannah surrounding me at the synagogue in Sardis. This one of the best preserved synagogues in the ancient world. The mosaics on the floor are glorious (I’m not sure that there are enough supernal adjectives for my descriptions of all of these wonderful places)

Sun setting outside of my hotel window in Efes (near the ancient remains of Ephesus). Isn’t it gorgeous?!!!! The light in the center isn’t a comet; I think that it’s a reflection of the light on the window, but it looks pretty cool :o)

Kelsie and I looking at what remains of Constantine’s summer palace at Nicea. This is the place of the First Christian Ecumenical Council, the source of the Nicene Creed which denounced the Arian beliefs and declared the divinity of Christ. There is little, if anything, in this creed that Latter-day Saint theology doesn’t support.

               Nicene Creed as adopted in 325[edit]

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (ὁμοούσιον) with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

And in the Holy Ghost.

But those who say: 'There was a time when he was not;' and 'He was not before he was made;' and 'He was made out of nothing,' or 'He is of another substance' or 'essence,' or 'The Son of God is created,' or 'changeable,' or 'alterable'—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.

It was great to be in Nicea and discuss the events that took place here. The shopping was also fun!