Return from Turkey

We had a very full week in Turkey. We arrived back at the center this morning at 2 am. Turkey is such an absolutely wonderful trip. The country is gorgeous! I love the Pauline and Johannine sites and I love visiting the gorgeous mosques. It was particularly sad to leave because I was saying goodbye to our two guides, Necip and Jasemine.

Necip is leaving to be with his family in Scandanavia, so he won’t be our guide any more. Jasemine is getting married next month, but she’ll continue working with our students. So to mourn Necip’s departure and to celebrate Jasmine's wedding we all gathered together at the remain’s of Constantine’s palace in Nicea to give them both a gift. It was a really nice moment on the trip.

So, what was different on this trip compared to the other two trips? The “old girls” decided to dress up at Troy and have our photo taken!

 The photographer got a little upset that our friends were taking photos of us, even though we were all committed to buy a photo from her. One of the students took this photo. We were staged sitting on a throne and standing in a chariot with swords and bows and arrows, but the lighting wasn't very good for most of those. The one we bought has the Trojan horse in the background. It’s not often that I play dress up!!!!!

Also, at Ephesus I went to see the residential houses. There’s an extra fee for this and I had not done it before. We didn't have much time, but I raced over there and I didn't have time to fully take everything in, but it was MAGNIFICENT!

This is just one example of the tiled floors and fresco-ed walls. There were the terrace house of ancient Ephesus’s wealthy. Although I doubt that Paul lived in any of these during his 3 year stay, it is clear in Acts that he had friends among the well-to-do there, so he may have gone over there for Sunday dinner some time! I really enjoyed that. Maybe one day I’ll be able to go back and have more time to really enjoy it.

Today is the celebration of Shavuot or Pentecost. It is one of the three biblically-mandated pilgrim festivals where Israelites were directed to go to the temple. It is celebrated 50 days after Passover. It is an early harvest celebration (the time of the wheat harvest). Rabbis say that it celebrates the time when Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai. It is an important festival for Christians, particularly in Acts 2 where the Holy Ghost is poured out upon the people. Today Jews celebrate it by reading from the Torah and the book of Ruth (which is a harvest-gathering story); celebrating nature in the National Parks, and it is a day for eating dairy products, especially cheese cake. So Ron and I went out and bought little bite-size cheese cakes to share with the students tonight! Half are flavored with passion fruit!!! (I love passion fruit)

and the other half with blueberries. Sabina is enjoying a passion fruit one in this picture. So it was a fun day.

Tomorrow we’re off to Jericho for our field trip. The temperature is supposed to hit 100 degrees!