Fun and Faith in Turkey

In the West, Turkey might still be thought of as the land of scimitars, bazaars, and fez hats - mystical and maybe a little dangerous even if a NATO member. Well, the bazaars are great, full of cheap good food and spices; we haven't seen any weapons here; and Ataturk got rid of the fez hats 80 years ago.



The Turks are polite, helpful, and hospitable. Christy and Elena spent 2 hours yesterday drinking tea and eating cookies with a newly minted friend of Zdravka's.
I've been bumbling around town getting assistance from lots of guys. And everyone is patient with our very bad Turkish.

There are houses of prayer everywhere, - Muslims model serious mindedness about a prayer lifestyle.

Oldest Christian House of Prayer on Earth?

The afternoon of our second day on the Turkish coast, fighting jetlag with the energy only raw excitement can produce, Ben, Liz and I descended an old road which cut through tangerine orchards like an ancient dry waterway. Immediately to our right loomed a small, unattended Byzantine chapel dating back to maybe the 2nd century.

The apostle John would have been dead 100 years, Polycarp his disciple maybe 50 or so years. The chapel was poorly maintained. It was moving to stand on its tiled floor depicting dolphins, which were popular at that time and appeared on the earliest Byzantine coins. The faith of the early Christian movement would have been raw and real to whoever knelt there 1800 years ago. See the mosaic below.