On the Road Again

This weekend, I went with some Turkish friends to a Christmas Celebration. The whole weekend was talking about Christmas and why we celebrate. It was a really really great weekend. When I got back my mind was in overload. From the moment we got in the van, the Turkish started flowing...or pumping very loudly from the van speakers. About 16 of us went from my city to a bigger gathering in Alanya, which is a city on the coast known in the summer for it's great beaches. I have included a few pictures of the view from the horrible road we drove on and of the beach. It was beautiful, but too frigid to really enjoy the beach. The aforementioned horrible road (which I included a map which is equally as horrible as the terrible road we drove on and not to scale) caused many a good woman and man to pull over and give in to car-sickness. I've really never been on a more windy road. The view was incredible, but the driver kept telling me (because I of course was one of the people to make the van pull over and had to sit up with the driver for several hours of the worst part of the drive), 'Don't look at the view! I know it's beautiful, just look straight ahead, I am actually sick right now, too!' (Isn't that just what you want to hear when at every turn there are no side rails and we could just fall into the ocean below! So, I'm already feeling a bit green and then I go to the front seat for some relief and some fresh air and bless his heart, our driver needed some company. He kept talking to me and I'm not quite at the point where I can be car-sick and use my Turkish at the same time, so who knows what I said. He got alot of 'yes' and 'oh, okay' out of me. I'm not sure what I was answering to! Finally he gave up on me, I think, and I fell asleep! I relied on Dramamine, but the Turks kept offering me lemons under my nose to smell. Apparently, if you are ill on the road, if you smell something good, it helps. I stuck to the Dramamine.

(the view from the very very twisty road)

We stopped for lunch on the way at this place, They are very well 'protected'. All of the gourds have evil eyes painted on them, a Turkish superstitious symbol. Remember the 'scratch your bottom' story at the beginning of the year? That was evil eye superstition also! It's in April or March's blogs I believe, if I've made you curious now...

Once we got to the conference, it was fabulous. There was lots of worship and some good Words from the Book, all in Turkish of course. I was really proud of myself, but He keeps me humble. All weekend, I spoke nothing but Turkish, ate Turkish food, listened to Turkish music, prayed in Turkish, stayed in my hotel room with my Turkish friends--morning to night Turkish--and then I got to Burger King on Monday and the guy behind the counter couldn't understand me ask for salt. I know, I have a LONG LONG way to go. But, it was really encouraging to finally be at a point and look back and be like, 'Wow, I could not have done this a few months ago'. The girls are so patient with me and I of course took a million notes during the preaching. I'm constantly writing down every word I don't know (that's alot of words, I am pretty much constantly writing!). But, it was worth all the hard thinking to see my sweet friends really celebrating the reason for Christmas and enjoying fellowship with nationals who believe like they do. It touches my heart to hear them long for other friends to know what they know now. These are exciting days.

And speaking of exciting... my folks are coming in only THREE days! I am so excited that I just don't know what to do with myself! Actually that is not true. I have found about a million things to do with myself ranging from finishing my Christmas shopping to cleaning the fridge at 11:30 last night. My to do list keeps growing! I want everything to be so perfect for them! We're going to celebrate Christmas here with American and Turkish friends and then go to Istanbul for New Year's! I hope that wherever you are this week, whether you have had the chance to have a weekend getaway to remember why we're celebrating or not, that you'll take time to remember and reflect, praise out of a grateful heart, and share with those around you the best gift that we have to offer any time of year.