Sardis Trip

Michelle and I went on the Sardis Trip. Funny story because we always thought that the seven churches of Revelations were actual churches. Wrong. They were actually just congregations that met at the houses of one of the wealthy members. Anyway, Sardis was the sight of one of the churches mentioned in Revelations chapter 3. After the temple of Artemis, we did an hour hike up the side of the hill to see Acropolis. Michelle hurt her ankle about 3/4 of the way up and had to go back down. There's wasn't too much to see except a few remaining walls and a nice view. After Acropolis we went to lunch at a Turkish restaurant famous for it's köfte, or meatballs. Then we went to the Roman baths and gymnasium. You can see remains of the old roman shops and the jewish synagogue located at the same site. We were a little disappointed to find that some of the structures had been rebuilt in the 70s. They took some of the original materials and reconstructed the sight to give you an idea of what it would have looked like. The gymnasium is actually a large empty field where the guys would workout in the nude. I spared you the visual in the picture though. Michelle thought the sign for the toilets at the restaurant was pretty funny and I have to admit that I laughed too. The trip was great but we were exhausted by the time we got back to Izmir.

Our church!

Here's the base Church located in downtown Alsancak. We didn't get a picture of the gate but you can't tell it's a church from the road. There's a 7-8 foot cement wall around it with barbwire at the top. You have to ring a doorbell and wait for the guard to open the gate and check your military ID. The church is huge, the congregation is small, but at least everyone's nice!

Magic Carpets!

The coolest thing we did Friday was meet a guy on the street named Mustafa, who showed us around and even took us into a Mosque! Too cool, huh? Btw, I wasn't too scared until afterwards when Tracy looked at his phone - I asked if he was calling someone and he said no - he had the law enforcement desk on speed dial and ready to push the button when we started following Mustafa down these back alleys! That was smart and a reminder that I really have to be careful not to be too trusting.

We also bought some Turkish handmade rugs - probably paid too much, but we don't want to know. We really like them! They are beautiful and have stories in the designs. If you want to hear the stories, come visit!!

Michelle is here!

Yea! Michelle finally got to Izmir! Here's a couple of pics we took of the beater car too. Michelle really enjoyed the leisurely drive we took through Izmir to get the headlights adjusted. It looks like it's going to be for sale now after seeing how people drive here. haha.