It's been a while since I put something up here so my apologies. I've got a lot of work piling up and I am doing a terrible job at time management. You know sometimes when you know that you should be working ahead or getting things done or even started but there is that little voice that tells you that you can wait a little longer. This is probably otherwise known as PROCRASTINATION but I've been giving into him very often lately. So I now have 21 days until I head for Indiana and the U.S. of A. Wow! I can't even believe I am saying that. At the same time I have a whole lot left to do. Between basketball, the Christmas program (I'm a Shepherd), 2 group projects, several papers, saying goodbye, goodbye parties, etc. my time will be full. I know this sounds like a typical college student's life so I'm not complaining but only stating what's on my plate. I could go on forever but I want to give a couple quick highlights of my recent 4 day trip to Istanbul, Turkey!
1.) Seeing the Hagia Sofya, built in the 6th century A.D., was amazing. This place was originally a Christian church and the 2nd ROME (Constantinople that is), as the center of the Orthodox church. It is the place that saw the split of the Catholic and Orthodoxy traditions (ask me when I get home if you want more info.). It is the place where Prince Vladimir from Russia sent some investigators to "find" a religion for what would become Russia. Catholocism, Islam, and Orthodoxy were all visited and the men were so impressed by this building and the worship there that they convinced the Prince to accept Orthodoxy, hence we now have RUSSIAN Orthodoxy and Moscow as the 3rd ROME. Crazy stuff but amazing to be there at the center of so much history!
2.) Turkish culture is crazy and fun. They are so outgoing. Mostly because they are ALL trying to sell you stuff. There are over 4,000 rug shops and literally thousands of restaurants and little shops selling all sorts of stuff. Men dominate the public life of this culture but they are very friendly and touchy and all. I enjoyed interacting with them as most of them spoke English.
3.) I got to go to a Turkish Christian Church which was so neat. It was one of 30 congregations comprising at most 1500 people in a city of 15 million who are part of a Christian fellowship. Yeah, this place needs Jesus! Anyway, the passion and excitement was so cool and I loved being a part of this day. We also had a Thanksgiving dinner afterwards. Turkey in Turkey!!!! It was a very cool day and fun to talk to many Turkish missionaries.
That's about all that I got for now. Maybe I'll post more later but I hope you are doing well. My encouragement to you is to serve someone today. The act of giving of your time in a selfless way is what life should be all about. I'm striving to do that today!
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