Türkiye

i'm home from turkey! no, i did not eat any turkey while i was there, but i had my share of eggplant goulash, meatballs of all sorts, desserts saturated in syrup, lentil soup, and bread to last a lifetime! some more delicious investments on my part where the baklava and goat milk ice cream....here's my pistachio baklava. delishhhhhhh!

but aside from the food...turkey is AWESOME! i mean REALLY AWESOME! i couldn't have asked to go anywhere better! we visited sites from the pauline epistles as well as several of the cities that john writes to in the book of revelation. 

we began in istanbul...

with a boat ride up the bosphorus straight :)

 topkapi palace!

 a beautiful istanbul sunset :)

and on to troy.... 

 where hector was supposedly killed....we can't always keep it g rated here...

THE trojan horse! ok maybe it's not completely authentic...

 and assos. favorite. 

during paul's missions he would have travelled through troy as well as assos, miletus, and ephesus...sites that we were able to stop at on our trip!

but on to pergamon! 

john the revelator wrote to the people of pergamon in rev. 2:12-16 

and ephesus. oh ephesus.

 another site of paul's ministry! 

 the library at ephesus...don't we look studious???

"We are the muses.

Goddesses of the arts

and proclaimers of heroes. 

Heroes like Hercules.

Honey, you mean HUNKules!"

john wrote to the people of ephesus as well in rev. 2:1-6 

paul spent three years ministering to the people here in ephesus, and he would have been in that very theater.  we even re-enacted acts 19....quite entertaining. what with evil spirits, exorcists, and an angry mob you can imagine the raucous we caused! 

church of st. john the beloved...and his grave................... :P

now for priene! so beautiful!

sardis.

 also one of the cities john mentions in revelation.

 the gymnasium at sardis... i work out! 

so does camila!

and our tour guide fatih!

karen and i were about to jump ship while on our way back to istanbul...but brother jackson caught us. lame!

istanbul one final time!!!!

in front of the hagia sophia with blake!

i swirled my finger all the way around...14 years of good luck! 

 and the blue mosque!

many pictures...i know...and i could have posted so many more you know... but turkey is just plain amazing! the history here is incredibly. not only is it rich in WORLD history, but also the history of the gospel of Jesus Christ. and i am so grateful to be able to increase my testimony as i travel throughout this land. He is teaching me....so much. 

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him...

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God...

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

1 Corinthians 2:9-13