Turkey 2005: Last Day
And here we are on Monday 20th June at the end of the tour.
So what happened in between? Well, first of all last Friday was probably the WORST journey of the lot. The air conditioner in the van had broken, the heat was incredible and the roads are the worst in Turkey, but somehow we did arrive in Izmir (ancient Smyrna) at least alive if not kicking! We were playing at an old Anglican church in the east of the city now used by a small local Baptist community. The set-up was excrutiatingly uncomfortable because the concert was outside in a place where there was no shade whatsoever (although by the time the concert started the sun had gone down cooling things a little). Tempers were short - but not badly so. Much water was consumed and eventually the setup was complete. We were then treated to a very nice meal prepared by the church members (making me realize that this was the first time that that had happened on the tour).
The concert was probably the best mix of musical quality and message that we achieved on the tour. The crowd was small (100 or so) but attentive and the local church (numbering 25 WITH children) have a number of contacts to follow up. One very encouraging story involves a non-Christian local mother who came with her small deaf daughter. The little girl had a hard time with the music but when Dorothy and I came on and did our "Give your heart to God" mime (I didn't mention we were doing that did I!!!) she lit up and "got" the message immediately.
After tear-down we left the city to stay in Selcek - which is ancient Ephesus. We stayed in the same hotel as two years ago - with the same Mosque 50 feet from my bedroom window awaking me at 5 in the morning with the call-to-prayer!!
Saturday started with breakfast on the roof overlooking the town and its sundry ancient ruins (Ephesus/Selcek has been inhabited for close on five thousand years!) and then, after a particularly spiritually intense study and prayer time, went to the main Greek/Roman ruins site and, in particular, the massive amphitheatre spoken of in the Bible! Very impressive!
After lunch we drove back into Izmir to the small modern open amphitheater in the middle of town. Again the heat was very intense and we were wilting badly by the time we were done - but we set up in record time - 40 minutes.
The concert was well attended and the music quality was OK. But we were competing for attention with (I am not making this up) a circumcision party going on at the restaurant next door (in fact we had a similar but less intrusive problem last year). I was actually heckled and had a beer can (empty, unfortunately) thrown at me while I was sharing my ubiquitous "Lost In Instanbul" story! Quite an honour really!
After the concert I met a young Moslem man who comes from Izmir but is based in England now. We had an intense conversation over the different pictures of Jesus presented by the Bible and the Koran but parted on friendly terms with a promise to stay in touch.
One sour not on the evening was the theft of Pauline's camera - with hundreds of pictures of Turkey on it.
We stayed at a hotel in the city that night - it was the last big concert, the next day (Sunday) being a smaller affair at the American military chapel in the city centre. We arose at 8:00 for that - and all of us immediately realized that we had had too much sun over the last few days - Vince in particular. We arrived at the chapel (in fact the ancient Catholic cathedral of Smyrna where the Apostle John presided for a while) at 9:00 and set up for a 12:30 "concert" in the courtyard, that was really going to be the protestant church service led by us (we had to set up that early because the catholic service preceded it and we couldn't disturb that). By the time we were due to go on, Vince was feeling so sick from the sun that he couldn't stand! So we prayed and sorted out an order that we could get away with without him - Craig as usual coming to our assistance with his literal bag of tricks! This time I shared my "Cheese in the sock draw story" (I really need to expand by story repertoire) to great amusement and effect - and the lyrics of Faith were finally understood by an audience (they were English speakers).
Afterwards we had an ice cream lunch with the church members, packed up and left immediately for Istanbul - a 9 hour journey that was not as bad as the 4 hour journey into Izmir on Friday but still pretty gruelling. By this time Vince was feeling much better, thankfully.
Anyway, so here we are in Istanbul for a final day of relaxation before heading on out early tomorrow morning to the airport and our homes. We'll be spending today sightseeing probably.
Prayers would be appreciated for Vince and Peter who's health issues, though improved, still persist; for safety in the traveling to come in the next few days; and especially for all the follow-up activities that will continue long after we have left these shores.
I should mention here that the Algeria tour HAS been cancelled and that it looks like I WILL be going to Dallas next week. Please pray for that too.
So what happened in between? Well, first of all last Friday was probably the WORST journey of the lot. The air conditioner in the van had broken, the heat was incredible and the roads are the worst in Turkey, but somehow we did arrive in Izmir (ancient Smyrna) at least alive if not kicking! We were playing at an old Anglican church in the east of the city now used by a small local Baptist community. The set-up was excrutiatingly uncomfortable because the concert was outside in a place where there was no shade whatsoever (although by the time the concert started the sun had gone down cooling things a little). Tempers were short - but not badly so. Much water was consumed and eventually the setup was complete. We were then treated to a very nice meal prepared by the church members (making me realize that this was the first time that that had happened on the tour).
The concert was probably the best mix of musical quality and message that we achieved on the tour. The crowd was small (100 or so) but attentive and the local church (numbering 25 WITH children) have a number of contacts to follow up. One very encouraging story involves a non-Christian local mother who came with her small deaf daughter. The little girl had a hard time with the music but when Dorothy and I came on and did our "Give your heart to God" mime (I didn't mention we were doing that did I!!!) she lit up and "got" the message immediately.
After tear-down we left the city to stay in Selcek - which is ancient Ephesus. We stayed in the same hotel as two years ago - with the same Mosque 50 feet from my bedroom window awaking me at 5 in the morning with the call-to-prayer!!
Saturday started with breakfast on the roof overlooking the town and its sundry ancient ruins (Ephesus/Selcek has been inhabited for close on five thousand years!) and then, after a particularly spiritually intense study and prayer time, went to the main Greek/Roman ruins site and, in particular, the massive amphitheatre spoken of in the Bible! Very impressive!
After lunch we drove back into Izmir to the small modern open amphitheater in the middle of town. Again the heat was very intense and we were wilting badly by the time we were done - but we set up in record time - 40 minutes.
The concert was well attended and the music quality was OK. But we were competing for attention with (I am not making this up) a circumcision party going on at the restaurant next door (in fact we had a similar but less intrusive problem last year). I was actually heckled and had a beer can (empty, unfortunately) thrown at me while I was sharing my ubiquitous "Lost In Instanbul" story! Quite an honour really!
After the concert I met a young Moslem man who comes from Izmir but is based in England now. We had an intense conversation over the different pictures of Jesus presented by the Bible and the Koran but parted on friendly terms with a promise to stay in touch.
One sour not on the evening was the theft of Pauline's camera - with hundreds of pictures of Turkey on it.
We stayed at a hotel in the city that night - it was the last big concert, the next day (Sunday) being a smaller affair at the American military chapel in the city centre. We arose at 8:00 for that - and all of us immediately realized that we had had too much sun over the last few days - Vince in particular. We arrived at the chapel (in fact the ancient Catholic cathedral of Smyrna where the Apostle John presided for a while) at 9:00 and set up for a 12:30 "concert" in the courtyard, that was really going to be the protestant church service led by us (we had to set up that early because the catholic service preceded it and we couldn't disturb that). By the time we were due to go on, Vince was feeling so sick from the sun that he couldn't stand! So we prayed and sorted out an order that we could get away with without him - Craig as usual coming to our assistance with his literal bag of tricks! This time I shared my "Cheese in the sock draw story" (I really need to expand by story repertoire) to great amusement and effect - and the lyrics of Faith were finally understood by an audience (they were English speakers).
Afterwards we had an ice cream lunch with the church members, packed up and left immediately for Istanbul - a 9 hour journey that was not as bad as the 4 hour journey into Izmir on Friday but still pretty gruelling. By this time Vince was feeling much better, thankfully.
Anyway, so here we are in Istanbul for a final day of relaxation before heading on out early tomorrow morning to the airport and our homes. We'll be spending today sightseeing probably.
Prayers would be appreciated for Vince and Peter who's health issues, though improved, still persist; for safety in the traveling to come in the next few days; and especially for all the follow-up activities that will continue long after we have left these shores.
I should mention here that the Algeria tour HAS been cancelled and that it looks like I WILL be going to Dallas next week. Please pray for that too.
posted by Martin Bartlett at 7:23 AM
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