Istanbul
Our time in Turkey started with us having to wait 1 day in Istanbul for Esther our Zambian team member that has not yet joined us due to visa issues. We landed in the Asia side airport and had to make our way to the Europe side airport, so we were going to stay in central Istanbul so we can take the day and do some sightseeing while we wait. In the days before we flew I felt that we should not look for accommodation and book a place, so when we landed we took a bus to Taksim and there we were. A man on the bus from Serbia talked to us and started to help us find a cheap place, after a few random stops and different people helping we ended up with a guy taking us to a place. On the way there I felt that we should stay thee, but it will be above our budget, the place was basically an apartment just for us and above our budget, but we stayed the night.
It was really needed since the few days before we had some hard travelling and sleeping in airport ect. The next morning the plan was to go out and sightsee, but we all overslept. And then I felt that we should go explore and see where we are led in teams of 2 rather than go out, so the morning we did that and met some people. In the mean time the plane Esther was on was grounded smoking and she was delayed till the next morning 5 am. That afternoon we moved out and ended up in Taskim square park hanging round till we go to airport. The first people we met was Syrian refugees selling tea in the park and that was just so ironic since we just spent a month working with Syrian refugees in Jordan. That afternoon we spoke to people, helped sell coffee and tea in the park and met up with an Afgan refugee. But once the sun set it became very weird very quickly so we went to the airport and spent the night there, got early and got Esther. We travelled to the central bus station got tickets for the bus to Kusadasie (next to the old city of Ephese). It was overnight bus and got us in Kusadasie early the next morning.
Kusadasie
We found the camp site and negotiated a good deal, you negotiate everything in Turkey. The first few days was spend debriefing our time in Jordan and resting. It was needed. Then we started studying the book of Ephesians since we were right next door. There was no real plan for our time there, but there is a church we have contact with there that I wanted to contact, but felt we needed some resting time before we do. On the day I wanted to contact them the wife of the pastor just appeared in the camp site due to some very strange facebook mistake so we got in contact. We wanted to serve them, but after we spent some time with them they also felt that our time there is to rest for what is ahead. Nad how true it was we were in Kusadasie for 2 weeks and in that time we did bible study on Ephesians and well cried a lot. There was just a lot of thing that came loose in everyone and it was a very difficult and emotional time for everyone, but a very good time.
At one stage all team members except me wanted to seriously go home and was trying to run away from what was happening, but I am a good and much more experienced runner away from problems so this time it was my job to chase them down and bring them back to face their past and what was busy happening now. It was fun. The pastor and his wife was such a blessing to us in that time there, the time spent with them was really good, they also blessed us by taking us to the city of Ephese and that was so cool, I love ruins and old stuff. We also met up with some YWAM peeps that was there and a YWAM team from South Africa, so it good to spend time with some South Africans.
Fred
My time in Turkey started a bit strange, I had to do a few things that I knew was right, but did not make locigal sense, example pay more for the first night in Istanbul. It also took some more time than normal for me to adjust to where we were and to find my feet. I had a good personal debrief in the start and that was good for me to process what was happing.
My role in team was to chase the peeps down that was running away and at a stage I realised that I should not use that as an excuse to run away from what is happening in my own journey. It was a time where a lot of things from the past and my work life came up and some questions about the future and if I will go back to normal work or how it will look like. It was a continuation of the journey on some of the parts of my life that was not surrendered yet. The main journeys being to actually allow people to love me, it is a step up from the breakthrough last year where I started to like people and not just tolerating them. And then a real challenge to step into the things that I am called to no matter how scary it might feel. All in all a good time and getting better.
F