Arrived safely in Istanbul,
Turkey. Passed through passport
control and bought our Turkish visas.
It was all relatively hassle-free.
Took a taxi to Istanbul House of Prayer. The taxi driver drove at least 140km/hr down the freeway,
which was packed with vehicles. We
saw a few cop cars with their lights ablaze speeding down the road after other
vehicles. We saw cop cars hugging
the shoulder of the road and squeezing by and speeding along past traffic in
the proper lanes. It was all sort
of thrilling, I’ll admit.
The taxi ride took about half an
hour. Istanbul seems a bit
overwhelming – big lights, big city.
We met our first contacts, Crystal and her husband and little baby,
Ruah. They guided us to our
accommodation. They seem like a
sweet Korean couple. Speaking of
Koreans, it turns out that the Istanbul HOP is entirely operated by
Koreans. They’re such an amazing
people-group – so missional, so kingdom-minded. I’m confident it’s possible to find Korean Christians on
mission for Jesus pretty much wherever you go.
We also heard our first noisy,
echoing, haunting, slightly overbearing, characteristic Muslim call to prayer
on our way to IHOP. The windows in
our taxi were all rolled up and still the call was clear as a bell, loud
even. These highly religious
summons happen several times a day and in the Middle East they’re quite
ubiquitous. It’ll take some
getting used to.
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