Skip to main content

Travel Woes and Great Food

This is a random post, but thought it might be worth sharing our travel woes. If you have been keeping up with my trip so far, you are aware of the issues we had with our initial flight out of RDU. The bus ride to DC wasn't bad but it wasn't a part of the plan. Then last night we had a early evening flight from Istanbul to Izmir. We flew into the brand new airport there and as we were deplanning there was some confusion about where we were to go and unfortunately one of our group members was separated from the rest of us for about 25 minutes. Fortunately we were able to meet back up, but with the airport only being a week old, there was miscommunication about where our us was to pick us up. Because of that we had to walk about 15 to 20 minutes to finally reach our bus. We finally made it and things worked out fine but it just happens that sometimes things don't go smoothly. Our group was and continues to be determined and we do not allow it to deter us from having a great time.

The food so far has been great. We mostly have been eating in the hotels which has consisted of a variety of vegetable plates and unique ways of cooking meat. We just finished lunch at a local place in Sardis that had wood fire-grilled meatballs, and they were fantastic.

Today we have begun visiting many if the seven churches mentioned in Revelation and other places as we continue to move back up the Aegean Sea coast. I will update later this evening. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FBC Monroe Students Head North, eh! (Day 1)

Today our team of 8 high school students and 3 adult chaperones from First Baptist, Monroe departed for a week of serving alongside residents of Chateauguay, Quebec Canada. We have been looking forward to this experience for quite awhile. For all of the students, it is their first experience with an international missonal encounter, heck for three quarters of our team, it was their first time flying.             Our trip began with multiple headaches at the Charlotte airport, as there was difficulty with obtaining boarding passes through the airline, and misdirection from security about which “check-in” line we were authorized to enter. Then when we got to Philadelphia for our connecting flight, it ended up being delayed by 2.5 hours. All of the irritations aside, it provided time for our team to gel in light of the unique experiences, and give us a good “first day’ story.          ...

Mount of Beatitudes & Golan Heights: Day 1 in Israel

Today begin our official visiting of sites and locations around Israel. We started the day with a delicious breakfast before boarding our bus at 8 AM to head to our first stop, the Mount of Beatitudes. This is the site traditionally believed to be the location where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). The site currently has a Catholic church on it surrounded by beautiful gardens and places of reflection, that are run by a group of nuns. When we arrived, the group gathered and was led in a time of devotion by Nathan Morton, a CUDS student and pastor of Burgaw Baptist Church in Burgaw, NC. It was a wonderful reminder of what it means to be the salt and light of the earth, as Nathan read this memorable passage on the very site it is traditionally believed to have been delivered by Jesus.  Nathan sharing from Matt 5 on Mount of Beatitudes Church at Beatitudes Me with the Mount of Beatitudes and the Sea of Galilee in the back...

Boy Scouts of America & the SBC: My Adolescent Pillars

The annual Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) finished up last night in Houston, TX and one of the major news stories coming out of the convention is the resolution passed regarding the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) [read full resolution and press release by Baptist Press here ]. Essentially, the resolution expresses the disappointment by the denomination in both the leadership and decision made by the national Scouting board in regards to allowing all boys to participate in the organization despite their sexual orientation. What it does not do is tell churches to dissolve their relationships with BSA troops/packs (because then they would cease to be Baptist, you know the whole local church autonomy thing is KIND of a big part of the Baptist denomination), but instead encourages them to funnel support into the Royal Ambassadors (the SBC equivalent of an organization to the BSA). For those of you who may not know, I am an Eagle Scout, and a proud one at that. My family and I were a part ...