We were able to take our first Missionary Retreat in Turkey this year! We didn't know if we'd make it because of finances, which is what most missionaries say. But all of the leaders in missions encourage it because looking back they can see that those who do not retreat are typically the ones who leave the field or burn out or have to take some other time or medical time later down the road. So the leaders who look out for us say: Go to your retreat!
For us, it was a good chance to meet a few other "M's" working in our area. It's good to see what's going on around you and to know who is there. We were glad to make connections and especially glad for our kiddos to make some connections and to see that they're not alone in this overseas - MK life! Benjamin was one of the few (only) boys! But he did well, besides a few days of stomach trouble! Hannie made a good new friend from Moldova. Ruth made friends with everybody she laid eyes on! Ha. It's good for her to have some extended family to love on and be loved by. Although we had to watch her because others around the hotel thought she was pretty sweet, too, and we didn't know everyone! She had to be taught a little bit about strangers and who it was okay to be with... Elijah got to be included in the big kids class! He's Mr Four now and not a baby. He only had one accident in his pants... (arg... but he's soo much better now then before... lots of changes lately for a little man!) They had great teachers and are still talking about them like they're our new family!
We had mornings and evenings of meetings and open afternoons to go to the pool or beach or just to lay in our room! Ha. (We did some of that for Benjamin's sake... poor guy!) We meet together for meetings in the mornings and had a guest speaker encourage us in the evenings. It was nice to worship in English with Americans and hear sermons in English, too! We went into town one day with some friends and had Burger King ice creams! Lots of people went to Starbucks but since we're not huge coffee drinkers, we just got brownies to share! Yum. Fun to get to do those things that we haven't done for a few months!
I could share notes and things with you from our meetings... but I'm not sure that's what you're looking for on a blog?? :)
Ephesus
One extra treat for us is that we got to tour the ruins of Ephesus. Paul spent like 3 years there and you can read about it in Acts. Then he also wrote his letter to the Ephesians which you can read, too! :) It was totally cool to walk the streets that Paul had walked. To try to go back in time and imagine who walked there and what life was like back then. We had a friend stop along the tour and read from Ephesians about the different people finding unity there. It was an interesting experience for us. I took tons of pics if you wanna see them at our flickr site! While we walked through ruins on a 1oo degree afternoon, another friend of ours watched the kids and took them swimming at the pool!! Thanks, Mary!!! :) We all liked that arrangement. Although Benjamin was torn about whether to come with us or stay and swim... he's our history lover. In the end a cool pool with friends won out! Hannah told us to take pictures and they'd look at them! Heh.
Traveling to Turkey:
Since the boarder between Turkey and Armenia are closed... we had to fly up to Riga, Latvia and then back down to Istanbul, to Izmir, and then drive the hour to the hotel. Latvia is way up by Finland so that's a long way to go when we're down by Iran! Loooong flights to go and come back.
When we got off the plane in Izmir to find the guy who would take us to the hotel, the sign he held said Benjamin Crawford! Awesome. So Benjamin was the man of the family for a while! :)
Every night we had our doors open to catch the breeze (the hotel only ran the AC for like 3 hours at night...) and they did a concert down in the little amphitheater outside our window... so we learned their routine pretty well! Bedtime music... it started at like 10. (Supper started at 7:30!!)
On the way back it was over 24 hours to get home! When we got on the planes, Lijah would be asleep even before we got in the air! We got home and crashed... talk about jet lag just from visiting the country right next door to you!
Our flight from Riga to Yerevan left at 12:30 AM... and the sun was still setting when we boarded the plane! Kinda cool... it's up close to St Petersburg where they have the "White Nights".
Home
We were glad to get home and contemplated what makes home - home. ND will always be "home" but we were glad to feel like this was "home", too. I don't know if it's where your things are, where your routine is, where your friends are, where things are familiar... probably all of those things together?! We're here and together and home! One of our speakers said her and her husband decided where ever they were, they would make "home". Since they travel so much. Ruth does a good job of that! To her, we lived in Turkey for a week! :) The speaker also talked about making your home be home, letting God dwell in you and being at home with Him, and then our Home in heaven which we should always remember... Someday we'll really be home.
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