being a tourist

it's our last evening in syria. looking back i am not sure what to think... syria is a nice country, beautiful landscape (first time to the desert!), history everywhere you go, people being really kind... damascus has been really relaxed.
at the same time i felt so much like a tourist here while travelling, more than in other countries i have been to before. it was quite frustrating at times and reminded us often of what it means to be a stranger, feeling lonely, lost...
it made me think about hebrews 11-13 a lot. what it means to have no earthly home, no rights, no citizenship except the heavenly one. bonhoeffer put it in a poem, only know the german words... "sie wandeln auf erden und leben im himmel"...
having my home completely in god. it is a challenge i want to explore.
"put the church back on the camel" was the headline in a magazine i read some years ago... maybe it's for us (generational thing?) - being nomads again. with all the flexibility and adventure it has, but also the insecurity and loneliness it means.

it didn't work to upload the smiling camel. sorry...
rebecca***

flying abraham to end of turkey

Urfa in the southeast is said to be Abrahams birthplace and the legend goes that when challenging king Nemrud young Abraham was catapulted from the castle to the pyre to be burnt. But God saved him by turning the fire into a lake and the pieces of coal into fishes - which are till today swimming in the pool and growing bigger and bigger - and who would dare to eat them turns blind instantly :-).


Our next stop was the world heritage site Mount Nemrut, where a certain king Nemrut (the same guy??) created his impressive burial place. It is a heap of stones (in turkish tümülüsü - my new favourite word) right on top of the highest mountain, surrounded by big giant heads. We went there to watch an awesome sunrise and to be amazed by the natural beauty God created. See the ecstatic expressions on our faces??

Galatasaray is şampiyon!!!!
And Hajo became a local hero by joining the celebrations (including dancing...). We kind of had to pretend that we like futbol and are well informed about german teams -can somebody keep us updated???

And finally we arrived at the last turkish city on our way to Syria: Antakya, which maybe sounds more familiar as Antiochia how it was called earlier. It was in that place where Paul started his legendary mission trips. That also means that the church of Antiochia was the first sending church in history and this very successfully. I guess we still need more of that kind...
We made our pilgrimage to St Peters Church, said to be the first meeting place of the church there. It is a natural cave - honestly much nicer than the one in Rome...

r u h

Ankara - Diyarbakır

That's a bunch of rose products outside a shop at the busstation at İsparta, said to be the rose capital of Turkey. İ wanted to see the rose fields but my romantic idea failed, because we couldn't find any... They are deeper in the countryside.
There's a tale about a poor young girl (gülila) who would always hide in a rose bush when feeling alone and being ill-treated by her stepmother - and a rich rose merchant that only wanted to marry a girl who would smell like a rose... İt ends with him digging up the rose bush and moving it to his place and as soon as it touched the ground gülila walked out and they lived happily ever after... :-)

We travelled to Ankara, to meet with a guy we already got to know last year. He's keen on working with young people and will be at Freakstock this year... Looking forward.
Ankara is Turkey's official capital, center of the country's economic life, modern, secular... Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic is buried here, with his mausoleum looking like a temple. İt's due to him that in Turkey the latin alphabet is used, women are not allowed to wear headscarves at universities etc.

Ankara has a lot of young people, students from everywhere in the country. And a broad mixture of styles. İt's a crowded place, I got quite confused from time to time. And İ feel it would take a while to really get to know the city's heart.
Plenty of nice cafés...

From Ankara we travelled in an overnight bus to Diyarbakır, in the southeastern part of Turkey. Here mostly people belonging to the kurdish minority are living, the whole city feels more "oriental". While walking around the ancient city walls - THE (only) sight, we met lots of children playing on the streets ("money money"), a group of women sitting on the grass invited us to have çay with them (unfortunately couldn't talk much). And we took a look at the river Tigris (wow, Tigris - must be far away then .-).
so long then. İn an hour we will be in the bus again.
rebecca***

Türkiye

hey, we are back in turkey!
it's strange, but it feels so familiar.

the buyurun buyurun simit simit of the street vendors
the clickclack of the prayerbead in the hands of men passing by on the street
the i have a brotherunclefriend in Germany - of everybody we get to talk to
the inevitable çay at any time of the day
the invitation of the müezzin to prayer

and it is an invitation to prayer for us.
while changing cities nearly every day the places where we are praying vary from shabby hotel beds to nice park benches. but that doesn't matter. now our church is the two of us. feels good.

rebecca***

risen

We are spending this week with my parents in South Germany... In the middle of organising and getting things ready tonight we went to a prayer meeting in the old church building in our village and I was reminded of the wonder of the risen christ - and of words by Padraig Pearse, one of the visionaries of the irish easter rising 1916...

"I speak to my people, and I speak in my people's name to the masters of my people. I say to my people that they are holy, that they are august, despite their chains, That they are greater than those that hold them, and stronger and purer,
That they have but need of courage, and to call on the name of their God,
God the unforgetting, the dear God that loves the peoples
For whom He died naked, suffering shame.
And I say to my people's masters:
Beware, Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people,
Who shall take what ye would not give.
Did ye think to conquer the people,
Or that Law is stronger than life and than men's desire to be free?
We will try it out with you, ye that have harried and held,
Ye that have bullied and bribed, tyrants, hypocrites, liars!"

just some late easter thoughts - and don't we all need an easter rising just every new day?

hope. for my friends. my church. my world.
rebecca