It occurred to me there no pictures of me on here. Just one so you know I'm really here! That's Charles and I with Din- A man from Malaysia who is a missionary for Islam!! He was really sweet and we had a nice talk about God and Jesus. This kind of stuff happens all the time to us. Pilgrim travel opens your heart and inclines me toward openness. I am seeing this is true for everyone else as well.
We 've just finished a nice meal - roasted fresh fish- and we're going out to find some baklava.
Tonight we watched an authentic Sufi whirling dervish ceremony. The place where we saw it was really authentic- a live band with a lute, psalter and recorder and a drummer with all kinds of drums. 5 singers chanted and sang while 5 young men danced , spinning and moving in a circle. These were real Sufis, too- most of them prayed to themselves and one even had tears at one point. God was there!
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Today was great- lots of gorgeous stuff- (see pics). I'm going to pass this around for some comment.
But first two pictures from Aya Sofya-
What's left of a tile Mosaic of Jesus:
John the BaptistAnd a cross that was chiseled into the wall- I am pretty sure someone did this a long time ago...
Margaret:
It's the second to last day, and I'm overflowing with thin moments in my journey: throwing a message in a bottle into the Sea of Marmara and giving one of my gifts to a dervish dancer.
Alexander
Walking into the dungeon that was the whirling dervish dancer cave, I had no idea what to expect. However, the dancers performed in a quiet relaxing tempo that made me stop and think about how incredible this trip and country has been.
Alicia
I tried the Sebzeli Kebap a lunch it was actually pretty delicious!
Kathy:
I danced a Turkish dance with a man that jumped out of his van on the ferry that we took across the Marmara. Soon we had a full circle!!
Here are some other random photos of our pilgrims getting dressed to go into the Blue Mosque:
And finally, a picture at "Kafkas" a roadside candy store we have called "the Turkish stuckeys" we are some halva we bought there- kind of like cake batter cheese...
Great day. Talk to you tomorrow!!
Seeing the beautiful art from Hagia Sophia made me wonder, has it felt strange to any of you to see all of these important early Christian sites in a country where Christianity is basically a dead religion? I think it would feel strange to me, but maybe that's just because I'm up too late and not quite with it at the moment! Anyway, possible food for thought. --Carey Fletcher
ReplyDeleteComfort Stop!!!!!
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