Update for 6/22/27

It's been a crazy 3 days. After orientation in Flagstaff we drove down to Phoenix, had dinner with my parents and my dad shared some Amazing stories of God's Redeeming power. We made it safely to the airport and Theo had fun being patted down at security. God has really placed each person in this team strategically. We are different and similar at the same time. The trip to London and Istanbul was effortless. He provided all our luggage and guitars to end up safely together in one piece. And although my fellow flying friends in front of me decided it was best to lean back, the travel experience was good. Sadly the movies I wanted to watch were not the ones they showed us on the plane. We arrived in Istanbul and it was hot and humid. Our shuttle drvier, Ramazan, was quite a jokester. Theo loves to see if any Turks can speak arabic. So far all i can get is hello, how are you, what is your name, nice to meet you, and good bye. It's coming slowly but surely. Oh yeah and if they sneeze I can respond to that as well. But we arrived at our hostel in Istanbul which was right next to the Blue Mosque (cami mavi) pronounced jami mavi, and the Hagia Sofia. Seeing those buildings again brings back great memories. My last trip to Turkey was 9 years ago. Our hostel was cozy enough and we got in around Midnight. We made a friend, Ervin Bilen, who was very good at speaking English. I talked to him for about 30 mins over sports, family, and our travels. Our team was going to pray on the Terrace but didn't realize our hostel turk friends loved to stay up and chat. (I apologize for misspellings and bad punctuation, turkish keyboards are different). So probably until about 3 am we chatted with ervin and his friend, who seemed to have an opinion on everything. It was really amazing to talk to them about their culture, their lives, and how they perceived our culture. After that we got about 3 hrs of sleep. Our bus left at 830 and we had to get ready. We had a traditional turkish breakfast of cucumber, tomato, olive, cheese and ekmek(bread). Mom and dad you'll be happy to know I ate all of it! I felt like I had a special connection with ervin, his 6'4'' stature helped i think. He served us in every way possible. The amazing thing is he worked at the 4 seasons across the street! He helped us to our room, entertained us, and made us breakfast all on his own! I am already loving the turkish attitude on life. Our taxi ride to the bus station was totally awesome! Total disregard for traffic lanes and signs is so fun! It was like a roller coaster ride except the operator was on a cell phone and joking with the driver next to him at the same time. The bus ride was 12 hours of sleep, talk, and knee cramps. It finally hit me that I was in Turkey during that long ride to Antalya. The turkish landscape is so diverse and beautiful! We made it safely to Antalya and our new friend (who knows english) picked us up. She is quite a character. Our pansiyon, The White Garden or beyaz bahçe, is quaint beautiful and right in the middle of the old city and only a minutes walk to the Mediterraean Coast. We had amazing doner for dinner and I am currently living in a room as big as my bathroom back home but I love it! The view is amazing but i'm sure my attitude will change when I experience the +110 degree weather. That's all I have now. god continues to bless us. Pray that we will be able to be bold and speak with Turks, even with limited Turkish (one word of turkish and they think we're fluent). Pray for endurance, peace, patience, and JOY!! This is going to be an awesomely, wickedly, amazing summer adventure. God Bless! - Seth Knox