Reflections...

Tonight was our last night with most of our friends. It was so much fun and so sad. This trip has been life changing. I have fallen in love with a country, a city, and a people. God has truly blessed me by giving me the opportunity to come and live among a people group that has been so welcoming.

 I have no idea how to even explain this extreme range of feelings that I am feeling right now. I am so excited to come home and begin a completely new stage of my life. I am equally sad to end a stage of my life that I never could have anticipated. The Word has lead me here and the Word has lead me home to a different way of sharing the Truth that shapes my life. He has shown me so much about his love, his grace, his mercy, and his plan for me.

This time has reinforced to me that football breeds teammates and friends. More than that though, it creates brothers. The men that I have met with here have become my family in just a few months. I will miss the people here so much. They are friends that I will never forget. I absolutely can not wait to come back here.

I felt like I was going to sit down and write this deep, meaningful post about my time here; the things I have learned, the things I will miss, the things I won't miss, and the people I have come to love. I was wrong. The words won't come. I would love nothing more than to pour out my heart in this blog, but how do you pour out what is overflowing? Amid all the thoughts and feelings all I can think of is how truly blessed I have been by our Father and how His love has filled my heart to overflowing. You can not pour out something that is overflowing from an infinite well of perfection. I try to pour it out and it keeps overflowing. My meager skill with words does not do justice to this condition people call salvation or perfect justification. These terms can not and do not come close to describing what we have. This perfect justification with the Father through the Father is but a mere foreshadowing of our being in the presence of the the great I Am. 

My rambling is finished. Hopefully I will be able to write a post that makes more sense and I will add some pictures of my last few days as well.

Time with friends and Rumeli Fotress

It feels so odd to be coming to an end of my time here in this incredible city. The closer I get to going home the more excited I get about it and the more sad I get about leaving the lasting relationships that I have developed here. I am trying to go see as many things and as many places as I can these past few days.

Here is a little look back on the past couple weeks:

Saturday, May 5th, Matt and I went over to Asia to hang out with our friends Tolga, Onur, Uluҫ, and Kerim. We went to eat a Mongolian Barbecue place and then to see the Avengers. After that Onur took us to his house. His mother cooked us a huge spread of food. The main course was Muhlama, a traditional Black Sea dish. Muhlama is similar to cheese grits only better. It is also hands down, no question, the best food that I have had since I have been in Turkey. We had a great time. Our last game was Sunday, May 6th. We got up and drove 5 hours Sunday morning to Eskeshier and won in over time. It was a good end to a good season. Its been great to be a Stallion.

 

After Stallions win, we eat some poor restaurant out of house and home...

Yesterday, Sunday May 13th, Matt and I went with two of our friends to the Rumeli Fortress. The fortress was built by Fatih Sultan Mehmet II in the 15th century. It had a counterpoint on the Asian side of the Bosphorous, built about 40 years earlier. These were built on the narrowest point of the Bosphorous to cut off supply lines to Constantinople. It was incredible to be able to climb all over this pace. I have named yesterday "The Day of A Billion Stairs". The photo evidence is below.

Three More Weeks?!?!?!

I can't believe that I only have three and a half more weeks left here! I just know that those few weeks are going to fly by. Since the last time I posted I feel like a ton has happened. The first noteworthy thing was the Hamam (Turkish bath). About 8 of us went about two weeks ago and I was in for a surprise. The Hamam was explained to me in a way that suggested something very similar to a steam room or sauna. To be fair, this is an accurate description of half of your experience...the other involves another man essentially massaging/bathing you with nothing but a little towel for protection. I wish I could say I hated it. I wish I could say it didn't feel good. I wish I could say it wasn't worth what I paid for it. I wish I didn't feel so dirty afterwards. I wish I hadn't felt so clean.

All in all I must say the Hamam was not too bad. You get your towel and leave your clothes then head to this steam room. There your sit douse yourself with water until you are ready to go the the sauna. The sauna stays at a cool 165. After a few minutes in there you go out and that's when things get uncomfortable/great feeling. A guy rubs down the vast majority of you with a glove that feels like sand paper. He then proceeds to lay you down on a heated marble slab and lather you up/massage you. Like I said it was weird and I will probably go back.

Other things have happened as well. One of our roommates went home and we had a game. The game went great even though I was just exhausted. I haven't played iron man football in a long time. Our team won 22-18 and we had a great time. It was a beautiful day and great to see the work we have done pay off. We are supposed to finish our season this Sunday afternoon. Hopefully we will end it with a bang.

Beyond those two events, things have been going great. Friday we went to the Black Sea to celebrate the birthday of one of our American friends. Șile is the beach we went to and it was really fun minus the wind, glacial water, and thunderstorm that formed right above our heads while we were trying to roast smores. I have been trying to enjoy my time in Turkey while also trying to find a job when I get back to the States. It is hard finding a teaching job when you aren't certified and you are halfway around the world. I have been able to spend a good deal of time with some of my friends here and have had some great opportunities to share Truth. It is so encouraging to know that He is working through us here.

Büyükada

I feel like every other time I write here I have done something else that might be the coolest thing I have done since I have been here. I went to the Princes' Islands, specifically Büyükada (which means Big Island in Turkish). The Princes' Islands are right off the coast of Istanbul and are really really cool. There are 9 islands in all, four larger and five smaller. Büyükada is the largest and has the largest population. I think my favorite part about the islands is that all cars, except service vehicles, are forbidden. The only way to get around the island is foot, bicycle, or horse drawn carriage. We had some great times. Below is the proof.

 Matt and Jacob, our German friend

 random horses around the island

 also random sheep

 The road was up here...

 We hiked down here...

 The flag on the ferry on the way back.

He is Risen

Easter weekend was a mix of pure exhaustion and just having a great time. We scrimmaged Thursday and I played literally every play. I also got water once the whole time. It was a great time but I was exhausted. Friday we went and got Turkish breakfast and then headed to see some more sights. We saw the Blue Mosque which is huge and over 500 years old. We also went to the Basilica Cistern. Basically this is just an underground water tank that was built in the 6th century. It was incredible to see the engineering and building that they could do so long ago. They built this underground cavern that is about is about 105,000 sq ft. It is supported by 336 marble columns that are 30 ft tall. Almost every column has some sort of carving or engraving on it and two of them have huge Medusa heads on the base. The Cistern is by far the coolest thing I have seen since I have been here.

Saturday we went with all the coaches and met some players for and INCREDIBLE Turkish breakfast before heading off the to airport. After that Matt and I spent the rest of the day with some other American workers celebrating Easter. We dyed Easter eggs and really just enjoyed being around other like minded people. Sunday Matt, Clay, Asylbek (our Kyrgyz friend), and I went to our coaches house for an Easter cookout. We had some awesome burgers and homemade mac'n'cheese. We also read some of the Easter story and worshiped together (Clay brought his guitar). It surely is a good thing that we are only told to make a joyful sound to the Lord, not a good one. All in all it was a great weekend to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. It is my favorite day of the year and, although I desperately missed celebrating it with my family, I enjoyed it here as well.

tour guide...

Since the last time I posted things have been busy. We had a good week of practice last week and got to spend some time hanging out with my teammates. Last week we went to șile (she-ley) to watch a university game. șile is an area of town that really isn't in town. It is probably as north east as you can be and still be in Istanbul. We went with a bunch of our teammates and we had a great time. It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle again.   Last Saturday we had a volunteer team come in to help run a camp for our team to help us get ready for our game on April 14th. They have been really fun to hang out with and it is funny to me that Matt and I have become tour guides. It seems that we have even taken on some translating duties which is awesome considering my Turkish vocab is probably less than 30 words. We have had a great week of practice though and I am excited for our scrimmage tomorrow evening. I am also really really excited about this weekend because we have nothing to do and we will get to hang out with some of our turkish friends. We have really been growing some awesome relationships with some guys.

Busy busy week

Thursday through today was probably the busiest chunks of time we have had since we have been here. Thursday we went to a multicultural fair of some sort. It was for a festival that Turkick people groups celebrate on the first day of spring. It was explained to us as a celebration of the new life. Our friend Asylbeck from Kyrgyzstan took us. The countries that were represented were Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Turkey. There were also several Russian states that are home to Turkick people groups. Each one had a little house with stuff from their cultures. It was a lot of fun. Friday we went to Asia to play basketball with some friends. After we played we went to a Fenerbahҫe basketball game. That is a pro team here. We had front row tickets and only paid 17 TL (about 7 US Dollars). Definitely well worth it. Yesterday Clay and I went up to Sariyer to meet with our coaches and their families. They took us up to Rumelifenerli, a village on the black sea. We ate lunch at a restaurant that sits where the Bosphorous meets the Black Sea. While there we met up with a friend that Rhett had made earlier in the week. He took us to meet his family and we drank ҫay with them. After that we went to a some ancient ruins of a military outpost. I think this is from Byzantine times but I am not completely sure. It was awesome though because we could walk through the ruins and climb on the and stuff. Then today we got up and went to Asia to scout our next opponent while they played another team in our conference. That was followed by practice. All in all it was a great weekend even though it was super busy. I am tired but in a good way. Below are some of the pictures. 

The entrance to Topkapi Palace, an Ottoman palace.

 Asylbeck and I inside a traditional Kyrgish (sp?) house

 Clay, Me, and Matt in from of the traditional Kyrgish house

 Just Matt being Matt

 The Black Sea

 The lighthouse where the Bosphorous meets the Black Sea. We ate lunch right under it

 Part of the ruins

 A guard tower

 view from the top of the wall out to the Black Sea

 looking out through an arc in the wall

 guard tower again

 If we don't, the rocks will cry out HIS glory

 me next to the guard tower with the Black Sea in the background