Welcome! Join us as we travel to Turkey this July. Our blog will begin Tuesday, July 1st. Please check back in each day as we will update daily through the course of our trip ending July 16th.  And please share this blog with anyone you might think would be interested.

After an eleven hour flight from Toronto to Istanbul, 7 of the 21 participants on the Turkey Tour arrived at the Istanbul airport. We met together near the luggage area just to find everyone coming in at this time and to meet our guide, Tulu, a precious, gracious woman who …

Today, we toured St. Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome and the Archeological Museum of Istanbul. The day was just gorgeous!  A real “Colorado summer day” with cool winds, brilliant sunshine, glorious skies, and mild temperatures. The traffic was minimal because of “Ramadan” and school holiday. The first place the …

This morning we drove through the rush hour traffic from the European side of Istanbul to the Asian side, crossing one of the two bridges that span the Bosporus. We headed out of Istanbul to drive to the town called Nicaea. As we drove through the city I was just …

Today we started out going to the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest shopping malls in the world. In its past it was the center for trade for the entire Ottoman Empire. It has as many as 4,000 shops and was such fun for us to shop in. It was …

After a short night’s rest, we drove from the city of Antakya, or Antioch, to the Port of Seleucia, (named “Seleucia” in Paul’s time). Today, Antakya is near the border of Syria. Syria is about 40 miles away from this area. On the plane from Istanbul, I sat next to …

This  morning we drove a few hours and arrived in the area of ancient Tarsus. Tarsus was the original home of the Apostle Paul (Saul) and an ancient learning center. Tarsus was also known for making a certain kind of felt cloth from the wool of shaggy black goats. During …

Today six of us got up at 4:00 am to ride a hot air balloon over Cappadocia’s incredible countryside. Our balloon was one of hundreds floating peacefully over the rock spires, canyons, and barren hillsides as the sun rose golden in the east. Cappadocia is a very unusual and interesting …

Just friendly reminder: We’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you so much for reading our blog and taking this journey with us as we travel through this remarkable land. We have chosen to write just a little bit of what is happening every day here purely for …

Paul and Barnabas twice visited Perge during their first missionary journey. In 46 AD, according to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul journeyed to Perge from Paphos (in Cyprus) and from there continued on to Antioch (in Psidia), and then finally returned to Perge where he preached the word of …

Antioch of Pisidia – Antioch is a city in the lake district of southwest Asia Minor, in the province of Pisidia. It becomes a Roman province in 6 B.C.E. Paul and Barnabas visit the city on their first journey (Acts 13:13-14) and preach here on many sabbaths (Acts 13:15-44). One …

The area that we traveled today was a huge river valley with large mountains on one side and rolling hills on the other. The ancient city of Hierapolis is high on the hillside and Colossae is eleven miles away near the high mountains. Laodicea is at the base of the …

Today we drove through the fertile countryside looking at fields of cotton and vineyards of sultanas grapes and orchards of pomegranates. This is a fertile land of many natural rivers that are used for irrigation, and the small farms dotting the land have been owned privately by farmers’s families for …

Pergamum was one of the grandest excavated sites that we have seen.  High up on a large plateau, it was the seat of one (Lysimichus ) of the four general-kings of Alexander the Great who inherited the land when Alexander died. After a slow decline, the city was favored by …

In the ancient world, Ephesus was a center of travel and commerce. This fabulous complex metropolis was one of the greatest seaports of the ancient world, although it’s hard to imagine that today. During the past 2,000 years, silt has built up until now the sea is about 5 miles …