Toenails are supposed to stay on

So it’s Friday. The weather after a refreshingly sunny day yesterday is cold again, Brooke is with Ally at her Turkish language class and I am at home nursing a toe injury I incurred last night. For the overly curious, I stubbed my toe on a marble edge and peeled a toenail nearly completely off. Walking around this morning I am perhaps able to show a bit more empathy to professional athletes when they sit out of numerous games due to turf toe, or some other kind of toe injury.

Speaking of sports, I know Brooke updated you about the “football’ game we went to Wednesday night. Amazing! 40,000 fans all chanting the same songs, yelling the same words, echoing each other, applauding their team and whistling against the injustices perceived from their opponents. It was like a youth group function for all the Southern California churches. Amazing! If you check our pictures you will see the wall of fans in Red and Yellow. Equally amazing is that when they scored their first goal people lit up road flares. (Andy Hegg if you’re reading this, remind me to show you the video when we get home) 2-1 final score, 20 rows off the field, champions league match, road flares, riot police and 7 yellow cards. Amazing!

Equally as impressive was the trip we took to the Aya Sofya and Blue Mosque on Tuesday. The Aya Sofya was built in the Justinian era of Rome at 537 AD. It was a Christian church and a magnificent work that took 5 years to complete. The huge dome was built without pillars underneath for support. It was taken over by the Muslim Sultans in 1434, who covered over all the pictures on the wall and ceiling, and attempted to shave off and remove all the crosses from the interior of the building. Interestingly enough the coverings that were used actually worked to embalm the paintings and as some have been uncovered they are shown to be in excellent condition. The Blue Mosque was built around 1610 directly across from the Aya Sofya. It was an attempt to copy the dome architecture. However they were unable to copy it’s likeness without using four large pillars to hold the dome in place. A friend pointed out how Christianity is to the Aya Sofya what the Muslim world is to the Blue Mosque. Both buildings are truly beautiful works of architecture. The blue mosque is still a working mosque, while the Aya Sofya is now a museum.

Last night we accompanied Ally to Cay (Chai) House, a place where Turkish university students go to practice their English with their western friends. This may have been the best reminder for me what the vision is for working in Turkey. While at one table I learned of a Turkish slang saying, “Let the horse die of eating barley” (loosely this translates let me die eating what I like); at another table a conversation discussing whether or not Christians and Muslims believe in the same God arose. The important conversations are sparse here but they do take place. I shouldn’t wonder that God has meant for something significant to occur here down the road. It reminds me of a book I was just reading about the church in China. For 150 years the Protestant mission was large but the number of converts small. Then upon that foundation God built a church of exponential size and growth. Now those who had workers coming to them are themselves sending workers out to other countries. Oh that God would do the same for Turkey, and use the foundation laid here through toil and persistence to kindle an unquenchable flame.

We will leave Turkey tomorrow but our friends will remain. Outnumbered, overwhelmed, they will continue to give sacrificially of themselves desperately seeking to open the eyes of a lost and complacent generation whose impending future knows not an eternity spent in relationship with the Father.