Turkey: The Early Years

So I just got back from the other side of the world, and let me tell ya, it was a trip. See what I did there? Trip? Anyways, it was nice to travel somewhere and finally get my sea legs, in this case, my Aegean Sea legs. Now that I'm ashore again, I'm still getting my feet back under me. But that's not what I'm writing about..

Let me just preface this by saying two things: one, I don't write nearly as often as I should. Hopefully this is a watershed moment and that begins to be remedied. Two, God is so good. Like sososososooo good. Like for reals.

So six weeks ago I was about two hours from home, in Normal, Illinois for the week. My current situation involved helping my cousin Megan drive around town while her license was...out of order. It was cool. I was planning on going back home to Naperville for the remainder of the summer and hang out with my friends and family until early August. Then I would return back to Texas to gear up for the start of school. It was a quaint little plan. But it was not His plan.

While in Normal, which is a misnomer at least in my case, I received an unexpected Facebook message asking if I would like to go to Turkey in a month. I promptly called my parents and within the hour had support en route to my house, a flight changed, and passport permission acquired. It was cool. Our God is a God who provides.

I was to fly into Texas three days before I would venture out into the unknown. My mom cried. Skipping past the superfluous preparations, it was time to depart for eastern lands. Uncharted waters were being mapped out on the globe in my mind, almost as clearly as on the digital map embedded in the screen of the seat ahead of me. Anticipation seeped through my veins, like the caffeine I wish I had consumed, prior to this flight that was to last half a day.

Alright. Enough of this unnecessary, boring, pre-flight micromanaging, overly excessive description. So we made it to Turkey. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Or imagined. But I will stop for a second and tell you that what I mean by that, is probably not what you think I mean by that. Because we didn't get to actually go out and see Istanbul, it really was just another airport, only with a little less English. We then flew south to Izmir, and drove even further south to Kusadasi. By this time, we were exhausted to the point of delirium, but thankful that both us and our bags had made it without a hitch. Sorry Will Smith... 

Tune in again this time tomorrow to find out what happens once our young hero and his pals finally step foot on foreign soil!