Serving In Sahel

After the boat ride (see last week's blog for that story), we got to explore the ancient ruins of Side. Once upon a time Side was a famous port city. I was pleasantly surprised to see camels in Turkey too. They are a common sight in Niger. Abby, Julie and I decided to become Greek statutes, or maybe columns... The ruins at Side were impressive. It is so amazing that something built so long ago has stood the test of time to be enjoyed many years later. You can see why Side was such an important harbour city in its day. We had a grand time exploring the ruins and getting an interesting history lesson from our guide along the way. Although he did say that 90% of what he said was true, however it all sounded like a great story to me.

  At the Teach Beyond Conference in Antalya, there were afternoon excursions that you could participate in. Julie, Abby, myself and a bunch of others went on a river boat cruise. There were pirates on these waters to watch out for......not really, but the tourists ships were very pirate like. The cruise took us all the way down the river to the Mediterranean Sea.....where we could get out and dip our toes in the water. It was COLD!!!   Then it was back to the boat to sail up the river. It was a lovely day for fun and fellowship on the boat and the beach.

Teach Beyond (formerly known as Janz Team) just celebrated it's 60th anniversary! So all 380 of us gathered at the Maritim Pine Beach Resort in Antalya, Turkey to celebrate with a conference. What a beautiful location it was!! Coming from the desert, this was truly an oasis- green grass, colourful flowers and the smell of jasmine trees in bloom. Antalya is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is mentioned in Acts 14:25 "And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia" (modern day Antalya). I wonder if Paul walked along the beach like Rebekah and I did. The water was cold!! The food was....divine!!! So many choices and goodies, so many leftovers that I wished we could have brought back and given to the children here in Niamey. Lots of walks are needed to work off the baklava and Turkish delight that was consumed. It was such a great time eating, shopping and fellowshipping with folks I met last June in Chicago at our orientation.