Antakya (The Ancient City of Antioch)

The long treacherous bus ride. 18 hours! Uhhhhh but we made it!

ANTIOCH!!! (Antakya in Turkish)
Lord save this city! Take it back again for your glory!
Here is the center of the town. It feels a lot like Santa Barbara with the mountains etc.

The Lord has been SO faithful! Every day we went out in Antioch, Jesus brought us someone to talk to. We met our closest Turkish friends here!

This man in the picture (below), his name is Ali! He owns an incredible juice bar where everything is made from scratch! We would come here almost every day. He is not married anymore but has an eight year old son. We just connected with him right away and felt the Lord knit our hearts together. He really is so amazing and really just wants love. We pray he comes to know the love of God, that he was created to know Jesus and know how special God made him. Please pray for him! He is our closest friend!He also plays the Saz (Turkish guitar). He rips! Listen to him!
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We also met a man named Maysem in the park.
He is Alevi Muslim which is similar to New Age. They believe in a lot of gods. They take a little from each religion and believe kind of what they want. The cool thing was that Maysem took us to his family's house. His mom (the woman with the pink on) had a broken arm, and his father (farthest right) has been blind for 24 years from working in the sun. We asked if we could pray for them and they said yes. So we did and gave them the bibles. Pray the Lord gives them a clear cut understanding of who Jesus is. They were so nice!

Not only did we meet amazing people but we were able to see some of the coolest places the Bible talks about. Obviously Antioch alone is where Paul was commissioned but here in the picture is ancient Seleucia ( Acts 13:4). The Romans made these huge aqueduct systems that ran all through the city. Here is a place where kings or government officials were buried in these tombs.

This is St. Peter's Church the first church for the Gentiles. It is built into the side of a mountain. Super cool. It's like a cave. This is where they were first called Christians. They were hiding up here from the persecution in Jerusalem.

This was an escape rout in case they got trapped in there! We tried to crawl up in there but the security stopped us.. hehe! oops! Getting a little too into it I guess! =)

Outside of the church you can see this face like structure. It was an old ancient goddess the pagans carved out of the rock during a drought, so that it would rain. Who knows if it did!

We helped teach English at this Language school and met the coolest group of students. We all hit it off and ended up hanging out with them a bit. We ended up giving almost all of them Bibles. It was awesome. Pray for them.

Here's some of the guys! We all went out for the most AMAZING Turkish food. Probably the best we've tried yet! It's all about going with a local! They know the good spots!

We hiked up to this look out. Pretty breath taking... and windy =)

There is a lot of water in the city and they find creative ways to channel it! You can sit here and eat lunch besides a waterfall! So cool!

Julia Dellar! We couldn't resist! It always makes us think of you!

This highway is known as Salvation Way. It was the road that Paul frequently walked down! Obviously it's a little more built up now...

Prayer Requests!

There is a spirit of division here among the churches and believers so please pray for unity like it used to be in Acts! I think since Paul and Barnabas split ways here that spirit seems to seep into the hearts of the people. Pray for unity!

Our team is 1/2 way through outreach and we need to amp up again in our hearts. We felt a little dis-unified here at times, (makes sense seeing the spiritual climate of the place) but are going strong. We just need fresh vision and refreshment to continue to pour out our hearts into the lives of the people we meet!

GOD BLESS YOU ALL! THANK YOU FOR TRAVELING WITH US!
Can't wait to see you when we get home!

Luke and Bethany