Back to church at last!

We finally made it to church today. Won't confess how long it's been since we were there last. I wanted to check out St. John's here in Izmir. It was a pleasant and worshipful experience.

It didn't look promising at first. The first thing we noticed as we approached the building was the sound of chain saws. The city had chosen Sunday morning to trim the palm trees outside the church (we hadn't realized that palms need so much attention). The power was off because there was a huge lift truck manoevering around electric lines. So we walked into the dark church on a carpet of palms. Here's the view from inside the front door:


The noise continued throughout the service, with no sound system to help. But it was still a good worship experience.

One thing I liked was the use of Turkish in the service. The gospel was read in English and Turkish (I now have a Turkish copy of the New Testament), and the first 1/3 of the sermon was in Turkish. The prayers of the people were in English and Turkish, and there were other bits in both languages, too. There seem to be quite a few Turkish members of the congregation, and many of the English-speaking members seem comfortable in Turkish too.

We were warmly greeted. One of the Turkish men, someone who seems deeply involved with all aspects of the church's life, volunteered to come with us tomorrow to help us sign the lease on our new apartment.

We do indeed have an apartment in an interesting and convenient part of town. It's not down on the seashore as I'd hoped - that one isn't available after all - but up on a hillside in an ancient Jewish part of town. Interesting connection there: some of my ancestors way back in the mists of history were Spanish Jews. The ones I'm descended from went to Holland to escape the Inquisition. Others came here, to Izmir, and settled in the part of town we'll be living in.

I hope we'll have some pictures of the apartment next time. Today I've uploaded a bunch more to our Yahoo photo album.