Angels in Turkey

Back in Kona, our leader felt God inviting him (and whichever of us felt drawn) to go to Turkey, to the sites of the Seven Churches addressed in Revelation 2-3 in order to pray, intercede and "release angels" - whatever that looks like! He did not expect many to want to go, but we ended up with half the team expectant to go on this new adventure.

If I tell you this was one of the best weeks of my life, it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration! I know I often tell you that things were my favourite or amazing or wonderful... and honestly I think the Lord must just be renewing my eyes and my thinking because I see His hand and wonder everywhere I go. Every day throughout the entire 5 months, I wrote down (and continue to write!) one thing that was a "kiss from Heaven" to me. Some things big and miraculous, other things so small they would not be worth mentioning to anyone else.. but still miraculous to me! I see God everywhere and in everyone and I just love being alive and getting to adventure with Him. And if I don't see Jesus, I just ask Him where He is and He shows me - try it! So forgive all my superlatives.. I get excited about life very easily!

All that to say.. Turkey was phenomenal! We stayed in a retreat centre near to Ephesus which was a dream, because we all expected to be backpacking around and staying in hostels! And every day for 4 days, we got on the bus and drove to the sites of the ancient cities. We did them in order. The churches addressed would have been house churches/underground churches so we weren't visiting a church building, but the ancient city where the church was planted and battling all sorts of ungodly practices and idol worship. At every location, we read aloud the appropriate passage from Revelation, and also other Scriptures that were relevant or that Holy Spirit brought to mind. I led the team in our "flashmob" song in every location too which was awesome (Great is He - from Stoneleigh Bible Week back in the 90s!) Singing this in the car as an 11-year-old, I had no idea what God had planned for me to do with it!!!

We also sang other songs of praise, prayed and interceded a lot, and called for angels to come and do their thing in each place. To be honest, even though I've become slightly more aware of spiritual goings-on through our teaching over the last 5 months, I still have NO IDEA in reality of the significance of the spiritual realm, the impact of the Holy Spirit that we carry inside us or what angels are up to. All I know is that it's very significant and not to be ignored or pretended away. Angels are doing the will of God anyway - He's the commander of the angel armies - so really, asking them to come and do God's will means that we can't accidentally get it wrong! Something to think on... I'm so happy to share my current limited understanding about this with you if you want to talk more!

The Turkish culture is so warm - people are very friendly and affectionate and love to feed you amazing food. We were so well fed during our time there, and had the privilege of meeting a number of local people both as we chatted to the restaurant/cafe owners as well as people we met on the streets and in the markets. I would go back to Turkey in a heartbeat, it was glorious!

A fun story guaranteed to make you smile: so in one particular village that our tour guide was from, it is customary for fathers who have daughters of a "marriageable age" to put a glass bottle on their chimney. Young men will then see the bottle, knock on the door and be invited in for coffee. If the girl likes the look and sound of the guy, she will make him sweet coffee but if she doesn't, she will make him salty coffee. If the rejected man, however, drinks his salty coffee without complaining, he may have then earned another chance with the girl. If you look at the photo below really carefully and zoom in, you might be able to see the bottles on the chimneys!

Being the geek that I am - I managed to take a photo in the location with my Bible open to the letter sent to that place (in 6/7 of the locations, I didn't have the idea with Ephesus on the first day, so I've just put the ticket there instead). Enjoy....