Yabba Dabba Do

Christians around the 8th century in the region of Cappadocia(Acts 2:9; I Peter 1:1) lived and worshiped in homes and "churches" carved into the unique rock formations in north central Turkey. They did this for protection from the elements(heat) and from their enemies.

On Wednesday night Rodney and I boarded a bus for a 10 hour evening trip from Istanbul east to the region of Cappadocia. We stayed in the "Rock Hotel." Our room was mostly carved into the rock from which much of the hotel was formed.

We were in this region for two days. We saw many very unique homes, churches and entire communities. One community of around 5,000 people lived underground!! They estimate that this community thrived around the year 1000AD.

One of the wonderful surprises for me here in Turkey is how willing and eager many people are to talk about religion, faith and personal beliefs. The Turkish people are very warm and love to engage in conversation. Over the course of these two days I had three good conversations about faith. I asked one young man what is the essence of Islam. With enthusiasm he shared with me and answered my questions. On the second day our tour guide asked me what I did for a living. I told her I was a teacher of Jesus. She said, "I want to learn about Jesus!" With a quick prayer, I shared with her about the Jesus who loves her and yearns to be in a relationship with her.

What a wonderful time of sharing, discussing and being in dialogue all the while seeing amazing landscape and learning about Christians who lived a thousand years ago!

Tomorrow I fly to Jerusalem and begin my three weeks of study and learning about the history and geography of the land where Jesus lived.

The Church I was with this morning for breakfast, study, fellowship and prayer sends its greeting to you all.

God's peace be with you on this day.

Jamie

PS Why the title Yabba Dabba Do? Don't these rock structures remind you of Fred Flinstone's neighborhood? In fact, in one of these rock structures was a little shop and as I entered the owner called out "Yabba Dabba Do!"