A Day in My Life in Hatay, Turkey!

Writing a day in the life blog on the World Race is a rather difficult undertaking because of the ever changing nature of our schedule, but never fear, I’m here to let you know what a day in my life in Hatay, Turkey looked like. *the crowd goes wild*

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 7:15am- After waking up and readying myself for the day with a shower, I sat down to book our hostel for our trip to Cappadocia, Turkey in just three days. Details like this are always booked pretty last minute on the race due to the research we conduct in order to ensure that we’re getting the best bang for our buck. 

8:15am- Every morning we trek forty-ish minutes from our mountainside apartment to a local Kultur cafe owned by one of our friends. Today, I got to walk with Josiah and we talked about his time in Indonesia on his first race. (He was on the field when COVID attacked and relaunched with me in January.)

9:00am- At the cafe, we have what we call “Team Time” on the World Race. This is a space of time that we carve out every day to check in with one another, share feedback, pray, and spend quality time together outside of ministry hours. It’s vital to our development as a community. This month we chose to split our team time between our mornings and evenings. So today, for the morning portion of our team time, we prayed about and finalized the details of our trip to Cappadocia, made plans to host a time of worship with some of our local friends, and prayed for our host. 

We also make sure to support the family that allows us to use their cafe by buying tea, coffee, and/or breakfast from them. Most days we enjoy a traditional dish called “Menemen.” 

10:45 am- We split up and took some time to prepare ourselves for the day and to work on ministry outside of the responsibilities our host has given us. That would include blogs, preparing worship for debrief, and treasury work.  Today I chilled at a coffee shop called RootRaft. It’s similar to a Starbucks, but better quality. I sipped an iced brown sugar latte while I spent some quality time with my Heavenly Dad. Also, I canceled my hulu account that I accidentally reactivated. *whoopsie daisy*

1:00pm- Our primary ministry this month has been teaching english to young adults who quickly became our real life friends. Every class with them looked a little bit different, but today was our last day, so we all crammed into one classroom and bounced back and forth between a rousing game of fishbowl and virtual slideshow. (That’s a fancy way of sharing our favorite memories with one another.) They gave us parting gifts today and we all chatted for a while before heading out. 

3:30 pm- After class, my new friends and I rushed off to the bus station to pay for the team’s bus tickets to Cappadocia! Ezgi and Fatih helped me translate so that it wasn’t as difficult as it could have been! 

4:00 pm- Somehow, they convinced me to let them take me to an “amusement park” which was more like a county fair. We shot some basketball and then got on a zero gravity ride before heading into the mountains above our city for some ice cream and a view. 

5:00 pm- While we were having ice cream, we got to chat about our first impressions of each other and that was a sweet time of fellowship that we got to share in. These people really had become my friends. 

6:15 pm- The crew dropped me off at our apartment so that I could rest for a moment before reconnecting with my team to attend a home fellowship with our host. 

6:40 pm- I endured the long walk down our hill to meet the guys and our host. 

7:20 pm- We got lost on our way to home fellowship so the boys arranged a riveting round of rock, paper, scissors while we waited to be rescued. 

7:30 pm- We finally made it to the house and upon our arrival, prayed for healing in Justin’s neck and saw him healed. The pastor invited us to lead some worship or share a teaching with the group tonight, so we asked God what He wanted us to do. 

8:00 pm- House Church started and we had made the decision to share some teaching and Kev got a word that he shared with the body: 

“You are an embassy. You will house ambassadors and send them out. Your body will be illuminated and will radiate through the city. 

Philippians 4:4-7 says ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surapsses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’”

Following that word, Scottie shared a testimony about what the Lord’s been teaching him about rest. 

9:00 pm- Immediately following the service, we prayed for two sets of nearly deaf ears to be opened, nearly blind eyes to see, and back pain to be released. God is faithful. 

9:45 pm- The team loaded up into two cars and headed back toward our house. Our drivers dropped us off at the bottom of our intense hill, so we made good use of that and ordered some food from nearby restaurants to take home with us. I hadn’t eaten anything other than ice cream since breakfast. 

I ate this meal so frequently that I didn’t even have to order. All I had to do was walk up to the restaurant.

A10:30 pm-  Made the trek up the hill to the apartment. I’m not exaggerating when I talk about how intense the hill is. 

10:45 pm- I finally made it home to chillax, ate my incredibly unhealthy dinner, posted a blog so that it sent the update email at a normal hour in the states, and then got caught up in a Netflix series before knocking out for the night. 

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 Again, every day on the race looks a bit different, but this gives you some insight into what life looks like on the World Race. It’s also notable to mention that the majority of our days are done in teams, but because I was working on some of the logistics of traveling and needed translation, I separated from the team for this specific afternoon to be with my turkish friends for a while. 

I hope you enjoyed!!!!!

I love you. 

AWM