Day 4 - Antakya to Adana

Getting on the bus this morning in Antioch was an experience I won't forget for quite some time.

When we were having lunch in the Bazaar in Istanbul (the Bazaar that I hated), my roommate Brian and I were joking about the lamb that he had ordered for lunch. I think he offered me a taste and I turned him down and he asked me if I had a problem with eating really cute animals. After assuring him that I did, I asked him if he would have ordered kittens or puppies if lamb weren’t on the menu. Then we joked about ordering just cute animals, puppies, kittens, lamb, and fuzzy yellow chicks.

This morning, when we got on the bus our tour guide got on the microphone and said, “Some of you may have noticed that there is something that looks like blood on our tires this morning, in case you’re wondering, yes, it’s real blood.” At this point I was thinking, “well I guess our driver ran over a squirrel or something this morning, I’m not sure why she is making an announcement about this.” Our tour guide went on. “Since it is New Year, and we are the first big group to go this hotel this year, and they think that they will have a good year, our hotel sacrificed a lamb this morning to help them have a good year. They give the meat to the poor and they splashed the blood on our tires. The blood will keep us safe on our trip, according to tradition.” I’m not sure what Melkem (our Turkish tour guide) expected from us after making this announcement, but what she got was 31 shocked, open-mouthed stares. After I was past the initial shock I couldn’t help but think, “I guess we're lucky there were no puppies or kittens available.”

Today was devoted to Selucia Perea and Antioch.

Acts 13:1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

(Antioch, modern day Antokya)

The church in Antioch played a huge role in the evangelism of the gentile world. Paul taught in Antioch before he left on his missionary journeys, and it was Antioch that he returned to. Antioch had about 250,000 people in the Roman times, but it wasn’t a port city, so to sail off to Cypress, Paul and Barnabas had to go through Selucia Perea. Selucia Perea isn’t there anymore, the port isn’t even there anymore.

(both are pictures of where Selucia Perea was)

It was another beautiful day here. Antioch is pretty ratty town now, but I can see why Paul lived here, the landscape is absolutely beautiful. Great snow packed peaks surround the town, and the town was designed so that the sea breeze blew in through the streets. And it would have been right on the main Roman road that ran all the way to Jerusalelm (Antioch is only about 350 miles to Jerusalem.) It was a great day to hike around on some of the mountains around here.

Now on to my Korean lessons. Yesterday I asked a few Koreans what happy New Year was in Korean. Turns out Happy New Year is a full sentence in Korean. I think it’s something like se he bo mani padera. I guess that Joyce and Jin decided that teaching me Korean was fun because they haven’t stopped since. It typically goes something like this, we’re sitting on the bus, and Joyce says, “Daniel review! What’s number one?!” And I think of a Korean word that they taught me, and she keeps counting up until I can’t think of one (which is typically around four or five) then she tells me a new one. I can’t even come close to repeating it, so I say “slower” and Joyce says, “No, it means don’t eat.” And I say, “no, say the word slower” so she gives the word to me syllable by syllable, with each syllable getting louder and louder and the last one ends with her pointing at me. So learning the word for don’t eat, mochjima, goes, “Moch –jI-MA!” and ends in a point. Then I try to say it back and all the Koreans laugh and then complement me on my accent. I think they're lying. Jin helps out by yelling at me in Korean to not do whatever it is I’m doing. So if I’m about to take a bite of dinner, she’ll yell, "mochjima!" So far it’s been really fun.

Other things that happened today…we stopped to get some water at a convenience store and four Jr. High Turkish girls got on the bus to say hi to us and giggle. We gave them some candy and they posed while people took pictures. Joyce told them to sing a song and then counted, “1, 2, 3, 4!” and started clapping a beat for them. They didn’t sing. Later I asked her if she asked every new person she met to sing her a song, she said “No, but there were four of them!” I guess that’s explanation enough.

We also saw a giant canal that was cut out of rock to keep water from flooding Selucia Perea, we saw some tombs cut into a mountain side, we visited a mosaic museum and we stumbled upon a protest against Israel. And a good chunk of the day was spent driving. Tommorow is our busiest day yet, we are driving up from Adana (where we are now) to Tarsus (where Paul was from) and then on to somewhere that I don't remember off the top of my head. Tomorrow is a full day with an early start so thanks for reading and good night.