Not So Different After All

During my time in Turkey I have experienced many new and unfamiliar things which have surprised and excited me. Having been to India a couple times before, I was imagining something similar to that environment - loud, hectic, and a little bit crazy (I mean those all as compliments). In reality, its geographical location gives it a unique mix of Asian AND European qualities. Traveling to the old market place and haggling for goods, then going back to our home-stay families and sitting down for a traditional Turkish meal is a good example of the contrast between cultures. Though I have been slightly surprised by the different cultural traditions, I think I have been even more surprised by the many ways in which American and modern Turkish culture are similar.

Sema, Yagmur, and Pelin

For instance, on the first night of my home-stay we got to the house about two hours late, and everyone was exhausted. After we ate a late dinner my host-mom, Sema and host-sister, Yagmur, took out their laptops, turned on the Tv, and sat down on the couch for some quality web-surfing time. Why? Why does this even surprise me? Well, for one thing, it seems that maybe I have been glorifying the people of other cultures as not being media-addicted individuals, although I had no legitimate reason to believe this. I hadn't realized that this new ritual of focused-multimedia-time before bed had spread so far into the world. I guess that, in a way, I'm kind of relieved to know that I have this small, insignificant thing in common with someone who is almost halfway around the world. Profound? No, not really. But it was a good reminder that looking only at the DIFFERENCES between cultures isn't necessarily the best way to form a multicultural perspective.

 The internet is hardly the main connecting point between cultures, though. This past Sunday our group was meant to attend a Turkish church service in Izmir so that we could experience worship with another culture. Unfortunately, it turned out that the worship service was not until 12, and we had arrived for a ten o'clock service. When we realized that we had arrived two and a half hours early for the service, we decided to put together our own time of worship. I helped out with the music while others read scriptures and gave an impromptu sermon. One of the songs we sang, "Our God" by Chris Tomlin, was provided to us by the worship leaders of the church, the lyrics in Turkish, but the chords in the universal language of music. We sang it through once in English, but the Turkish-speaking people present couldn't understand. The worship leaders then proceeded to play the song again, but sang it in Turkish. At the beginning, it seemed that the majority of my group didn't know what to do; was this a performance? I listened at first too, not quite sure if I should be singing along. All of a sudden we all seemed to come to the conclusion that it really didn't matter in which language we were singing - everyone was singing to the exact same God and he could understand all of us. It was a beautiful moment in our busy week of chaotic travel.

As Dr. Yeatts pointed out, the words in the book of Revelation point to the future where ALL worship will be done by ALL nations simultaneously. The passage in question was Revelation 7:9, "After this, I saw a large crowd with more people than could be counted. They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood before the throne and before the Lamb" (CEV). If this was just a small glimpse of that, then I know I have a lot more to look forward to.

 God and the internet don't really have a lot in common, but they do both transcend culture and connect otherwise different people together for common interests.

Rachael Haqq