Türkiye: A Land where the Story runs deep

As I reflect on the experiences of the past three weeks, I realize that this trip has impacted me in profound ways.  The opportunity to travel this amazing country with a great group of students and professors, led by both a fantastic tour guide and wonderful bus driver, has been simply phenomenal.  The biblical significance of the historical sites, the culture of Turkey, and the beautiful landscapes and buildings have all captured my imagination.  More than anything else, however, these have been avenues through which I have encountered something even more captivating – something that inspires, something that infuses not only my experiences in Turkey but also all of life with purpose and meaning, beauty, and joy.

Ancient ruins at Troas, looking out to the seas Paul and Luke sailed.

Christianity is built upon the lives and teachings of individuals and communities in pursuit of that something.  It has been a surreal and powerful experience to travel the roads these men walked and to traverse the seas they sailed.  We have visited places where they preached the good news about a new kind of King, wrote letters of loving support and correction to communities they cherished, and even suffered imprisonment and persecution for their faithfulness.  The lives of Paul, Peter, John, and others have impacted this place significantly, and both we and others around the world are immeasurably affected by their legacies today.  They are examples of men who were captured and transformed by a truth that changed everything, who then tried to figure out what to do about it as they followed Jesus and pointed others to Him.

The city of Ephesus, a center both for Roman culture and the early church.

The nation of Turkey now only has a tiny minority of Christians, but glimpses of God’s presence and character are not absent.  Even in the culture and heritage of this country, predominantly Muslim and in many places staunchly secular, I have seen God at work.  As many times as I have read or sung about God working with our lives like a potter works with clay, I have never appreciated the depth and beauty of that metaphor as much as I do now, having seen a master at work in a pottery shop in Cappadocia.  

He is one of many in his family who is continuing this craft, and he performs it with confidence and excellence, molding the clay in ways I would not have imagined possible.  Sitting astride the potter’s wheel, red earth spattered across his work-worn clothes, his strong fingers coax beautiful lines and curves out of a shapeless mass, creating something wonderful and useful out of the mud.  The clay seems to come to life at his touch, responding exactly as he desires it to and leaping into a new form to serve the function the master craftsman designed it for.  Even when a less experienced artist tries his or her hand at the lump of earth on the wheel, the master knows exactly what kind of pressure to apply to correct any mistakes, and the lopsided or marred creation relaxes back into its proper shape.  The earth receives life from the hands of one who knows it intimately and is eminently capable of creating beauty from the dust.

Pamukkale

And the earth of Turkey does yield beauty.  This country is an astounding display of life and diversity.  At the shores and islands of Assos, where the water is astonishingly blue and crystal clear, the land and sea exude an atmosphere of peace.  The beauty is almost overwhelming, but even a mere day’s travel away, you would think you were in another world.  The calcium cliffs of Pamukkale, built up like glaciers over centuries from mineral-rich underground springs, are a natural wonder unlike anything in the world.  The terraced deposits collect pools of water from the hot springs trickling down from the mountains, a multisensory and entirely unique spectacle against the background of the beautiful mountains and hills.  Travel a few hours to the mountains and caves of Cappadocia, and you may question whether you have perhaps found yourself on another planet.  Not far from this rocky landscape lie shining lakes surrounded by evergreens and villages hemmed in by mountains where the clouds hang so low that it looks as though some sort of magical fog is descending on the inhabitants. 

Cappadocia

Wherever you go in Turkey, there is beauty and memory to spare.  At times it seems almost like a fantasy world, where the imagination of the author can bring about any conceivable landscape with an artistic flourish.  The hope of early Christians, at times driven into caves underground, sometimes whispered, sometimes sung joyously, still resonates here, and sometimes it seems to break through with the disjointed notes of an ancient narrative.

The stories of the history, of the culture, and of the land of Turkey itself all point to a greater story, one that tells of a God who created all, sacrificed everything to redeem that Creation, and is working to bring it back to wholeness.  The people of this land stood for their faith in Christ the Pantokrator, the Lord of All, opposed by those who claimed Caesar as Lord.  They exhibited treasonous obedience and dangerous loyalty to the One who embodied God’s kingdom, showed in His death and Resurrection the hope of new life and resurrection for all in Him, and imparted His faithful presence by His Spirit to empower these people, the Church, to witness to the victorious reign of God.

Michael Huerter