It is 5:45 on this lovely Tuesday morning – still 9:45 pm Monday night back in Idaho.  Kristie is still resting in bed, but I am wired and ready for action.

We travel to Lystra & Derbe.  I wish I could jump on an archaeological team for some exploring of these ancient tells.

We will be somewhat off the beaten path today.  Bathrooms are primitive.  No toilet paper (better stuff a little in my pocket) and no porcelain thrones (more of the squat and aim technique).  I told my wife this should make her feel right at home in the backwoods of Idaho.  Only here in Turkey, it costs .50 in Turkish lira to use the bathrooms.

The city where we flew into . . . Kayseri . . . sits right under the shadow of Mt Erciyes.  I would love to climb it (only a couple hundred feet higher than Mt. Borah in Idaho).  But after talking to a Turkish friend yesterday, who told me he just recently climbed Mt. Ararat further to the east, now my adventure juices are really flowing.  I think this would be the perfect mountaineering trip for the Berean brothers and sisters back in Idaho.  We could spend about four days climbing the snow-capped mountain and then head down south where it is warm and do some swimming in the Mediterranean.  But maybe, we ought to also do some real trekking as well along some of Paul´s missionary journeys.

Tomorrow, I hope to stand where Paul delivered his first recorded sermon in Turkey – Pisidian Antioch.  The apostle´s reference there to John the Baptist in Acts makes me think of my current studies in John 3.

We will also be in Iconium.  Interestingly, there is no presence of Christianity there today.  But there are the Whirling Dervishes.  The founder – Mevlana Jelaladdin Rumi – has just been recently celebrated in Washington.  I just read yesterday in the English, Turkish Daily News, about Karen Hughes and others attending a big shindig, marking an 800th anniversary of the 13th Century poet.  The year 2007 is the Year of Mevlana.