The third city we would visit would be Antalya this would be the city we would stay at the longest.
At Antalya there is a resort for missionary's called Rivendale. They had enough room for our whole team so for the first time we would be staying in a house and not a hostel. Rivendale is just a three story's house an several acres in the woods. It is owned and run by a family that have been in Turkey as missionarys for a very long time.

     This is one of the girls rooms five of us stayed in this room I slept on the bottom bunk.

                     We had just enough room left in the middle of the room to play cards.

Antalya was one if the most beautiful places that we stayed at. The coast looked like it was out of a movie and the weather was really nice most of the time. We stayed at Rivendale for two weeks and celebrated both Christmas and the new year. It was nice to be able to have the team in one house and have accesses to a kitchen over the holiday season. Rivendale is a little bit outside the town so it was a little harder for us to explore the town and we couldn't just go out every day and prayer walk. We had to walk to a bus stop wait for a bus and then be sure we left town in time to catch the evening bus since buses don't run very late. The people who own the house didn't want us walking around the near by village alone and we didn't have time to go to town every day so we had a bit more free time then usual. We enjoyed the time and got to know each other better and we did have daily prayer and worship times.
   It was several days after we got to Rivendale that we finally got to go see the city of Antalya. We were supposed to divide up into teams and prayer walk as usual. Antalya has not just a beautiful coast but is surrounded by mountains.

                                 The morning mist was still lifting as we got to the coast.

     There is a port below and we would go walk along the piers and watch the fisher men prepare their nets.

                The water was an amazing blue/green shade that I had never seen before.

    

                                            Fishermen relaxing after a morning of fishing.

                                                     It was such a beautiful day!

    After enjoying the view and the water we headed on to explore more of the actual city. We soon found ourselves in a market. It was a souvenir market instead of the usual food or every day items that we usually saw. It turns out we had entered the main tourist area of the city. We saw what any vacationing traveler would see and it was quite different from the day to day life we had seen in the other cities.

                          A stall with souvenirs beautiful soap stone figures that are unique to the area.

    As we continued on our way we soon left the tourist area and got to see more of the heart of the city as the people who live there every day would see it. We soon saw the mosques and as we were living men were coming to wash up before evening prayer.
                                         Men washing before going to a mosque to pray.

                                                       A mosque lit up at night.

    The next couple of days would be free days as we debriefed the first part of our time and Turkey and prepared to celebrate Christmas. We arranged to do secret Santa so every had a present to open on Christmas day. On Christmas eve we watched lord of the rings since it seemed a fitting movie to watch since we were living in a house called Rivendale. Then the leaders got up early on Christmas morning to cook breakfast for the rest of the team.

                                                         Christmas breakfast.

    After breakfast we did the gift exchange and then some people went to call or email home and the rest of us started playing games that would last the rest of the day.
    The next day we decided to start praying for some of the villages that are in the area. We asked the people we were staying with what they knew about the villages. They said that as far as they knew that no Christians lived in any of them and that no one had even prayer walked through them. We asked if we would be able to visit and pray through the villages and they said that we could visit two of them.
 The first of the villages was very close and they were able to drive us. They had to take a couple of trips but it didn't take long. The kids were very curios and would watch us and follow us around. One group got some kids to take to the edge of town and into the hills and then on the way back they got to visit the school.
                                                         Heading to the village.

                              The first village we prayer walked through it is bigger than it looks.
    

  We walked and prayed for a long time and then got invited into an old couples home. We couldn't really talk since we know almost no Turkish and they didn't know any English. But they seemed happy that we were willing to come in and the fed us some porridge. We took pictures with them and then asked if we could pray for them before we left. They didn't understand at first and thought we wanted prayer so they blessed us and then they let us pray for them in return. It was a good first trip. We came back the next day and hung out again. This time we found the park and a group of kids who were playing soccer and volleyball. They excitedly asked us if we would join them and we agreed. We started with volleyball and did pretty good then we switched to soccer and kinda got out buts kicked. They were good players even thought they were much younger than us.
                                                         Some of the kids we met.

 

   The next day they owners of the house arranged for us to catch a bus to another village and spend the day there. We were given enough money for lunch and headed out shortly after breakfast. We would be back in time for diner but it would still be a full day. The village was about an hour away by bus and was almost twice as big as the first village. We had arrived on market day so a lot of people had come to the village from the surrounding area. We had a great time exploring and praying. My group saw a lady struggling with grocery's almost as soon as we started out. She had a small cart she was using to pull the grocery's up a long hill but its wheels were broken and she a young child with her she was trying to carry at the same time. We helped her get her grocery's and child home and then continued on our way. After walking all morning we ate lunch and then decided to sit in what seemed to be the center of the village and rest. Their was an area that had a bunch of benches in the shade and a nearby well. The people at the market would come and stop here to rest so their were lots of people to try and talk to. We got to meet and pray for lots of people as they came to rest from their shopping. Most did not speak English but were happy to get their picture taken or be prayed for. We were not able to come back to this village but were glad for the chance to be the first people to show them Gods love and to pray for them. 

  The next day we helped set up for the new years burn. We would light a big bonfire and pray late into the night to welcome the new year. We had to gather a lot of wood, clean out the fir pit, arrange some benches, and clear a safe walk way from the house to the fire pit and since we were already outside and working we helped do some work in the garden and orchard that surround the house. We had been blessed but lots of fresh oranges, and other fruit during our stay. That night we roasted hot dogs for diner and had even been able to find the stuff for smores so we could have dessert. We had a time of worship after diner and then just hung out until new year talking and praying around the fire. 

We only had a couple of days left in this city and we enjoyed them and spent as much time as we could actually in the city praying. We really bonded as a team in this time and enjoyed the chance to get to know each other on a deeper level. We didn't get to know this city as well but it was still a very special time and we all met people who touched our hearts. We really saw how hospital the Turkish people can be as they would invite us into their homes when we were just strangers passing through. 

We left late at night on a ten hour night bus ride to our next destination. I am so glad they have nice buses in Turkey.