Not in Kansas Anymore

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
    - from The Wizard of Oz

We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. At the Izmir Airport, we were pointed the way to the bathroom by the baggage claim.  Entering a door with the universal stick-man figure and another symbol, we were greeted by a mostly empty room the size of an average living room, with carpet on the floor.  An adjoining room had some sort of strange plumbing fixtures I had never seen before and I was trying to imagine how one would position himself on these fixtures.  The entry had a space for hanging one’s coat and taking off one’s shoes.  It was then that it struck me (and those with me nearly simultaneously), that this was a prayer room.

Oops.  Fortunately, the room was empty and we did not disturb anyone.

The universal stick-man figure was also on a door several meters farther down and this room looked a little more familiar.

It’s 4am and I am wide awake thanks to jet lag and losing an entire night of sleep.  But the worst part of travel is over.  And that’s the actual travel.  We endure.  Not easily, but we endured.  The drive to Chicago took nearly an hour longer than normal due to traffic slowdowns.  At one point, the map rerouted us off the interstate and through a neighborhood of boarded up and burned-out homes and buildings, reminding us of some neighborhoods in Detroit.  But, hey, this was Gary, Indiana, famously known as the “armpit of the nation.”  When we returned to the interstate it took us ten minutes just to drive the length of the on-ramp.

We were relieved to finally park the car and let someone else do the driving.

Coach-class flying is always a trip.  The seats are designed for midgets and the legroom is non-existent.  I’m just tall.  A couple guys on this trip are tall and plus-sized.  At six-foot-two and 260, one guy said he was quite uncomfortable.  I feel for you, brother.   I started getting a little sore before the plane had even left the tarmac.

Sleep was out of the question.  But at least the food was decent.  Airplane food is usually ho-hum, but Turkish Airlines served up meals that were actually on the better side.

This is a group tour.  Which means we are doing the group-think thing.  Get off the plane, gather in a group of 43 people, make sure everyone is there, then go en-masse through customs/security and gather on the other side.  Wait for instructions.  Wait for everyone to get on the bus.  On most of our travels we are just the two of us and we are able to nimbly flit from one place to another with very little wasted time.

Or nimbly get lost.  International travel can be incredibly confusing and we have spent considerable time on prior trips just trying to figure out the local transportation.  The nice thing about the group-think thing is that someone else does all the planning.  And leading.  And logistics.  We just show up.  Meals?  Taken care of.  Lodging?  All set.  So this will be a different vibe than we are used to.

No real sights to see today, just getting from one place to another, halfway around the world.  And, in spite of the discomfort and loss of sleep, we made it to the destination, which is Izmir, Turkey, to the downtown DoubleTree Hilton, at the proper time.  And only one person out of 43 was missing a piece of luggage.  Not a lot of photos taken, just a few in airports or shot through the bus or airplane window.

Tomorrow (or rather Today) we hit the ground running.  Izmir is the location of ancient Smyrna, of of the locations mentioned in Revelation that we are here to see.  The Agora of Smyrna is a scant 0.6 miles from the hotel.

Borrowing a few words from the group blog:

The journey has begun.

In the days ahead, we will trace the journeys of Paul, who once brought the Gospel to this land with passion and sacrifice. As we go, we will immerse ourselves in Jesus’ words to the seven churches of Revelation.

These early Christians, against all odds, transformed their world and history as we know it. We hope to discover insights from their life and times.

We will walk, pray, reflect, and be challenged to ask: How is God inviting us, even calling us, to do the same in our own time and context?

Tonight we rest…

…For tomorrow, the true journey begins.