Far From Home

“Lord I’m one, Lord I’m two, Lord I’m three, Lord I’m four, Lord I’m five hundred miles from my home.  Away from home, away from home, away from home, away from home, Lord I’m five hundred miles from my home.”

The above words were from a folk song we sang in my growing up years.  The  essence of the song was whether or not the traveler could depend on God in the new circumstances of his life.  Well, could he?  Can we?  Or are we afraid to begin the journey because we don’t know how help will be given along the way?  How often do people not start out on a journey because they are afraid they will not have the necessary resources to complete their travels?

In effect that was the  motivation for my final travels across Turkey.  I was in the Cappadocian  region of Turkey and I wanted to get to the Mediterranean coast, specifically to visit a mountain gorge in the small town of Saklikent.  I also just wanted to spend some time besides the sea.  The challenge was that Urgup and Saklikent are five hundred miles apart with no direct public transportation.  I would have to rent a car and with very limited language skils navigate the roads between the cities, across a very wide and high mountain range and through two major cities, Antalya and Konya.  Wanting to minimize my  spending of remaining Turkish Lira, I would also need to get off the beaten tourist path for lodging.

Everything went very well.  I drove more than a thousand miles in three days and spent two nights beside the Mediterranean in Kemer and was surprised by the height and breadth of the mountains and took time to have tea with many strangers along the way, and spent most of a day in the very lovely and roaringly beautiful Saklikent Gorge. 

And I learned once again that I could both find my way and find help whenever it was needed—though I did have to give up on figuring out the wireless internet at my Turkish hotel.

I returned the car to Urgup in Cappadocia and stayed overnight with my new friend Gorkan and the next morning flew  back to Istanbul for my final four nights in Turkey.  Friends here are providing me a place to rest and write and work on photographs so that I can arrive back home more ready to set off on the next adventure.

I have learned more in Turkey than I could ever imagine but one thing I am certain of is this is a beautiful, safe, welcoming and amazingly diverse place for anyone to travel and to learn to trust the goodness of others and the provision of God.