The Trip
of a Lifetime: Krigline Visit to Turkey & Israel
by Michael Krigline, January 2002
(Note: you can see photos from this
Dec 2001/Jan 2002 trip via our Photo Album)
Turkey
Turkey is a long way from
China! Our flight first stopped in Beijing, where we (with all our hand
luggage) had to go through Passport Control. It was around midnight, so a
very tired Andrew had difficulty staying vertical in the long line! We had
a long layover in Istanbul and finally arrived in Antalya, Turkey, some 23
hours after we left our apartment in Shanghai.
Antalya is beautifully
situated on the Mediterranean coast and surrounded on three sides by
snow-capped mountains. On our first day (we arrived at 9 a.m. local time)
we enjoyed the quaint harbor mentioned in Acts 14:25 (Antalya=Attalia).
The next day we started on a
four-day adventure across some of Turkey’s many mountains to see more of
it’s many historic sites. The weather reporters predicted clear roads, but
they were wrong! After getting out to push our rental van off a patch of
ice, we eventually found a snowplow to follow up the snow-covered road. In
the middle of nowhere we bought snow chains and watched workmen weld on
extra links to make them fit. But even this inconvenience turned out “for
the good” as Michael’s sister got the chance to provide these mountain
folks with a Jesus-video and a New Testament - which they gladly received
from their new foreign customers.
After an overnight rest in
Denizli we visited the ruins of Hieropolis, the hot springs of Parmukele,
and the ruins of Laodicea. Standing on the desolate hilltop that had once
been Laodicea, off in the distance you could see the “hot” springs in one
direction and the “cold” snows in the other that had once supplied water
through pipes to the city. Unfortunately, the distances to both were
great, and thus the water arrived “lukewarm” - which gave us new insight
into our Lord’s condemnation of Laodicea’s tepid spirituality (Rev. 3:14).
In the morning we pushed on
to Ephesus - surely one of Turkey’s most prized and praised historical
places. As I recall, the harbor silted up in the 4th Century
(the Mediterranean is now some 14 kilometers from the site), then an
earthquake and malaria epidemic led residents to abandon the city in the 5th
Century. The early Christians who first got to read Paul’s letter to the
Ephesians must have lived in a magnificent city! Standing in the massive
coliseum, you could imagine Paul on center-stage, preaching
Christ-crucified: foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to Jews
(and Muslims who now rule Turkey), but “Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God” to those being saved (1 Cor 1:23ff).
Closer to Antalya we also
enjoyed visiting the ruins of Perga (Acts 14:25) and Aspendos. A special
treat was to visit the Christmas service in Antalya’s “cultural center.”
What a joy to see New Believers worshiping and reaching out in a land that
has SO few Christians.
Of course, we were also
blessed to have the company of Michael’s parents, sister & brother-in-law,
and Andrew’s two cousins in all of our adventures. The senior Kriglines
had already been in Turkey many times, but it was our first trip. Andrew
had a blast playing with his cousins, and the adults had several
opportunities to talk about our similar work in VERY different parts of
the world.
Like in Israel, there were
almost no tourists so there were plenty of bargains to be had, no lines to
wait in, and many genuine expressions of thanks from those who make their
living from tourism. In spite of the snowstorms, hail, gale-force winds
and drenching rain we endured in our 9-day visit, we had a great time and
will long cherish the holiday memories.
Israel
Our trip to Israel got off
to a bad start. A small Coke at the Burger King in the Antalya airport
cost us 3 million Lira ($2). Again we were the only “International”
passengers leaving from Antalya, and they almost forgot about us. Waiting
in the line for passport control in Tel Aviv (VERY late at night), the
lady in front of me was not paying attention when her turn came. When I
tapped her backpack to get her attention, she turned around and snapped:
“Did you PUSH me? DON’T PUSH ME!” Next, I went to change money and the
cashier would not accept the first $100 I gave her (my second one was OK).
Then there was no meter in the Taxi so we didn’t know if he was ripping us
off or not. I paid 100 shekels ($25) and the hotel clerk later said that
80 would have been about right. We needed water, and the hotel clerk
directed me to a plaza outside and about 100 meters away - it was strange
walking that far after midnight in a place with a reputation like Israel.
The next morning things got
a little better (though I managed to burn toast at breakfast). Elevator
inspectors come to this little hotel twice a year to change the cables on
the tiny elevator, and they came while we were at breakfast. Fortunately,
Vivian convinced them to wait until we got our heavy suitcases down from
the fourth floor before they disconnected the cable! We checked out and
assured the clerk that we had left the key in the room, but as we drove
down the alley Vivian discovered the key in her purse! I ran and dropped
it at the hotel desk. The clerk was not around, likely having prodded up
four flights of steps to carefully search the room for this key!
We made it to Nazareth in
record time according to our friends - and this is amazing because the
taxi’s speedometer never went above zero m.p.h.! The Marriott was waiting
for us and thrilled to get some business. All but two floors in the hotel
are locked and shut - there just aren’t any tourists. Ben & Donna had
talked them into a free upgrade into a $250US per night, 2-room suite, but
we only had to pay $110 per night. The view was great in two directions
from high above the large, famous city.
Ben then took off the next
two days to show us around the Galilee. We saw most of the famous places:
Capernaum, Sea of Galilee, Sermon on the Mount, place of Jesus’ speech
from a small boat, and of course Nazareth. We enjoyed St Peter’s fish
overlooking the sea for lunch, and got a special “last minute” tour of the
restored Nazareth Village (like 1st Century) - and there Andrew
even got to feed a baby lamb!
We spent New Year’s Eve with
Ben’s pastor - an Arab Christian from a Christian family. We had a
delicious meal and a wonderful evening, capped off by a balcony view of
many fireworks (with scattered machine gun fire), which was followed by
the pastor playing Christian songs on a middle-eastern stringed musical
instrument.
On January First we headed
south for three more wonderful days with another friend. On the first we
saw the Second Temple model and visited the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at
the Israel Museum. We walked around the Mount of Olives and the old City
on the second day, ending up at the Garden Tomb. Our last full day was
spent seeing Masada, En Gedi, Qumran, the Dead Sea and the Tabernacle in
the Wilderness. Friday we headed back to Tel Aviv to catch the plane for
Istanbul.
We left Tel Aviv three hours
late (and everything at the airport closed at sundown since it was the
Sabbath), and landed in Istanbul in a blizzard. The passengers cheered for
the pilot when the wheels all hit. The airport was closed shortly
thereafter. It was a miracle that we got in!
The next day (we had a
26-hour scheduled layover!) was freezing and many flights were canceled or
delayed. Turkish Air put us (and dozens of others) up in a hotel near the
city center, but communication was very lacking. Our plan was to go
sightseeing, but it was too cold and snowy for that! We did, however,
manage to get a tram to the river, take a ferry across the Bosphorous and
back, and finally visit the Aya Sophia (which was the largest enclosed
space on Earth from 500 to 1500 - quite amazing!). We finally decided to
head to the airport about two hours before our scheduled departure - to
the objections of the hotel staff who were waiting to hear from Turkish
Air about our flight. We had managed to connect to the airline by phone
(not easy!) and they thought we might leave on time - but no one told the
hotel. We actually flew out about two hours late - making it somewhere
around midnight. There was a lot of room on the plane, so we all managed
to stretch out for a decent rest before arriving in Beijing (and
eventually getting home to Shanghai).
Altogether this odyssey took
18 days, and we have two photo albums to prove it! In many ways it was
like a dream come true: we had been wanting to see what Michael’s sister
had been up to, and had wanted to visit Israel for a long time. The
blessing of a “family Christmas,” coupled with the chance to walk on
“Biblical” ground will surely make this vacation difficult to “top” for
years to come.
© 2002 Michael Krigline. As far as I am concerned, people are allowed to print
or copy
this article, or link to it, for personal or classroom use.
(see Website Standards and Use Policy)
Scriptures quoted are primarily from The Holy Bible, New King James
Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.
For more information about Christianity, check out
www.ccci.org/whoisjesus/interactive-journey
