Our T-shirts said, Live The Adventure, and we did it to the max. Our hardy team made it back to Portland on Thursday via two separate routes. Four came home via Amsterdam and seven came home by way of New York. All of us left our hotel in Istanbul at 1:30 AM Thursday. This last minute change was because our orginal flight was delayed to the extent that we would have missed our connection in NY. So after a long time on the phone with the airline, we at least were able to get home.
Our last official act at the airport in Istanbul was to celebrate the birthday of our youngest team member! She turned 3 on Thursday. We sang happy birthday and had chocolate cake on the floor at our departure gate.
This was an amazing team. I am proud of everyone of them. They were flexible and sacrificial in their service to the kids and the parents. The head of the conference told our team that we had set the bar pretty high for future teams. There were often tears during our early morning team devotion times as we refelcted on and prayed for the work that these families are doing in very difficult areas. There were tears at the airport in Portland as we parted for now. We have a unique bond with each other, however, that will not be parted.
I'll close this blog with a letter given to our team by one of the families we served. Thank you all for walking with us as we lived this adventure.
"Dear Sunset Presbyterian Church Family. Thank you for blessing us with this amazing group of people. They served us so much this last week by loving our children and investing spiritually into their lives. They encouraged us in so many ways. As we return back to ******* (can't say) I know my children are strenthened and refreshed because of the loving scrifices of these precious people from your church family. May God bless your fellowship."
With these thanks all of our prayers were answered. Now we live the adventure at home.
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