What happens in Atioch, stays in Antioch.

Well fortunately for you guys, that's not the case. You get to read about it all right here. A big gang of us made the trip down to Antioch this past week. If you don't know why Antioch is significant, read the book of Acts in your Bible.

So the first thing we did when we got there was eat. We had been told that the doner in Antioch would change your life. Literally, the guy who told us what restaurant to go to said, "It will change your life." Well, he was almost right. One more squeeze of mayonnaise on that bad boy and I would've been blowing chunks mid-afternoon.

Because after lunch we had a walking tour of the faiths of Antioch. We walked by the local Ulu Camii (Grand Mosque), actually went inside of an incredibly beautiful Orthodox church, a rather plain looking Protestant church (it's lead by Korean Methodists), and then saw the front door of the local Catholic Church. I have to say that I don't agree with the Catholic theology, and it's building was the least impressive, but they do have one thing right. Three hour lunches!

After the walking tour we stopped in the archaeological museum. They had a huge collection of mosaics and a room full of pottery, statues, and coins. It was neat to see, but rather unimpressive. I guess when you see 3,000 year old artifacts on a weekly basis, it kind of loses it's "wow power."

So from there we headed up to the cave known as St. Peter's Church. This is probably where all the stuff happened in Acts. It was just a small cave with a facade built on the front of it. It may have been cooler had there not been a group of hippie Italian Catholics having some sort of worship service inside. But really, there wasn't much to it until you started trying to picture it dark, with just a few lanterns of light around, and there in the front would be Peter or Paul or Barnabas speaking to a group of people that would change the world. That puts it in a little bit different perspective.

From there, we went into the caves. There are caves and tunnels in just about every hill in this country and this one was no different. Maybe a hundred feet above the church there was a long tunnel that lead you along the front side of the hill and then around to the back. When you reached the "end" of the tunnel, there was only one way to go... straight up. I'd guess it somewhere around 20 feet, straight up. Everyone, even the women with us, were troopers and just scaled right on up it. I was very impressed with everyone (including myself) because I didn't think it was doable. It's the closest thing to rock climbing I've done since the elevator was out last week and I had to walk up the stairs.

And our last site of the day was an old castle built on the pinnacle overlooking the city. It was an incredible view out over the valley that Antioch sits in. The castle itself left something to be desired. I never thought I'd be able to say that I went to a castle that was built by the Crusaders some 500 years ago, and it failed to impress. Honestly, it's probably the worst of the three castles I have seen here.

Before we left, we grabbed dinner at a local restaurant and everyone was graceful enough to give me time for a bite of kunefe (a local cuisine) before we hit the road home. All in all, it was a day to remember. Not only did we see some awesome sites, realize that there are some Christians in this country, and eat a lot of mayonnaise. But we got to share the Gospel with three young men. All three of them took a Turkish New Testament with them and promised to read it. Let's pray that they do.