Father Abraham had many Fish!?

That's right, everybody knows that Father Abraham had many sons, but did you know he had many fish as well?

There is a city in eastern Turkey that I went to this past week that claims to be the home of these fish. The story goes that Abraham was in the city preaching against the pagan gods one day, when he seriously ticked off Nimrod, the local Assyrian king. Nimrod ordered a great fire to be built, and for Abraham to be thrown on top of it. They built the fire and seized Abraham and when they were ready to throw him on, the fire became water, and the hot coals turned to fish.



Possible? Sure. Probable? Nah. Why? Well, the first strike against it is that it isn't in my Bible. The second strike against it is that this same city also claims to be Abraham's birth place, which, according to my Bible, is Ur, way the heck down in Iraq. And the third strike, which may be the most damning in my opinion, is that all these sacred, holy, and miraculous fish (some of which live forever supposedly), all these fish of Abraham, are CARP. I don't think God would do such a great miracle and leave behind a bunch of algae eating mud suckers to prove it! And if it wasn't enough that they're carp, and who would eat carp anyways, we were told it was a sin to eat one of these fish. Oh well, guess I'll have to settle for another kebap.

But that's not all! Also on our journey we got to see the ancient walled city of Diyarbikir. I don't know of anything that's really of note about the city, except that it has a wall around the whole thing that was built before Christ (some estimates have it at 2000 BC), with only 4 entrances (which are still the only 4 ways into the city today), and a Roman bridge built in 742 AD that still has cars being driven over it. The bridge crosses the Tigris river, which is one of the four rivers that flowed out of Eden. So it was cool to see. Included are pictures of said wall, bridge, and river.





Also, my roommate is having a minor surgery tomorrow. He's got some sort of growth on his hand about the size of an acorn. The doctors say it's nothing to be worried about, but he wants it off (it looks a little goofy). If you could, pray that God will comfort him, since he seems a little bit worried.