Day 00 - ARRIVAL IN TURKEY

We FINALLY made it!

The Crossroads Impact Church group left Winter Garden on Friday at 3pm to head to our flight from Miami to Istanbul! We were so thankful for Sharon and Jeff for bringing snack bags and water for everyone!

We started the trip with prayer from our church elders. 

The ride started great until we hit a 1-hour delay on the turnpike due to a fire. When we finally passed it we saw it had been a tour bus like ours that was completely burned to its shell. We pray that everyone got out safely! What a stark reminder of how quickly things can change and how an hour long traffic jam is so minor in comparison to others’ circumstances! 

After 5 1/2 hours on the road we made it to Miami International Airport. Thank you to our prayer warriors that got us to the airport on time!

We made it through security and to the gate with enough time to grab Starbucks before they started boarding! By 11:00pm we were airborne. We had a super long (11 hours) but uneventful flight to Istanbul.

We landed safely and ran to the opposite side of the airport and made it to our connecting flight just as they were boarding (sense a trend here, lol?) 

The flight to Antalya was only an hour and in a much smaller plane. We were surprised to be served yummy cheese and olive spread sandwiches on such a short flight!

We were thrilled to finally land in Antalya and find that NO luggage was lost! What a great way to start our trip!

We met our guide Gokhan and then headed to our hotel for the night.

Needless to say we are a little tired after 30 hours of travel with the time change! We didn’t even pose for a group photo at the airport (and a few trip members came ahead of time so we will get a full group shot tomorrow)!

Thank you all for your prayers in getting us here safely! Can’t wait to start touring in the morning:)