![\"DSC00545\"](\"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC00545.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Restaurant lit up at the end of this street with bright, multi-colored, hanging lights.<\/p><\/div>\n
As we walked towards the lights a food cart vendor walked by with what looked like honey coated churros. Sweet and sticky! Just nibbling on this delightful snack quelled hunger pains! The restaurant manager\/owner directed us to a table; he draped a clean “rug” across the top of the table and placed English menus in front of us. Brian pointed out a glass hookah being used by one bar patron near to our table. Smoke circled inside it as the man closed his eyes and inhaled. A group of people (two men and a woman) standing on the street corner whispered to one another and looked around as if waiting for something or someone. The lone patron got up and left the hookah at the table without paying. No one paid him any attention. Was this typical behavior?<\/p>\n
Within our first few hours in this part of Istanbul, I discovered much about the culture, lifestyle, foods and traditions. \u00a0Though warned by the US State Department to stay away from this district (Sultanahmet), it holds the oldest and most important historic sites, the world famous international bazaars and local shops, plus opportunities to discover the roots of several religions. \u00a0 With the Istanbul “leg” of my journey shortened from one week to just two full days, time was precious. \u00a0Heeding the State Department’s warnings meant avoiding the areas holding the sites I wanted to see. \u00a0Instead of heeding the State Department’s warnings and avoiding this area, I trusted God\u2019s direction (and Brian\u2019s awareness) to decide which places to visit, yet still maintain safety from potential harm.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of years earlier Constantinople was the center of Christianity before moving it to Rome. I expected to see signs of the early church history. \u00a0I was wrong. \u00a0Religious freedom doesn’t seem to exist in Middle Eastern countries. \u00a0With only 25,000 Turks claiming to be catholic and less than another thousand calling themselves protestants choosing Christ is costly, \u00a0 The percentage of people knowing<\/em> Jesus<\/em> is minuscule compared to the 75 million calling themselves muslim.<\/p>\n Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) was the epicenter of early Christianity and the largest Christian church in the world for more than a thousand years. \u00a0When built, it was dedicated to the second person of the trinity–Jesus Christ. \u00a0Now all traces of Christianity have been removed; minarets were added; I wondered, “What happened?”<\/em><\/p>\n