From Istanbul to Ephesus and back… by bicycle

In Turkey

We were a team of 4 guys from across the US with an idea some people thought was a little crazy—to cycle from Istanbul to the ancient Biblical city of Ephesus and back, a total of 700 miles, in less than two weeks. It was a charity bike ride raising money for a church that helps poor refugees in Istanbul . The trip meant a great reason to slowly work our way through parts of the country that seldom, if ever, see foreign visitors. We flew in, bringing our bikes with us, and after a couple days in Istanbul to recover from jet-lag and visit the church we were helping, we set off. We also had a guy living in Istanbul come along as the driver for the support vehicle and Turkish speaker for the group.

We made our way slowly, going about 50-90 miles per day, stopping in a different little town each night, staying in small, family operated guest-houses or hostels. We tried to stay off the main roads by riding on country roads, or as they call them in Turkey , ‘village roads.’ This, as the name implies, means that we went through hundreds and hundreds of off-the- beaten-path towns and villages, some of which have probably never had a foreign visitor before. Usually when foreigners show up in these sorts of places in Turkey , the local residents are somewhat suspicious of why you are there. But seeing a group of weird looking cyclist all decked out in spandex and matching jerseys bike through (which might as well have been aliens, as far as some villagers were concerned) almost immediately changed suspicion to curiosity.

We were able to stop in most every little town and village and talk to the guys hanging out in the square. We gave them little brochures which explained in Turkish what we were doing and why—because Jesus asked His followers to help the poor and needy—and at the bottom cited James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” We met a lot of wonderful people, people whom God loves, and made some friends whom our friends in Istanbul plan on keeping in contact with and visiting in the near future. Best thing about the entire trip was being able to hand out 3 Turkish Bibles to people who have never read the New Testament before.