Turkish Tea (Çay- pronounced Chai)

Yesterday I was invited to my friend's home to experience a full Turkish Tea! My friend is a marvelous cook and made everything from scratch!

She was so gracious and picked us up in one part of the city, and paid for a taxi to take her straight to her house. Taxi's are very expensive here, but she wanted to take care of us. She gave us a tour of her house, and her mom's artwork. Her mother is so talented in so many different art forms. the mirror it took her 6 years to finish. The Arabic writing painting was painted with real gold melted down and watered down. I told her it must be very very expensive if she ever wanted to sell it. She told me, that in the time it took her to do all the detail, altogether, the painting is priceless. Too expensive to put a price on it.

Then we all sat down and had cookies, pumpkin, bread, crushed lentils, and others commonly found tea snacks. Afterwards, we had some fruit and homemade dessert of mini cream puffs with thick chocolate sauce! YUM! I was so full though, I could only eat half of what I was given. We also had Turkish coffee which is very very strong. Like espresso with a little sugar added. The grounds are in the cup, so you only drink about half of the espresso cup. then you put a saucer on top of the cup, and quickly turn it and let it sit upside down for

a few minutes. A favorite pastime is telling your future in the grounds of the coffee. My friend's mom was an expert in this. I don't believe in this, but she insisted on telling each girl her future. It was an interesting experience, and I was able to share how some of the things she mentioned relate to Christ, or how my life has changed because of Him.

I was so glad to be able to experience all of this. I had been hoping to visit a Turkish home while I was here, and God heard my prayer. My friend and the other girls that were there were so nice, and we had some very good conversations! I am praying they may know God! To top it off, before we left, her mom gave me and my American friend who came with me two of her paintings!!!! we couldn't believe it!!! They will be a treasure! My evening was made complete when I was able to give a New Testament to one of the girls there that I got to talk to a lot, and I know God will use it in her life.