June 23rd ~ Thursday

The morning routine was the same as the other days. Also once again the water was too rough to take the kids all the way around. We took them to the tip of the larger rock and then found out that one of the youth really did not know how to swim. He could not get his ears wet so he was dog paddling. Laura in back had noticed and asked, but he kept saying he was fine. We had forgotten about the Turkish shame based culture...anyways we got everyone back safe and just relaxed on the beach.

Later that day for our big game activity we had the traditional football game (soccer). This is where all the local Turkish youth come and play our youth. I was expecting the Turkish youth to dominate, but I guess our youth have been living in this beautiful country long enough to learn how to play :-) the final score was 6-2 in our favor.

Then it was finally the high schoolers turn to go on the eternal flame hike. On mount Olympus there is a spot at the top where natural gases are always being released and catching flame. After dinner we all hiked up. The hike was not bad, but in some places there were built in rock steps that varied from a foot deep to over two feet... I counted and there were 211 steps.

Once we got to the top it was almost like a rock heap or rock slide and then there were flames just randomly coming out of some of the rock piles. While we were there a couple of new flames started... We roasted American marshmallows and made smores on the flames. We then all gathered in the ruins of this monastery and had some worship and a lesson. It was really good the lesson was just what a bunch of the kids needed to hear and the setting was amazing. You could see tons of stars and there was an amazing breeze whistling through the trees. Then came the fun of getting back down in the dark...but we made it with only a few people getting some scrapes and bruises.