We went to a World War I sight today. I have always found WWII history to be incredibly interesting and the whole period of it to be an era . . . maybe not one I would love to live in, but . . . an era I would love to go and watch the people in. I think it is incredible the pulling together, the trust in God that occurs when there is a huge war. My thoughts on World War I were always that it seemed like a kind of pointless war where millions died in horrible ways (gas, trench warfare, etc). But it had never really internalized the losses that it caused. Until today. We went to Anzac beach, which is the beach where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) tried to break the lines into Turkey so they could capture Constantinople (the capital of the Ottoman Empire at the time) and weaken the axis powers and be able to better supply Russia with needed supplies. This battle went on back and forth for 6 moths in various campaigns until the Allies gave up and stopped trying to infiltrate the beach. The casualties were 200,000 for each side and the death toll was over 50,000.
There is a cemetery for the Austrailian and New Zealander soldiers here in Turkey, and it is so beautiful. Really the whole battle site is beautiful. I have always found that a little ironic. Gettysburg is these gorgeous green hills, here there is a gorgeous view of the Agean sea, and this is where humans showed their worst side. This is where millions died for reasons that did not matter even a decade after the war was over.
We walked along the beach, and I talked to Dr. Nickels (the resident doctor at the JC who went to West Point) about how most people just say the death toll of the battle, but really the casualties are the real cost because that is the number of lives affected. But really if we are counting number of lives affected, the toll would be almost innumerable because of all of the mothers and children and wives affected when their husband or son or father passes away or comes back with life changing injuries. And even the soldiers that return unscathed have emotional burdens they will carry for the rest of their lives.
Then we went to a cemetery of the New Zealanders and Australians. It was so beautiful, and so awful at the same time. There was so many beautiful epitaphs on the tombstones that really testify to the horror of war. The feeling that I got from them was the feeling of trust in God. These people were devastated at the losses of their loved ones, yet found peace in knowing that God is all knowing. That even when they do not know all of the "whys" there is a God that does.
"Greater love hath no man than this. For God, king, and country"
"They never fail who die in a great cause"
"Our loved son and brother. One of the best. God gives his beloved sleep"
"A place is vacant in our home which can never be filled"
"We have eternity for loves communion yet."
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away."
"Our hero. A faithful son and brother,"
"Nearer my God to thee."
The cemetery at the shores of Gallipoli.
The gorgeous memorial to the soldiers buried there. This was written by the general that emerged as a military genius in this battle. He later unified Turkey and became nicknamed Ataturk (Father of Turkey). He was like their George Washington, but way more important than that because he was so recent. The Turkish people love him. The plaque says . . .
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives,
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
Ataturk, 1934
Seeing all these quotes makes me even more grateful for the knowledge that I have that not only do we have a God that loves us, and knows the whys, but that he has made a way that all these people will see their sons again. As we look at all the war and violence in the world, and I certainly have been exposed to an area in the world where war and conflict is part of daily life, it is hard to imagine a world without any war. But the great promise of the millennium is that there will be a day in which we will experience perfect peace. It is hard to imagine what perfect peace must feel like. For sure there would be a lack of war, which would be amazing in and of itself. But even more wonderful, there would be no more fear in the hearts of men. This is what is so different from current time it is almost incomprehensible. There will be no more fear in the world. The light of Christ will banish all feelings of anxiety, filling the world with happiness because God has come, and the biggest war there even has been, between good and evil, will have been one. And when that great and last battle is over, there will be no more wars to fight. Only victory to enjoy for the rest of forever.
Then we went to the ruins of Troy. To get to Troy though we had to pass the Dardenelles and we took a ferry over. The funny thing is that I was wearing a full skirt this day and the ferry ride was very windy. My skirt almost flew up a couple of times so my friends Sarah and Jessica rubber banded it. We were all dying laughing. We couldn’t decide if it was better to risk the skirt pulling a Marilyn Monroe or to rubber band it and have *gasp* my knees showing.
There was also a LOT of bus riding around this day. Like 4 hours of it.
TROY!!! So Troy is actually like 8 different Troy cities, and if the Trojan War happened, it would hae been on the 6th Troy. Unfortunately, archeologists have left the site all mixed up, so there are ruins from all different time periods here.
I am on the top right.
These are the professors and service couples at the JC. They are all hilarious and it was fun getting to know them better during the trip.
Me and a random puppy we found it Troy. We called it the Trojan puppy!! I was taking a picture with it, and then it came closer, and bit my skirt. So we decided it was a real Trojan puppy because it was an aggressive skirt chasing puppy!!
At a rest stop I heard some of my professors talking about how legally, they couldn’t have the students swim that night unless their was a certified lifeguard present but that shouldn’t be too big of a problem because some of the students were sure to be lifeguards, and I overheard them and casually said ”Oh, I am a lifeguard”. And thought nothing of it until on the bus when they were telling them the rules for that night, and said “If you want to go swimming, there are two rules. You have to be in the roped off sections, and you have to have Liza with you. Shocked, I looked up as the entire bus looked at me. Then getting off the bus at the hotel, all the people on the other bus were suddenly extra friendly and jokingly asked if I wanted to go swimming. This is when I realized that out of the 72 kids there, I was the ONLY certified lifeguard. I have never made 71 best friends so fast. EVERYONE wanted to be with me. At first I was a little stressed out, but then I just laughed that little Liza was the one in charge of saving all of these big tall boys, and decided to just enjoy the experience. So when I came out onto the beach by our hotel I triumphantly declared “Let us swim!!!!” and everyone waiting at the beach clapped and cheered and we all ran into the water. It was super cold in the Aegean Sea, but it was one of those times when you are laughing and splashing and playing frisbee and swimming around, so we really didn’t even notice. Two of my friends, Ben and Jordan, started playing this game called “To the Sea” where they would tackle all the people standing waist deep in the water if they looked dry. But soon everyone was wet so they would just "to the sea" random people. They even “to the sea”ed one of our professors. Haha, I love our professors. They are such hilarious people, and very young at heart. And I did not actually have to save anyone so all was well. Again, long but amazing day.
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