My trip to CYPRUS by Joanna (aged nearly 9) February 2003

This is a ‘from your own correspondent’ story with a difference: written by my daughter Joanna as she accompanied me on the PiM conference. Much more interesting than my report!

 'People-in-Mission'

I went with my Dad for a week to Cyprus for a CMS conference. There were lots of people there from Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Cyprus. They all work with CMS in the Middle East and are called ‘People-in-Mission.’ The conference was called the ‘Big Picture’. My old teacher - Miss Rowe’s aunt, Elizabeth, was also there from Salt in Jordan where she works with deaf people.

We stayed at the Lordos Beach Hotel, next to the Mediterranean Sea. There was a small indoor swimming pool but we weren’t allowed to go in the big outdoor one, because it is only used after April when it gets warm.

During the day the adults had boring meetings and the children had a good time. Except one day we had to go and visit an American School – Grade one class ! They were learning the letter ‘G’!!!

We went to visit Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. It has a Green Line, which divides the city. In the north are the Turkish and in the south the Greeks. We went up a Tower and saw the whole of the city from there. We also did some shopping and had a Greek meal in a Restaurant.

In Larnaca, we visited the Church where Lazarus was buried in, the second time he died. The first time is in the Bible (John chapter 11) but Jesus raised him from the dead. And he later escaped to Cyprus where he was the first Bishop. Later they took his bones to another place (Istanbul), so he had three tombs!

It was nice going on an aeroplane, again, except there no movies or games (if we went on Emirates they have Games and Videos, but we went with BA – Blooming Awful /Boring Airways) so it was a bit boring and long. The view of London at night, just before we landed, was amazing.