Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

 My name is James Chesson and I teach physics at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, and my wife is Kathleen, umm, there were several things I anticipated coming to this trip: as a teacher I was very interested in seeing the schools that we were going to tour, and I was very interested in the history and the culture Turkey, seeing all the historical sites, sampling of the food, and each of those aspects of the trip, umm, my hopes were much exceeded. We have had a wonderful time, seen incredible number of sites, and every experience I have had in Turkey has been a positive one. There were also some things that I didn’t really anticipate: the very personal access that Ali gave us. I don’t think we could possibly have hoped to see in any other kind of tour, the incredible dedication so many people we have met bring to, the passion they bring to work they do in schools and hospitals, and their dedication in both improving the lives of people here in Turkey and into that work in improving understandings between peoples, between cultures has been a real eye-opener for me in a very positive way and a wonderful experience.

I think in a spiritual way something I didn’t really anticipate was the power of the time we spent in the mosques. I certainly anticipated visiting them and architectural-historical sides but didn’t really think as much about them in terms of the effect they would have personally on me as religious and spiritual places. So that was a much more moving, much deeper experience than I anticipated. I also didn’t think a whole about the group I will be going with; didn’t know many of the people going into the trip, but that experience, the closest we have had the lots of times together, getting up very early, staying up very late, and being quite close together not just physically but fitting spiritually fitting together I felt like everyone in the group had something unique valuable to offer, to make the experience for all of us enrichment. So I have very much enjoyed that aspect of the trip as well.