How did you spend your Pentecost Sunday?  Did you KNOW it WAS Pentecost Sunday?  As we’ve traced many of Paul’s steps over the past couple weeks, we’ve again and again come to the role of the Holy Spirit in the events recorded in Acts.  Today was no different.

We covered a fair bit of road again today, likely driving about four hours between and around stops at sites.  When we weren’t on the road, here’s what we were exploring.

1) Assos.
This city gets mentioned in Acts 20:13.  It was a spot where Paul and his traveling companions met to travel by ship together.  Leading up to that meeting, Paul had sent them ahead by ship, while he walked the road alone.  There is much speculation around why he separated the group for that short stretch (likely two days of walking)—much of it centers around the idea that Paul may have been seeking a personal retreat of sorts, preparing himself for what lay ahead and seriously seeking the Spirit of God and His revelation.

One of the archeological highlights of Assos was a temple to Athena, which dated back to the 6th century BC.  This stood out just because of its dating.  We’ve seen Roman site upon Roman site, so anything older than that time period stands out to me.  Our stop at Assos wasn’t too long, as there is much that we don’t know about the city’s Christian community.  They’re not mentioned in Acts or elsewhere; the mention of Paul and his friends connecting there is all we’ve got.

The modern town of Assos was cool to walk through though.  It maintains an old village feel to it even today.  Walking through the peddlers, up steep rocky roads, it was easier to imagine days long past in this setting than in many that we’ve seen so far.

On our way out of town, we stopped to explore a short stretch of Roman road, still in remarkable shape for being two thousand years old.  This a stretch of road that Paul almost certainly walked upon as he walked to Assos to meet his crew.  It’s not often that such a high degree of certainty is found on “walking in the steps” of such an ancient character, yet there we were today, walking right where the text of Acts told us he walked.

2) Alexandria Troas
Here, by the ancient harbour, we read together the text of Acts 20:1-12.  This is the spot where fired-up Paul preached until midnight and beyond, and where weary-eyed Eutychus died after a fall out of the window.  Would you believe me that we saw the actual window sill?!  Just kidding.  No such luck.  But the shoreline of the ancient city provided us with a great venue for some discussion again around the Spirit’s role in the events of Acts.  Acts 20:16 mentions that as Paul passed through these two places, he was hurrying in the hopes of getting to Jerusalem for Pentecost.  And here we were, right here, on the day of Pentecost many years later.  So we shared about the significance of that event—both the first Pentecost and the importance of this festival through the history of the early church.  We spoke about the struggles of modern people to open themselves to the spiritual realm (or even to accept its existence) as more ancient people may have.  This emphasis on the Spirit has been a recurring theme (not really planned by any of us) as we’ve traveled.  I have found it to be one of the most major thought trains for myself personally, as it resonates with places I’ve been for much of the past couple years.  I’ve no doubt that my steps from here on have received significant fueling during these weeks in Turkey.

3) Our final site of the day was the ancient city of Troy.  Here, we learned of the archeological process of even finding this site in the last century.  Did you know that it was thought to be strictly a fictional location for much of history?  Upon its discovery, further tales of stolen treasure, wars, mystery, and still-unanswered questions followed.  The story, which I won’t write here, reminds one of an Indiana Jones movie, minus the zombies or aliens or whatever that he tends to run into along the way.

Troy wasn’t as impressive of an archeological site as some that we’ve seen, but if you’re nearby, you sort of HAVE to stop in.  We shot our photos with the giant wooden horse replica like good tourists do.  I think the highlight for me thought was another ancient artifact.  While the story of the Trojan was dates to around 1200 BC (which is equivalent to the time of the Exodus in Egypt!), Troy was a city long before that.  Today, we walked past an excavated wall, dating back to 2000 BC.  That means that whoever formed and laid those bricks was alive when Abraham was!  That’s the kind of stuff that just makes me shake my head—sometimes history just has a stunning effect to me, and those old clay bricks (in which you could still see bits of straw and stubble) just did that for me to day.

4) Our hotel wasn’t far away, in the town of Canakkale, on Turkey’s northwest coast.  It’s a little resort town.  A quick walk around after supper showed me some quaint homes that definitely have a “cabin feel” to them.  It’s likely that most of these homes are owned as second homes by wealthy Istanbul residents, I think.

Our final event of the evening was a group meeting in which our Turkish guide Dell told us the story of how he became a Christian.  He shared for over an hour, so there is definitely too much to put down here.  But suffice it to say that it is a wonderful story of how Jesus found a young Muslim man, disillusioned with his faith and his world, and revealed himself to him through all sorts of means: Visions, miraculous sets of circumstances, and the faithful lives of his followers.  Dell is bold and courageous, having not hesitated since day one to profess his faith and live as light in a nation not pleased with any of it.  He has guided us well in the past three weeks, and we ended our time tonight by praying that God will continue to guide him faithfully as he strives to walk the path of Christ in this place.  All in all, it was a powerful conclusion to another solid day.

At this point, it’s after 11 PM, and my contacts are melting on to my eyeballs.  Just the right time for a shower and a bed.  Tomorrow, we hit the road for a morning stop at Gallipoli, a world-renowned WWI memorial.  Then we’ve got six hours of driving to Istanbul, where we’ll spend our final couple days.

“Final couple days”… yes, that means we’re near the end.  Every day has been an absolute treat, but home is sounding pretty sweet to me right now.  I’ll enjoy Turkey all I can until Thursday; then I’ll turn my eyes homeward with some serious anticipation.

Good night from the tip of Turkey.  More tomorrow from the capital city.

Today was our day to finish up the sites of the seven churches of Revelation.  The remaining three were Smyrna, Thyatira, and Pergamum, in that order.  Between these sites were drives of 90 minutes or so, so our day was quickly broken into smaller pieces.

Ancient Smyrna is modern-day Izmir, the place where we slept last night.  So our first stop was just a skip from our hotel.  Atop a mountain looking over Smyrna, we snapped some photos of the city and harbour, while talking some about the life and death of Polycarp.  He was the first bishop of Smyrna and one of the most famous martyrs in the early centuries of Christian history.  At age 86, he was told that he’d be spared and even honoured if he simply denied his faith in Christ.  His response has become a well-known example of faithfulness: “Eighty-six years I have followed Christ and he has never been unfaithful to me.  How then could I deny my Lord?”  At that point, the authorities stoked the fires where Polycarp was to be burned at the stake.  It is here that some of the best sources available speak of a miracle.  It is said that witnesses watched as the body of Polycarp did not burn.  It was as if a pocket within the flames formed around him, and the a scent of sweetness like incense was smelled.  Upon observing their failed execution, those in charge ordered soldiers to stab the flame-surrounded Polycarp to death.  So is told the story of the death of Smyrna’s great Polycarp.

Before leaving Smyrna, we stopped to walk around the ruins of the agora (marketplace).  This is really all there is to be seen of ancient Smyrna these days.  To be sure, there is much more to be found, but it lies beneath the new city so it’s never been excavated.  The agora looked like… well, a lot like the other ten agoras we’ve seen so far.  Charles said early on that the thing about seeing Roman ruins is that if you’ve seen one, you’ve sort of seen them all because they were serious about their city-planning and that makes their cities very patterned in some ways.

After a stretch of highway, we arrived at modern-day Akhisar (ancient Thyatira).  Besides Philadelphia, this may be the site with the least to see of the seven.  Within a fenced area of the modern city stand the remains of a 6th century church.  Behind it is a bit of a Roman road that might date back closer to the 1st century.  Besides that, the lot is filled with with fallen columns and other marble pieces of buildings long forgotten.  Apparently, Pliny the Elder had some very uncomplimentary things to say about Thyatira back in the day—he felt it to be a very un-special place.  As an archeological site, it pales beside most of what we’ve seen, but I’m glad that we stopped all the same—long enough to read Jesus’ words to the believers there and to have some discussion about the unique challenges that faced that congregation.  Interestingly, the Thyatira church is one of the few NT churches about which we have no idea of how they begun.  No shortage of speculation exists, but neither Scripture nor later tradition give us anything firm to go on.

Throw in a lunch break and another stretch of highway, and Pergamum (modern-day Bergama) awaited us.  Opposite to Thyatira, this is a serious site to behold, second only to Ephesus of the seven churches, in terms of size and excavation.  The setting here was pretty magnificent.  The ancient city’s acropolis (high place) is more impressive.  An approaching visitor in the 1st century and beyond would have beheld the steeply-inclined theater alongside temples for Trajan, Dionysius, Athena, and Zeus on the slope of the mountain—impressive indeed.  As well, the largest library in the region would have stood there, though its ruins today are limited to a basic outline of columns; much less impressive than the famous ruins of the Ephesian library.  As has become our custom, the theater provided with a spot to sit.  We read Jesus’ words to the church here and discussed his message to them.  The theme of compromise in a very pagan environment is central to that letter, and it wasn’t hard to make that subject relevant to our personal contexts.  We are in need of Jesus’ words to be faithful witnesses for him in our gives places just as our brother and sisters in Pergamum were 20 centuries ago.

The other site needing a visit in Pergamum was that of the Asclepion.  At first thought, I figured we were visiting a temple to the god Asclepios (the god of healing).  That was only partially right.  There was a temple here, but it was only a sliver of the site.  The Asclepion was basically an ancient medical centre.  It was surprisingly holistic in nature and involved a wide range of therapies: Massage, drinking sacred waters, mud baths, and use of herbs and ointments.  Diagnosis was often pursued by dream analysis.  Charles mentioned several times that some historians claim that if Christianity had not come to dominate the region, Asclepios likely would have been the god of choice.

Even today, this site is used by groups for conferences and meetings about alternative health approaches and therapies that wouldn’t be considered “mainstream” by most of us.  This, along with the history of the site, provided us with some good discussion on the place of healing with Christianity (both “back then” and today), along with an emphasis on the holistic sense of salvation that is described in the New Testament.  The Greek term for “save” that so often gets taken to speak only of sins being forgiven and a spot in heaven being reserved is a much wider word in its historical usage.  It speaks of healing and wholeness and wellness and health—all in the fullest senses.  THAT is an intriguing line of thought to talk through.  I sense today won’t be the last of that discussion for this fellow.

One more stretch of road led us to our hotel and a great supper.  We’re spending the night in the city of Ayvalik.  Tomorrow will see the end of our biblical sites, I believe.  We’ll wrap up that portion of the itinerary at Assos and Alexandria Troas.  Throw in a visit to the site of Troy, and that should round out another fascinating day.  If I see Brad Pitt hanging out around the Trojan Horse, I’ll say “hi” for you.

I hope this finds all at home exceedingly well.  I’ll send word again from our next stop.

We bid a sad farewell to Patmos at 8 AM.  It’s not hard to get used to Greek island living—friendly and laid back people, beaches and hills, gleaming white buildings, and tasty food—not hard to take!  But Turkey was calling us back, so we hit the sea and made the four-hour passage back to Kusadasi.

To be honest, my list of things to write about today is shorter due to some unforeseen circumstances.  A couple of my co-travelers are a brother and sister (maybe 19 and 21 respectively), named Jonathan and Jennifer.  They, along with a couple others, rented scooters yesterday to explore Patmos in our free time.  Near the end of the day, Jonathan had a wipe-out on some gravel.  While he’s very fortunate that it wasn’t worse (he WAS wearing a helmet, and it wasn’t a terrible wipe-out), his skin took a real beating.  Shorts, T-shirt, and sandals—More information isn’t needed.  His foot especially got torn up.  The Patmos hospital did a good job of cleaning him up and wrapping wounds, but he’s not got a routine of dressing changes and cleaning wounds.  He’s not walking that well either.  So, a decision was made by Charles and Thomas (a doctor who happens to be traveling with us) that Jon and Jen’s trip is done.  Arrangements were being worked out throughout today to see how they can get home.

I say this just because it affected our day’s flow a fair bit.  We spent time in Kusadasi that we wouldn’t have otherwise so that Jon could get to their hospital for some more attention.  Besides further cleaning, they actually grafted some skin on to his foot and toes to help with the healing there.  During that time, the rest of us were dropped at a local mall.  I thought some people were going to pass out when they saw a Burger King and a pizza place.  Any who know me know that food isn’t that big of a deal to me most of the time.  It just doesn’t do the things for me that it does for a lot of others I know.  Turkish food hasn’t been the greatest I’ve had, but I could happily get by on it for a long time.  Not so for some!  In fact, a few of our crew are downright funny.  Anyway, I wasn’t complaining about a slice of pizza, so we ate.

When we picked up Jon and Jen afterwards, we hit the road to Miletus.  Miletus doesn’t get much mention in the Bible (only once that I know of), but it IS the venue for one of Paul’s passionate sermons, found in Acts 20:13-38.  Miletus is not a very excavated site, so we spent the bulk of our time exploring what IS a very impressive theater, complete with a great relief (carving) depicting the gladiatorial games that were once held there.  As well, this theater was especially impressive in its corridors beneath.  Grand arches and corridors, like the ancient versions of what you might find in modern sports stadiums, showed what a glorious structure this would have been in its day.

Also of fascination was an inscription that Charles pointed out to us on one row of seats.  It read in Greek, “For the Jews and God-fearers”.  Whether that’s speaking of one or two groups is debated, but such a term is familiar to the book of Acts.  Though this inscription is likely from later than Paul’s time, it just goes toward sketching that a Jewish and/or Christian community once called Miletus home.  And apparently they were influential enough to get some decent “season tickets” to the city’s theater.

Further exploration of the site (much of which is flooded right now) showed us the locations of its significant markets as well as where the ancient harbour would have been.  Much like Ephesus, Miletus is nowhere near water today.  The same silt problem that caused Ephesus’ downfall had the same effect here.  The coast now sits 5 miles away.  However, as we walked the area, we saw a stone lion (a very weathered stone lion) that apparently marked the entrance to the harbour in the 1st century.  Translation: After his passionate sermon in Acts 20, Paul’s eyes would have beheld the same lion that mine beheld today.  If only stone lions could talk…

By this time, we were already at 4 PM (I told you today didn’t quite go according to plan), so we hit the road to Izmir (ancient Smyrna), where we’ve sleeping tonight.

Supper was waiting for us when we arrived, as was an evening presentation by Dr. Mark Wilson.  Mark is actually a mentor and teacher to our Turkish guide Dell.  He’s an expert on Christian history, with particular interest in Turkey and its historical sites.  He had been one of the speakers at the Ephesus Meeting last week and had agreed to share something further with us when we were in Izmir.  So tonight was the night.

Right after supper, he shared on the topic of Divine Guidance in the Book of Acts.  Much of what he said wasn’t mind-blowing, but it was a stimulating focus on the role that the Holy Spirit played in how the events of Acts did (and didn’t) play out.  Even a casual reading of Acts (which has long been the favourite book of my faith heritage) makes it blatantly clear that our early brothers and sisters experienced the leading of the Holy Spirit in significant and powerful ways.  As I mentioned a few days ago, I can’t help but think that we need this as much today as they did back then.  Somewhere along my road, I grabbed the idea that such communication doesn’t happen anymore today.  Whether that thought was passed to me in spoken or unspoken ways, I’m not quite clear.  What I am clear on is this: If God no longer communicates with His people through His Spirit, then we may as well throw in the towel.  Left to our own wisdom, innovation, and organization, the church has no chance at being what it was created to be.  So a serious prayer has begun in me these last few days: “Father, fill us and re-fill us with your Spirit.  Flood us and surround us.  Reveal things we cannot otherwise know.  Empower us and lead us.  There is much that we will simply go without if you do not provide it.  And within that ‘much’ is everything that we need to live up to your calling.  So come upon us, Holy Spirit.”

Sigh.

Tomorrow, we depart at 8 AM, and as usual, I’m not in bed by midnight.  Definitely have to drop this habit when I get home, or I won’t make it half a week!  Our hotel here tonight is very comfortable—likely the nicest of the whole trip, so I’ll enjoy it as much as I can in the next 8 hours.  I can’t even tell you what the itinerary is for tomorrow.  I just know we begin with a look at a bit of the ancient site of Smyrna.  After that, we’ll leave Izmir and continue north along the coast.

Grace and peace to anyone reading this.  May you be swept away in a quest to be sensitive to God’s Spirit today too.  Much love from Izmir.

Today’s been another great day… a bit slower than most of the past two weeks.  After a 7 AM wake-up and a quick breakfast, 2/3 of our group grabbed taxis to the south-west corner of the island.  Our destination was a beach called Psili Ammos.

Our taxis dropped us at the end of the road, from which we started our 45-minute hike on a goat trail weaving over and around the rocky hills, and through the rugged vegetation (many prickly!) that cover them.  When we arrived at the beach, we were completely alone.

If we’d wanted just a place to swim or sun ourselves, we could have saved some trouble.  One of the island’s most popular beaches is mere minutes from our hotel.  But we didn’t go to this one for swimming or sunning—we had a specific exercise in mind: A group reading of the book of Revelation.  Besides Patmos being the island where John received his visions, Psili Ammos is thought by many to be the shore on which John stood when he beheld the vision of a beast coming from the sea.  The text makes mention of John standing on the “shore”, with some pointing out that the word carries with it the idea of sand.  There are only two spots on Patmos that are sandy shores.  Most speculate this site to be the more likely of the two options.

And so we sat on that sand.

Reading a half-dozen verses each, around and around our circle we went.  Did you know it only takes 45 minutes to read all of Revelation?  And that’s out-loud reading.  I’m not saying one needs to read 20+ chapters of Scripture a day, but as we moved through the text, it did occur to me that I should really shut my mouth anytime I’m tempted to say, “I don’t have time for that.”

As we read, I also thought this several times: “Huh?  Have I read this before?”  And yes, I have.  I know I have.  I’ve read Revelation at least a few times in its entirety.  But it is a different thing to read a Bible book from start to finish in one setting.  It flows better than when you chop it all up—imagine that!

The group that I’m traveling with has people from all over the board in terms of denominational backgrounds and experiences.  Enough of them come from traditions more liturgical than mine that we’ve adopted some of their practices in our devotional times.  One of them is this: Whenever we read Scripture, it’s followed up by Charles saying, “This is the word of the Lord,” to which we reply, “Thanks be to God.”  I like that.  It sets the Scripture apart, as though they’re worthy of our highest levels of attention, as if the reading of these words is different than any of the other words that enter our ears today—and it should be that way.  Somehow, after reading the whole of Revelation, those words just seemed even more appropriate.  “This is the word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God.”

After a few quiet moments, we simply transitioned into our free time: Swimming in the Aegean Sea.  Yesterday, our Greek guide (named Nicholas, of course!) said this exact sentence: “If I had to characterize the waters of the Aegean, I would say that they are always refreshing.”  Nicholas was very articulate, with great English, so I trusted him.  What I found out this morning is that “refreshing” means flipping cold!  Once the point of numbness was surpassed, refreshment was found… if hypothermia didn’t get you first!

Our “polar bear plunge” was followed by a hike back to the taxis, which returned us to town.  The rest of the day was ours to do with as we pleased.  My “as I pleased” was simple: Eat and drink something good, browse the town on foot, check out the shops, and get a bit of computer/book time.  I’m just nearing the end of my list as I type this, and it’s just coming up on 5 PM.  Supper isn’t until 8 PM (yes, the Greeks like later suppers too, it seems), so time is on my side for now!

Tomorrow will see us return to the Turkish mainland and continue our path back towards Istanbul.  We fly from there only 7 days from now, so it’s time to make sure we’re grabbing all we can from this trip—and I’m not talking about souvenirs.

Wishes of peace from the land of Patmos!