It is hard not to be left with a sense of wonder on a trip like this. We saw some sites today that made me stop and just gaze. We started at 8 a.m. heading off to the ancient ruins of Sardis. We had been blessed with a bright, sunny day with blue skies and puffy white clouds. The perfect weather for picture taking. I knew it was going to be a great trip when I realized that the Bradfords, Coffields and Margaret Grant were all sitting near me in the back of the bus. Our trip started with this conversation.

Margaret: “What does stage A, B, and C mean?”

Frank: “Well, you press “1” once to get “A,” twice to get “B” and three times to get “C.”

Virginia is sitting in the middle of this conversation. She looks at Margaret, then at Frank and then bursts into laughter.

Margaret was asking about different stages of cancer and Frank was explaining the dialing system of text messaging. If you think the conversations got better after that, then obviously, you don’t know these people. Count your blessings.

On our one hour trip to Sardis, Mr. Jenkins spent part of our time reviewing the letters written to the churches in Sardis and Philadelphia. It was a most profitable study and I am thankful to be able to listen to his scholarship.

We arrived in Sardis and began our walk to the ruins. We passed by what used to be some ancient shops, and then entered a Jewish synagogue, quite unlike any other that I have seen. This synagogue was large, and sat between the shops on one side and an athletic training facility on the other, where half-naked men would train for athletic events. After their training they would enter a gymnasium (see picture) and a cool down and then a hot bath. This would have been a strange place for a synagogue to sit, but being such a Hellenistic city and wanting to be central to the town, this is where it was built. In the synagogue were two throne like chairs. One was for the synagogue leader, the other was where Dave Cooper chose to sit. Dave quickly exited this chair when Orhan told us that this is where a boy went to be circumcised. We all had a good laugh. You can see the inside of the synagogue and the facade of the gymnasium in the pictures.

We then took a very short trip to the Temple of Zeus, which was also in Sardis. While only remnants of this temple remain, it is obvious that this was a massive piece of architecture. The pictures hardly tell the story, but the we humans were dwarfed by the columns. Some of the women in our group joined hands and formed a circle around one column. It took seven women to connect the circle.

Imagine being a Christian and living in a city where the primary worship and allegiance is to a false god with a monstrous temple, and the other primary religion is Judaism, and both violently oppose your Lord and Savior. Obviously the environment had taken an effect upon the church, because the Lord tells them to wake up and complete what they had started (Rev. 3:2-3).

We then drove to Philadelphia. Along the way, we passed miles and miles and miles and miles of vineyards. I mean, they went on forever. There wasn’t much to Philadelphia, because the modern city sits on top of the ancient ruins. Only about a city block has been reserved of old Philly, and it is primarily comprised of some broken arches from a church of the Byzantine era. They sat in a garden of beautiful roses. I think people took more pictures of roses than ruins.

After Sardis, we went to a wonderful little restaurant for lunch in Laodicea named, Adanalalar. The owner spoke no English, and his family helped him run the outdoor restaurant, but he was so thankful to see us and told us that anyone who was not satisfied with their meal did not have to pay. I had a chicken kabob that was delicious, but my satisfaction with the meal will probably be determined later tonight. You see, served with the meal was a tiny side of onions, tomato and grilled pepper. I liked it, devoured it and then Virginia Coffield said, “Didn’t Orhand (our guide) say, ‘Don’t eat the salad.’” I had taken a short nap on the bus and I guess I missed that message, because I looked around to notice that no one else had eaten the salad. We will see what happens. I didn’t have long to worry about all of this because, the owner’s son had just returned from the store on his motorcycle with our order of Magnum ice cream bars. Actually, his son made two runs, because not all the orders had been bought the first time, and the owner wanted no unsatisfied customer. We ate our ice cream bars, paid a very reasonable price for our meal, loaded the bus and waved good-bye to this little Turkish family that had filled our stomachs and stolen our hearts (okay, that is a little much, but they were a cute family).

From here we headed to Colossae, which is nothing more than a tel , an unexcavated mound. We spent about an hour here taking pictures of this mound from every angle imaginable. Then we climbed to the top of it and took more pictures of the Lychus Valley below. Ask me if you want me to show you the 100 pictures I have of a green hill.

Our last stop, was the city of Laodicea. Now remember that this was the church whom Jesus described as lukewarm, and would spit out of His mouth if they did not repent. Jesus likely drew His language from the temperature of the water in this city. Unlike Hierapolis, which had hot springs and Colossae who had cold springs, Laodicea’s water came across a distant aqueduct. By the time it reached the city, it was lukewarm. Not very enjoyable to drink. We saw a tremendous amount of evidence of this. We found the arches of ancient aqueducts and a broken ancient water tower with many of the pipes still in the tower. It was quite a marvelous water system. Also in this city was an ancient Roman road that originally ran 200 miles all the way to Ephesus. We walked on this road for about a half a mile. There was also a stadium and two theaters, but these had hardly been excavated. There was also an ancient Temple that had undergone a lot of excavation in the last few years.

From here we drove to our hotel, had a great meal and are off to bed to rest so we might worship tomorrow morning at 8 am (which I personally believe is much too early to be a scriptural time for worship). It has been a wonderful day, and I am so thankful to be able to be on this trip.