N.O.R.M. (Not Out Roaming Mindlessly)

I Finally Got to See Corinth

2008-05-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

We awoke today to another beautiful morning of sunshine and blue skies. Breakfast was at 7:00 and we were on the bus at 8:00 headed to Cenchrea and the ancient city of Corinth. I have especially looked forward to seeing Corinth, since I have studied and taught 1 & 2 Corinthians so many times to my 10th grade classes. I have often shown pictures that someone else had taken of the ruins, but today, I would get to take my own pictures of this ancient metropolis.

On our way to Corinth, we may four short stops. The first stop was at the canal that runs across the Peloponnesus, the isthmus that that used to divide the Aegean and Adriatic Seas. During ancient times, the Romans had created a Dyokollos, which was basically a rut that ran between the two sees, upon which they would drag, by wagon, small ships that would come into one of the two ports. The access to Corinth from both of these seas allowed the city to grow rich and prosper. While a couple of emperors, including Nero, attempted to make the Dyokollos into a canal, none were successful. It was until the 19th century that the canal was finally dug, allowing a ship to pass on water. The second stop was at the harbor of Cenchrea, which was the harbor where ships would come and port in Paul’s day, bringing passengers to shop or merchandise to sell in Corinth. Our third stop was at the place where the Isthmian games were held. In more than one epistle Paul uses the illustration of an athlete or athletic event to talk about living for God. Some suggest that Paul may have attended these games. Marked in the ruins is the place where the marathon runners would start their 26.2 mile trek. In our final stop before Corinth we viewed a short piece of the Dyokollos that is still left, which doesn’t look much different than a drainage ditch, but is impressive to know that across these rocks came ships from long ago.

Corinth was a tough city, not meant to be toured by the feeble of heart. Paganism, immorality and idolatry abounded here, along with greed. It doesn’t take long to look at what is left of Corinth to derive at such a conclusion. Corinth had a huge agora, with market places on the north, south and west sides. It had a fountain dedicated to Poseidon, and a very large temple dedicated to Apollo, along with a number of other smaller temples built to honor other gods. When one reads 1 Corinthians, he can see all sorts of allusions in Paul’s language drawn from the characteristics of the city. For example, one place that I have often wanted to see was the Bema seat, the place of judgment where Paul may been taken to appear before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia. Paul transfers his experience to the letter when he writes, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ...” (2 Cor. 5:10). We also went down to the lower agora of ancient Corinth and saw the inscription with the name Erastus in it. In Romans 16, Paul sends greetings to the Roman brethren from Erastus, the treasurer. Since Paul likely wrote the letter from Corinth, this inscription very possibly references the same man. Billy Bradford poses for this shot. There is much more that I could share with you about this great city, but you will just have to come to one my classes to hear more.

On our way back from Corinth, we stopped in at another pottery and jewelry store, where we learned about the making of Corinth pottery, which is very similar to what we learned about the pottery on the island of Rhodes. The pottery was very beautiful, as well as the jewelry and once again, I am sure our Grecian tour guide (Lola) got a nice cut. After this we headed back to the hotel to grab an afternoon nap and then tour more of Athens on our own.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Athens and the tour. We will worship at 8:30 in the morning and then be given the rest of the day to walk around and see more of the city.

Sailing to Patmos

2008-05-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the delay in updating my blog. We have been on a cruise ship for the past couple of days, making it very difficult to get access to the internet. I know how many of you have been sitting on the edge of your seat, holding your breath as you wait for each day (HA!), so hopefully I can catch you up.

On May 13 we boarded the ship to depart from Kusadasi, which is the city just south of the ancient city of Ephesus. I have never been on a cruise before. The biggest boat I have ever been on involved a small trolling motor and two oars, so this is a new experience for me. It has its ups and downs (literally), but overall, I am having an enjoyable time.

We boarded the ship at about 9:30, which left us a couple of hours to return back to the city of Kusadasi and do a little shopping. There were a couple of things that I wanted to pick up before we left. I stopped in a shop as David Thomley and I were heading back to the ship, and bought a few items. I used my credit card to make the purchase, which took much longer than anticipated. This required David and I to run all the way back to the ship, which was scheduled to leave at 11:30. We made it with one minute to spare, but I was afraid I was going to have to give David mouth to mouth CPR once we boarded.

We headed out of port on a beautiful sunny day, but with a bit of a crisp wind as you can see from the picture at right. That afternoon we made a stop at Patmos, which most of you will remember was where the Apostle John was given the vision by Christ, which he later described to us in the book of Revelation. Patmos is a beautiful island, with only about 3,000 residents, but 20,000 tourists a day. It is hard to imagine that this island was once the place where Domitian sent prisoners that he didn’t want to execute, but wanted to remove from society.

We took about a two hour tour of the island, with a main stop at a church which houses, get this, the cave of St. John. The Greek Orthodox church and her traditions are strong here. Supposedly this is where John wrote Revelation. You enter the doorway of this building and head down 45 steps, and enter another door and on the right is a cave at which they have marked where John slept, wrote and even places in the rock where John lifted himself up when he got out of bed. There is a three way split in a rock at the exit of cave which supposedly represents the Trinity. Unfortunately they did not allow pictures. I have included a picture of the bell tower atop of the church building.

After a short tour of a museum which houses a few 6th century manuscripts, we headed back to the ship to eat dinner and set sail for our next stop – the island of Rhodes.

2008-05-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

The last few days could not have been more beautiful in this area of western Turkey. It was hard not to take a good picture today.

We headed out a little earlier this morning to beat the “cruise crowd” to the ancient city of Ephesus. I’m glad we did, because it allowed us to have an excellent tour of the city with a minimum amount of tourists to interfere with pictures.

The city of Ephesus plays a very prominent role in the life of Paul and John. We read in Acts that Paul was there for three years and tradition strongly suggests that the Apostle John was there for a while as well. Paul wrote to the saints in Ephesus, as well as did John. Timothy, Aquilla and Priscilla, Apollos and a number of other people mentioned in the Bible spent time in this great city of Asia Minor.

Once again, we viewed amazing sites of temples and theaters. A very popular site in Ephesus is the Library of Celsus, where we took our group picture. I’m sure Mr. Jenkins will publish it on his website, ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com. The stadium we viewed and pictured was where the great uproar over Diana took place, as recorded by Luke in Acts 19. We left the main city of Ephesus and took a short drive to what remains of the Temple of Diana, which is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. There is not much to view, save one reconstructed column and a few foundation stones. Paul and John would have seen this temple. We also spent a little time in the Ephesus museum, which had a new presentation on gladiators. There is a gladiator cemetery in the city of Ephesus. Also in the museum is a giant head and hand, all that is left of a giant statue of Roman Emperor Domitian.

We left Ephesus and headed to a Turkish rug shop and weaving school. Turkey is well known for the double knot, ornate rugs made of wool, cotton and silk. We were served lunch by the shop and were given a very informational presentation of the various sorts of rugs that they make and then given opportunity to purchase some. The prices of these rugs ranged from $400 to $25,000 dollars. While not many rugs were bought, there was a vendor there selling Magnum ice cream bars and he made a killing. Our tour guide told us that our tour took more pictures and ate more ice cream than any other tour group he has been with.

Our final stop today was the ancient city of Miletus. You will recall that the elders of Ephesus met Paul at Miletus while Paul was heading back to Antioch during his 3^rd missionary journey. Some has been a number of reasons given as to why Paul may have done this, but one reason may have been because the harbor of Ephesus often silted up and became inaccessible, but the harbor and Miletus, though not as popular at Ephesus was always clear. The most preserved site in Ephesus is the theater that Paul likely would have seen as he pulled into the harbor.

We returned early to our hotel so we could see the sunset over the Aegean Sea. We missed it yesterday by just a few minutes. We board the cruise ship tomorrow morning to head out on a Mediterranean cruise to see biblical islands like Patmos, where John was imprisoned, and Crete, where Titus would have labored full-time in the preaching of the gospel. I don’t know how much access I will have to the internet while we are on the ship, so if there is no post on the blog, you will know why.

2008-05-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

It was another beautiful day in the land of Turkey. It was also a long day and we must be up early in the morning, so this blog will be short. We only visited two places today, but they were filled with ancient architecture and culture.

Our first visit was to the ancient city of Hierapolis. Hierapolis is known for its hot springs and the geological formation of a giant limestone deposit which makes for white “frozen cascades” on the side of the mountain. It is quite a beautiful site and the springs are very warm. The city has little biblical significance, but does have a place in church history after the first century.

The question for the day was, “How many sarcophagi have you seen today?” Most people don’t know what a sarcophagi is, including myself prior to making my trip to Israel just a few weeks ago, and even less have seen one. But today, I would have answered that question by saying, “Hundreds.” Sarcophagi are basically stone caskets. Hierapolis has an impressive necropolis (ancient cemetery: we are learning all kinds of new words today), containing over 1200 sarcophoghi. We also saw an ancient theater here and the Arch of Domitian.

After a great lunch at a little restaurant called Anatolia, and a swing in the hammock, we went to Aphrodisias. Again, this ancient city has no

biblical significance, but showed us more of 1^st
century life in Asia Minor. We saw ruins of ancient temples, theaters and most impressive of all, a 1200 foot hippodrome, which was an event center for everything from chariot races to gladiator games. I took video of my father-in-law, Olen Britnell, running down the tunneled ramp and into the hippodrome like a gladiator.

Tonight we are in the modern city of Kusadasi, which sits on the Aegean Sea, and is located just 30 minutes south of the ancient city of Ephesus. Tomorrow we will tour Ephesus, which will probably be one of the most impressive sites of the whole tour.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom Diane Webb and my wife Barbara Jo – the two most influential women in my life.

2008-05-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-05-09T11:58:00.001-07:00

Today began early with a 6 am wake up call, with breakfast at 6:30 and on the bus at 7:30. We had a two hour drive ahead of us to get to the ancient city of Pergamum, which sits looking over the modern day city of Bergama. We took a pit stop along the way at an onyx and jewelry store, which sold the most beautiful onyx pieces I have yet to see, and after being in Israel and

Jordan

, I have seen a lot.

After the stop, Mr. Jenkins, our tour leader, read and commented on Revelation 2:12-17, Christ’s letter to Pergamum. It was very interesting and allowed us to have a greater appreciation for the ruins of the city when we got there. The ruins were quite amazing to see. For one, they were filled with red poppies, which made for a gorgeous setting and beautiful pictures.

Of special interest and connection to Christ’s letter to the Pergamum church, were the ruins of the temple built by Roman Emperor Hadrian, and dedicated to Emperor Trajan. In Christ’s letter He says that He knows that the saints dwell where Satan’s throne is, but have remained faithful to Him. What Jesus means by Satan’s throne is not known for certain, but the ruins provide some clues. Pergamum was elected three times to build a temple to a Roman Emperor, which tells us that Emperor worship was prominent in this city. You will also find among the ruins the foundation for the Temple of Zeus. This temple was excavated and removed for its protection and now sits in the Berlin Museum in Germany. You may follow this link to see a good picture of the museum. A huge theater on the side of the hill and stumped columns of a library can also be seen at Pergamum.

We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant in Bergama, where I ate a meat and cheese pita, which they liken to a pizza, but its really not. However, nourishment was necessary to press on, so I ate it and then ate David Thomley’s also. Next to the restaurant was a shop selling authentic goat parchment. There is an interesting story behind why parchment was used in Pergamum, but I will spare you all of that for now. I will say this that the city of Pergamum that was second only to the library in Alexandria, Egypt. The manuscripts in Pergamum were primarily made of animal skins – parchment – while the manuscripts in Alexandria were papyrus.

After lunch we headed to the sanctuary of Asklepios, the god of healing, which was very close to Pergamum. While there were plenty of healers in the in Romans times, most worked independently. This sanctuary was similar to a hospital, where doctors worked in conjunction with each other. They used mud baths, dream interpretation, psychology and medicinal drugs to bring healing to people. Jane and Olen must have drawn great strength from Asklepios, feeling they could lift giant stone ruins. By the look on Olen’s face, I think he might have hurt something.

The sign for Asklepios was a serpent, which is the sign still used today as an icon for medicine. This might contribute to the reason Jesus spoke of Pergamum as where Satan (the serpent of old, Genesis 3:1) dwells.

Upon leaving Bergama, we took a one drive to Thyatira. Unfortunately, the ruins of Thyatira offer little. There is only a remnant of an 8^th century Byzantine church and then columns and arches laying randomly around a small fenced in area. Oh, yeah, we also saw an Thyatira turtle, that I would love to bring home to my girls, but I’m not sure how I would have carried it on the plane. I think there is some law against tourists exporting live animals. The highlight at Thyatira was kicking around a soccer ball with some of the local kids and eating a Magnum ice cream bar.

The ride home took about an hour and a half. We passed the time singing spiritual songs, taking naps and then listening to our tour guide’s stories of previous tours. Ask me about the story of Antonio and the story of the Taiwanese. We all laughed pretty hard.

We head off tomorrow morning at 8:00 to go to Philadelphia, Sardis and Laodicea.

The Crowns of Smyrna

2008-05-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

“Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10) Those were the words of Christ to His faithful church in Smyrna. As Jesus dictated these letters to John, He chose phrases to figuratively describe the churches’ condition that some how connected with the characteristics of the city. Such might have been the case with this phrase.
Smyrna sits on the coast of the Aegean Sea, and as you looks up to the east from the Agora of the city, one could see Mt. Pagos sitting like a crowned jewel overlooking the rich metropolis of Smyrna. Jesus describes the saints in this city as rich in Him, but economically poor, which was just the opposite of the city itself.

Our visit of the ancient site included a stomp around the ancient fortress built by Alexander the Great on the top of Mt. Pagos, overlooking the harbor and city of Smyrna (see picture).

We then descended the mountain to the ancient Agora, which in Greek means market place. This was the place where people went to buy and sell everything from clothes, to food to dishwashers (okay not dishwashers, but everything else). It was a hangout for young people and old people alike. You can see me hanging out by the pillars overlooking the area of ancient shops below.

After lunch, and ice cream (an ever essential part of any distant travel) we went to a couple of museums which contained many statues and stone reliefs. There were two statues in particular that captured our attention, both of them wearing crowns. The first was a statue of a priest of the imperial cult of the city of Ephesus. The reason we were interested in this was because he was fashioned wearing a diadem. A diadem was a crown indicating authority. Jesus is described wearing many diadems in Revelation 19:12. While the sea beast, representing Rome, had 10 diadems, Jesus is pictured as wearing many. While emperor worship abounded in Rome, promoted by such cultic priests depicted by the statue, Christ warned His followers that no one had more authority than Him and He would bring down all those who opposed Him and His people. You may recall that we also sing the lyrics, “Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all.”

The final crown we saw today was that worn by the runner in the statue pictured. This crown was the stephanos crown, which was given to the victor of a race. This crown was usually made up of vines and flowers. I’m sure my 10^th grade students at Athens Bible School will remember Paul writing in 1 Corinthians 9 about encouraging us to strive to win the imperishable wreath – the crown of life (Rev. 2:10; James 2:12). Jesus is described as one wearing the crown of victory in Revelation 6:2, for He overcame sin and death.

I have also included a picture of a lion statue from the 6^th century B.C. The reason for this is because the lion is called – Aslan. C.S. Lewis used this name for the lion in his book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, after seeing these statues.

We then went to a church building named after Polycarp who was a student of the apostle John and who was killed in the early second century for refusing to renounce Christ as King and Savior.

Our day closed after dinner with Dr. Mark Wilson, a leading researcher of Bible locations in Turkey, speaking to us about some of his work. He is wearing the blue shirt, standing next to his wife Dindy.

That pretty much raps up the day. Tomorrow we head to Pergamum and Thyatira. For my students, feel free to post comments or questions on the blogsite. I’d love to hear from you.

Museums and Mosques and Bosphorous

2008-05-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

When you tell folks that you are going to Turkey, many times they say, with almost sarcasm - Why? What's in Turkey? They fail to realize that most of the New Testament takes place or was originally written to people who lived in what is now the land of Turkey. Turkey was Asia Minor of the New Testament world. Cities like Ephesus, Colossae, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Miletus, Pergamum and a lot more were located in this country that is known more for having the same name as a Thanksgiving meal, then for New Testament, Greek, or Roman history, yet more Greek and Roman history has been recovered in this country than in Italy and Greece combined. In addition to that, church history abounds in this nation and especially in the city of Istanbul. While I certainly don't subscribe to universal human government of the church or creeds of men, three councils, strongly influencing Western Christianity took place in Turkey - one in Nicaea and two in Ephesus.

Some of what we did today I'm going to pass over quickly, not because it is unimportant, but because what I want to concentrate on is SO MUCH COOLER! Of course, when I am done your suspicions of my nerdiness will be confirmed.

We began the day visiting a couple of mosques (places of worship for Muslims). The first was the Blue Mosque, which receives its name from the blue Iznik tiles and was built around 1610 A.D. The interior is quite an impressive site, as its architect constructed with domes and semi-domes that reach to 140 feet high. We had to remove our shoes to enter into the mosque because of the cleanliness of the floor. Muslims bow their forehead to the ground when praying here and they want to keep the carpets very clean. The carpets are cleaned daily (they were doing this while we were there), but the ceilings are cleaned only twice a year. Here is an interesting discovery. One might think, with such rare cleaning of the ceilings, bugs and spiders would abound, but the ink used to paint the walls has the yolk of ostrich eggs in it, which causes it to be a natural bug repellent - I'm not making this stuff up - so very few six and eight leg critters.
Close to the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia, which was built originally as a church (532 A.D.), then became a mosque when Constantinople (modern Istanbul) was over taken by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and then became a museum in 1935. It is a very impressive building, larger than the Blue Mosque.

We then walked over to the Topkapi Palace, which housed some 36 Sultans and their harems. I was quickly able to see some "interesting" things like John the Baptist's hand (in gold) and the rod of Moses, swords and daggers covered in jewels and gems worth millions of dollars. You can decide what is real and historical and what is not.

Now, if you really want some entertaining news, ask Barbara Jo about a wounded chicken and my Dodge Dakota - separate stories, but it archeology really gets you going then stick around. The highlight of my day was the Archaeological Museum. While here I saw an inscription from Hezekiah's tunnel, created around 710 B.C. to connect the Gihon Spring with the Pool of Siloam. (see 2 Kings 20:20) It describes the completion of the tunnel, which was dug by two teams starting at opposite ends digging toward each other. The inscription is found where the two teams met. It confirms that Hezekiah was a real king in the nation of Israel.

I also saw the inscription that was placed in a wall which separated the Gentiles from the court of women in Jerusalem during the time of Herod (see picture). The inscription says - cross this line Gentile and die (Norm's paraphrase version). Paul was accused of taking a Gentile into the temple, violating the law written on the wall (read Acts 21:27-31). I also saw murals of lions and other animals that hung on the walls of the city of Babylon during the time of Nebuchadnezzer (see picture); an ancient treaty made between the Hitites and the Egyptians in 1296 B.C; an inscribed cylinder made by Nabidonidus, the last king of Babylon, who is mentioned by Jeremiah; an inscribed stele of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who attacked Israel; a large relief slab from the palace of Tiglath-pilesar III; the code of Hammurabi, which describes a moral law, similar to what God gave the Israelites and I could go on and on and on. But the really cool thing about all of this is that these things are from and about people who are mentioned in the Bible demonstrating the historical accuracy of it.

After all of this, we headed to the Grand Covered Bazaar, basically a 400 year old outlet mall of 4000 shops. Barbara Jo and my girls will be happy to know that I bought them a gift from here.

Well, after all of this, we took a ride on the Bosphorous, the body of water connecting the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. It was windy and cold, but a beautiful trip, on which I enjoyed a glass of hot apple tea. Pictured is Billy and Carol Bradford.

Tomorrow, we head out at 6:15 to catch a flight to Izmir, modern day Smyrna. To my Bible class at Athens Bible School, I look forward to your list of facts from this blog.

Airplanes, Naps and Magnum Bars

2008-05-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

UGH! We made it to Istanbul. We began our journey with a 4 a.m. wake up call in Nashville, TN. Took off from Nashville at 7 am and flew to JFK; waited seven hours in JFK (got ice cream at 3 pm), flew to Munich, Germany, waited a couple of hours there (ate some wiener schnitzel and Magnum Bars), and then took off to Istanbul to land here at 3:00 in the afternoon, Turkey time. All together we were in a plan or at an airport for over 24 hours. You can tell by the pictures how excited we were soon after arriving at JFK and eating lunch and the contrast of how tired we were soon before boarding the plane for the final leg to Istanbul.

To the casual observer it was an uneventful day, but to the well-traveled, it was a really uneventful day. The most excitement I felt all day was flying the two hour flight from Munich to Istanbul, because I ended up in an "exit" row, which for a guy who is 6'2", the extra leg room space feels like acres of land in an airplane. The flight from JFK to Munich was just over 7 hours long. What made the flight bearable was the monitors on the back of each seat, and the availability of about eight movies, all in English. I passed part of the time watching edited versions of "Dan in Real Life" and "The Bucket List." I can't recommend the unedited versions, but both movies were very enjoyable. I slept a little on the plane and read the tour manual provided by Mr. Jenkins.

I would like to make a few observations about the trip that tie closely to the tour we will begin tomorrow. The world has reached a point, where international travel has become relatively easy for the English speaking individual. Most service and security people in the airports speak English; signs, everywhere, carry not only the language of the native tongue, but also English. Travel is relatively safe and very efficient, comparative to 2000 years ago or even 50 years ago. It reminds me, very much, of the days of Paul and John. The Roman roads allowed for the most efficient travel the world had seen up until that day, Greek was a dominant language, allowing for conversation with just about anyone, no matter where you went. The Pax Romana (Roman Peace) allowed for relative safety in travel and being a Roman

citizen, like Paul, provided a privileged status, often felt by the American traveler.
What we have is not so different than the days of Paul, and neither is our responsibility as children of God, to take advantage of these benefits and share the good news of life with the world.

We really have it better, because Paul didn't have Magnum Bars.

Tomorrow, we tour Istanbul, which at one time was called Constantinople and prior to that called Byzantium. The existence of this city goes back to about the 7th century B.C., according to archaeologists. In 330 A.D. Constantine moved the capital of Rome here and called in Constantinople. You may recall that Constantine also made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, but remember by then the many biblical doctrines and church organization had been corrupted. In 1204 A.D., the city was sacked during the Crusades and then in 1453 A.D. the city was taken over by the Ottoman Empire and named Istanbul.

Istanbul is the only city that is divided between two countries, Europe and Asia. It is divided by the Bosphorous Strait, a water way that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. If I understood our guide correctly, it's population is about 15 million, which makes it one of the most populated cities in the world. The parts that I have seen so far have been beautiful, especially among the coast of the Marmara Sea. The weather was beautiful, with temperatures being in the mid-60s and nothing but blue skies when we got here at about 3:00 p.m. The city is predominantly Muslim, as well as the country, but they have a secular government. At about 9:15 last night we heard the Muslim call to prayer which is declared through out the city on a speaker system. We feel very safe here. Crime rates are very low, mainly due to the fact that crimes are often punished public and involve the removal of body parts.

Our tour tomorrow will include a visit to the Archaeological Museum, which contains many Greek and Roman artifacts, and the Grand Bazaar, every shopper's dream. The Bazaar houses over 4000 little shops and has been in existence since the 1400s - The granddaddy of outlet shopping. I'm just glad Barbara Jo is back in the states. Who knows how much damage she could do.

Well, that is all for now.

Flying Turkey

2008-05-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well...I've entered blogging world with great trepidation, knowing that my wife has set the precedent for entertaining, world traveling blogs. We leave tomorrow to fly from Nashville, to JFK, to Munich, to Istanbul, Turkey. I'll let you know how it goes.