Fleeting Moments

If I remember correctly, my last update was about the Jesus Trail and Nazareth... since then I've been to 3 different countries in about 3 weeks. I can't believe how quickly it's gone!

In Turkey we started in Antalya and worked our way along the coast to Ephesis. Our travel was mostly by bus but we did do a full day of hiking along the famous Lycian Road. Our education consisted of learning about the context of Paul's ministry, visiting many of the ports mentioned in Acts, and exploring the social context of ships and port cities and how they likely impacted Paul's theology and vision for the church. While we were in Turkey we talked to a Lutheran church planter (Turkey is an Islamic country). He said in all the years he had been in Turkey he never knew any happy old people. They were all bitter and stern. And then he met some elderly Christians. They were some of the most joy filled people he knew. When you get to a certain point in life you start to think about what happens after you die. He said that the old Muslims knew that they had not always prayed five times a day and lived a perfect life, they might not make it into Paradise. But the Christains knew that they where forgiven for all their short comings and by the grace of Christ they were saved. Since the 1980s when the first missionaries went to Antalya the church has grown from 10 people meeting to hundreds with plans to build new cultural centers. God is doing some amazing things in Turkey!

Greece had a similar emphasis on Paul, but being based in Athens allowed us to focus on why Jesus and the Gospel was so popular to the Gentiles who worshiped the many Greek and Roman gods. The gods offer great rewards for this life: beauty, wealth, wisdom, entertainment, abundance in life! (Similar things are offered to us today... just watch any commercial or read an ad... we just stopped calling them gods.) Jesus offers life in abundance (with almost guaranteed suffering) and eternal life.
One of the highlights in Greece was participating in the Greek Orthodox Easter midnight mass. Candles and fireworks and roasted lamb!

After stopping in Corinth we boarded a ferry for a 14 hour ride to Italy and then a 5 hour bus ride to Rome. We spent a few days doing independent exploration of the countless churches and historical cites around the city. Our learning officially ended by talking about how Paul, having met the True Lord on the road to Damascus finally got to meet the lord of the kingdom of earth and compare the two. The emperor of the known world vs the King of Creation. We also touched on the eventual merge of church and empire and the dynamics of that history. And we got to see the pope! From about 20 feet away, maybe 15.

And so we end our trip. Our group split off for our last few days of free travel before we return to the States, and I find myself traveling alone in the town of Assisi. (Home of St. Frances) It is my own little pilgrimage, a retreat from the comfort of the group into the green hills of Italy. Something interesting about the ideal of "returning," it means that you need to "leave" from somewhere. So much of these last 4 months I will need to leave behind. The land, the people, church services shared with travellers from around the world, beaches, trails, I'm even leaving a bit of blood and tears behind. Yes I have the memories, and some pictures, but it will all be from a place and time that I can't go back to in the same way, and I can't bring it with me to share with my friends and family.

But I can bring my changed self back. I can show my pictures and tell my stories, as incomplete as they are. I can try to live into this new person I've met within myself, this new self that has yet to meet my old life and patterns.

I came into this cross cultural looking to meet God in the Wilderness of my life, and I'm leaving with more questions than answers. But more contentment in the wilderness, as frustrating as it can be at times. I have wept over the beauty of the Spirit that transcends language and culture, and wept over the beauty of voices blended in song, and wept over the loss of a fellow travellers sister. In those ever fleeting moments I met God and knew my God to be the Lord and Creator of all. I do not what in my wilderness alone.

The plane lands in Dulles Tue evening. Graduation is the next Sunday. From one adventure into another :)

Walking the Jesus Way (literally)

It seems like forever ago, but one week ago today (Friday) our group was finishing up a 4 day hiking trip in the Galilee. Starting in Nazareth we hiked the 40+ mile Jesus trail to the ruins of Capernaum, the headquarters of Jesus' ministry.
It was nothing like what I imagined.
Our first day we up up up, just to get out of Nazareth, then down down and through green wheat fields and pine forests. Our assignment for the day was to make up our own "Behold! saying. Jesus had some of these like, "behold the birds of the air... the lilies of the field. Even Solomon was not clothed like one of these." (Very paraphrased ...) So our job was to make our own like, "behold the well-worn path. Those who say on in will reach their destination!" We spent our first night in Cana where Jesus turned water into wine, probably on his way from his baptism to Nazareth before the Luke 4 story.

Our second day we hiked through a pine forest. It smelled just like the Rockies! Our thought asignment was "The Kingdom of God is like..." That night was spent at a goat farm / Eco Hostel, Yarak Ozone. We had the pleasure of having an impromptu hymn sing in the dwindling evening light, sing song after song as they came to mind in our mixed and made up harmony. Singing has become a wonderful theme for our group. At any non structured moment, if someone starts singing a well known song of any type there will shortly be 3 or 5 or more voices all joining in with their own harmony.

Our third day of hiking we walked though some more fields. Eventually we worked up and over the Horns of Hitton and down through a little canyon filled with grazing cattle. Our assignment for the day was "blessed are the..." Are you catching the theme?? That night we climbed up the cliffs of Arbel to stay at a little Bed and Breakfast.

Our last day we went over the cliffs, past some more cows, and down the road to the town of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. There we saw one of the only synagogues from the first century found in Israel. It is almost 99% possible that Jesus stood in this synagogue and worshiped. We also finished up the spiritual part of the hike with a little message by Linford to wrap everything up. We sat in a beautiful chapel looking over the Sea with a gigantic boat for the alter. Surrounding the space were pillars with each of the 12 apostles, and just outside in the narthex was a circle of pillars with the names of the women who followed Jesus with one pillar left blank for women today.

From Magdala we hiked a few more hours through fields of bananas and flowering citrus fields to Capernaum. We finished tired, hot, sweaty, a few more blisters, and with a big dose of satisfaction.

But we didn't have time to rest! (Or even shower...) Straight from the Sea of Galilee we took a 3 hour bus ride back to Nazareth. (It's a bit
... dissatisfying to hike for days and then drive back in a few hours...) At Nazareth we jumped right into volunteering at Nazareth Village, a village built to depict what it would have been like for Jesus where he spent most of his. Earlier in the week we donned first century garb and did varrious jobs like pull weeds while tours walked by and took our picture. This night we again dressed up, this time to help serve an evening dinner commemorating a transition in leadership for the village. After hiking all day and serving food all night it felt great to collapse into our beds at 11 that night.

But that's not that last of our Nazareth experience! Sunday a group of us went to the Catholic Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Annunciation. Remember, Nazareth is also the place where Mary was met by an angle and told she would give birth to the savior. This church supposedly preserves the place where that may have happened. (And there's first century ruins in the lower part to back up the claim.) I have NEVER been to such an exciting palm Sunday celebration! There was a bagpipe marching band and buggle fanfares and palm branches and large crowds. There worship service itself was mostly traditional Catholic in the local Arabic language. What a privilege to be a part of such an amazing worship!

Sadly, Monday morning it was time to move on. We boarded a flight from Tell Aviv to Antalya through Istanbul and off we flew. Turkey is great, but our time in the conflicted Israel/Palestine was special. Someday I will be back. Someday.

Despite the sadness of leaving the land I called home for 3 months I am really really enjoying Turkey, and soon there will be Greece, and before I know it Italy, and the graduation and then...    but tomorrow is not today and yesterday passed by too quickly. One step at a time. And right now that is going to be exploring Fathiye, Turkey and finding a cheap döner to eat :)