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 :)
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