Christian Church Experience and 3 out of 7 Revelation Churches

      We were able to experience a Christian church here in Izmir today, and compare our own American experience to the short part of the service we attended. There were few differences, the biggest being that the service was all in Turkish, so we smiled and nodded a lot. Overall, the church had a great community and you could see the members of the congregation engaged in fellowship before church, and enjoying each other's company. They didn't have a sense of time, and just talked until it felt like time to start worship as more came in. They had told us the service would start at 11, but it was more like 11:15-11:20 when worship started. We are able to say from our time there that we sang "I Love You Lord" and "How Great is Our God" in Turkish since we learned the pronunciation rules from our guide. Overall it was an interesting experience and great to see a strong congregation in the midst of a dense Islamic population. 

       The other three sites we visited today were all mentioned in the book of Revelations, when John is writing to the seven churches. The city we are in is also known as Smyrna, and we were able to see the ruins of the ancient agora of the city. There was a basement uncovered and a huge arch and columns. There were quite a few graves uncovered, which were there as well with ancient inscriptions along the side.

       We then traveled to Sardis, which also means "west," so this city was the furthest west. The ancient acropolis was set on a mountain, but only the city wall remained due to landslides in the past. Thought a temple to the goddess Artemis still stood at the bottom of the mountain, with huge columns still standing and parts of the altar. Though this was not as impressive as the massive gymnasium still intact across the street. The building still stood tall and you could see where the shops along the side had been located and where they exercised and went in the pool and the baths. The synagogue inside still had some mosaics on the floor and altars still intact. It was impressive to see so much still standing and see how the people lived in that time and what they did in their gyms. 

        There were more parts here than in Philadelphia, which was another Revelation church. Philadelphia had the remains of a church dedicated to St. John, which only had a couple big pillars and underground rooms left. 

Singing in the wind, rain, and hail!

Greetings from Izmir, Turkey,

We visited quite a few sites today, those being Assos, Pergamum, and Izmir. Each place had its tremendous charms even through the drenching rain, gusts of 35mph wind, and occasional hail. In Assos, we climbed (mostly by bus) to the top of the city, known as the acropolis. There we saw the remains of a temple to Athena. Although much of it was in the process of being excavated, we got an idea of the original structure from a mini model of the building. This temple was so high above the town that it acted as a lighthouse to sea-travelers on the ocean 775ft below.

Pergamum had a similar acropolis, but on a much larger scale. The temple and theater are visible from anywhere in the city. It was here that we got caught in a deluge, finding shelter in the foundations of the city. A HUGE altar used to remain on this site but now resides in a museum in Berlin. This alter was known as the Seat of Satan because sacrifices were constantly being burned on it, leaving a continuous trail of smoke. Altough this altar and the temples were in peices, much of the foundations of the site were in better shape. The group greatly enjoyed the enormous amphitheater where a few of us climbed down the near-100 steps to cavort around the "stage" and yell up to the group at the top. Hey, everyone in the theater should supposedly be able to hear you from the bottom! We then made our way to Pergamum's Asclepium, an anceint health clinic. This temple was dedicated to the god of healing, offering remedies and therapies to the ill. These included ceremonial washings, hypnosis, and physical therapy, among other things. Unfortunately, we were unable to stay long due to a very close thunder storm.

Although we are spending the next two nights in Izmir (the third biggest city in Turkey with a population of ~3.5mil), we have yet to see the famous agora and fortress. Look for them in later blogs! We did, however, get the chance to meet a Turkish pastor and his wife. We learned from them much about the history and current status of Christianity in Turkey. Turkey is often the forgotten location of many biblical events. For example, many of Paul's journeys took place here, the seven churches started here, and the Garden of Eden was/is most likely here as well. The church in Turkey, although small, is strong, growing, and in need of our prayers.

Tesekkurler, sogal!
(Thanks, blessings)

The ruins of Troy

Group shot

One of the stray cats

A Visit to Troy

This morning, after breakfasting in the hotel, we left Istanbul and drove south towards the coast. The drive was long and on the way, our tour guide instructed us in the basics of the Turkish language. In Turkish, many suffixes can be added to words until one word can equal a paragraph in English, There are 29 letters in the Turkish alphabet and they are all extremely phonetic, so it's merely a matter of learning to pronounce each sound. We learned "merhaba" (hello), "su" (water), "sogul" (please, pronounced sow) and "lutfen" (please), among others. Our tour guide also informed us of the history of some of the places around us. After a couple hours of driving, we reached the Dardanelles, which is a tiny strip of land that connects Turkey's little peninsula to the rest of Turkey. The Sea of Marmara is on one side and the Aegean Sea is on the other. In World War I, British and French troops tried first to use the waterway, then the narrow peninsula to try to give aid to Russia. However, the Turks beat them back.

We gained a short reprieve from the tour bus when we had to ride on a ferry to get to Canakkale. The wind was so strong that, when blowing directly in my face, I found it hard to move forward and, when at my back, I found myself running. Afterwards, we drove several more hours until we reached Troy, and yes, it is the same Troy from Homer's The Iliad. Each new city was built on top of older ruins, so there are ten cities from different time periods that are all essentially Troy. There are sections of walls that are standing, and our tour guide informed us that the supposed "break" in the wall is not actually a break at all: it's a deception to deceive invaders from the real break, which is the the weakest part of the wall and therefore vulnerable to attack. There was a wooden replica Trojan horse at the entrance that our group gleefully climbed into and took a group picture. There were many stray cats and dogs milling around, and more than once we caught the attention of one little one that followed us around for several minutes, cold (it was very windy as well as rainy) and wanting attention. One even jumped onto the model city of Troy in its efforts! 

After our visit to Troy, we drove for a while longer until we reached Assos. Unfortunately, by this time, it was pouring rain, so we were unable to view the ruins. We drove past them as our tour guide pointed out a few things, and then found ourselves in a cute little seaside town right on the coast of the Aegean Sea. We will stay in this town for the night and then journey to Ismir in the morning, stopping at the Pergamum Acropolis & Asclepium and the Smyrna Agora and Fortress.

Our first day in Turkey

On arriving at the airport in Turkey, we made our way to our mini-bus (her name is Dhyana) and were greeted by the rippling and glistening waves of the Marmara, which was filled with the modern (sea barges) and flanked by the antique (walls of the old city). We were glad (though very much tired, having stayed up close to 30 hours at the writing of the post!) to have entered a city that is so rich in religious, political, and cultural history. Although Istanbul (at least the part we explored) seems only a shadow of its former glory (measured perhaps by beautiful architecture now replaced by low-quality retail outlets and florescent lights), and has been heavily transformed by the effects of globalization on the urban environment, it still retains that "historical mystique" if only because I've learned so much about it, but have never been able to put a picture to those lessons.
We immediately made our way to the Hagia Sophia, once a magnificent Christian church which was converted into a mosque after Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and then turned into a museum. There were mosaics aplenty, especially of the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus, or Jesus flanked by various emperors or angels. The columns and windows were spectacular; we were all, I think, not expecting the six huge green medallions inscribed with Arabic surrounding the sanctuary. Afterwards we saw the remains of the hippodrome, which was where chariot races used to take place, right outside the Hagia Sophia and next to the Blue Mosque (named so for its blue tiles). We called it an early day after taking a tour of the aforementioned places. The other sites on our itinerary include Assos, Troy, Izmir, Philadelphia, Cappadocia, and Ankara, among many others.
We are expectant and excited for the beautiful and certainly awe-inspiring sites yet to see and cities yet to visit. Although only a short smattering of the riches Turkey has to offer, it is our hope as a group that this experience inspires further exploration of Turkish history and a greater understanding and appreciation for those cities in the Bible we often uncritically read over.