We had an
early start to the morning, leaving the compound before seven in order to get
the airport. After only spending a few days in Athens, we are already off on a
four day excursion to northern Greece. We flew out of Athens and landed in Thessaloniki
in the early morning. This is the city of the Thessalonians, whom Paul wrote
two of his letters to. We entered this
crowed city of 2.5 million people still early in the morning. As we went
through the streets of the city, it was so interesting and bizarre to see
ancient ruins, churches and buildings dispersed throughout the modern
buildings, streets, technology and people.
All the modern buildings in the city had been built after WWII, when the
city had taken a heavy toll. We first went to the ruins of the Roman forum, we
sat in the amphitheater, and Dr. Cohick lectured to use on 1 and 2
Thessalonians. While we were here, we read through both letters, discussed the
historical background, and went through the theology of the books. It was a really
helpful experience to go through these texts in some detail and it was awesome
to be in the spot these letters were written for. As we were reading through 1
Thessalonians, I was really struck by a note I made in my Bible in chapter 5. I had made the note after one of my
readings from “My Upmost For His Highest.” The note was in response to verse
17, “pray continually,” 1 Thessalonians 5:17. God always answers prayer, and He
answers it perfectly. This is often hard for us to see because God will answer
the prayer in His own time, not our own. God will answer our prayer with His
infinite wisdom, which may not make sense to us at the time.
We went to St Demetrius church,
which was in the heart of Thessaloniki. It is the oldest church in the city.
The church was a beautiful Greek orthodox church, and that still resembles the
original church. The inside of the church had icons on most of the walls and
was ornately decorated. While we walked through Dr. Kalantzis explained to us
some of the meaning of the architecture and design of the church and he also
explained the significance of some of the icons. It was a really great
experience to learn about the Eastern Church hands on.
We made a quick stop for gyros before going to a Macedonian history museum in Thessaloniki. The museum was filled with ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and jewelry. It was really incredible!
We made a quick stop for gyros before going to a Macedonian history museum in Thessaloniki. The museum was filled with ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and jewelry. It was really incredible!
We left Thessaloniki and drove to
Kavala, a nice seaside town. Our hotel was right across the street from the
water, and after dinner we got to explore the city. A small group of us went
out to see what we could find, heading towards the remnants of an old fort on
top of the hill by the water. Along the way we passed the church that remembers
Paul's arrival to Europe from Asia and the spreading of the gospel to this new
continent. A mosaic represented the story of this travel that is in Acts 16. We
got up to the top of the hill near the fort, climbed down the cliffs to the
sea, and explored for a while. We hung out there at the water as the sun set
and then slowly wandered back to our hotel through the long way back through
the city.
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