"It's all Greek to Me"

"And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, 'This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. ...'"


“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth,does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ..." 

"After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. ..."


(Acts 17&18)


Can you guess who I'm talking about and where we went? Yup, that's right. Greece! Now first off, I realize that my title is rather lame and cliche, but how often do you get to use the phrase literally. (With the exception, of course, of New Testament Greek students at Emmaus.) 
Paul, the apostle, was just that. One who bore the Name of Jesus, and preached salvation everywhere. His year and a half in Greece was no exception. His first stop, was Thessaloniki, but that was our last stop. From there he went on to Athens and his last stop was in Corinth. We, however, took that rout backwards. Actually, we stayed in a small town about 30-45 minutes out side of Corinth with a Greek missionary called John Kramides (sp?). From his town he took us to Corinth where my dad spoke, then he took us to see the ruins from Paul's time. Yep, it's true, I've walked the streets of old... the ones Paul would have walked preaching the gospel, or drawing a crowd. The fun thing about seeing these ruins with John was that he got really excited about the important details and was able to tie them in with scripture. 

Common Corinthian ruins. A regular town about 2000 years old. Cool thing: Paul would have been here.

Wee little me climbing a sycamore tree.

From Corinth we went to Athens via train. There we got a hostel that had a restaurant on the roof and from it you could see the Parthenon! Never thought I would eat such a luxurious dinner (although the food it self wasn't as impressive)! The next day we made our way up to the Parthenon, which, we learned, was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Legend has it that she and another god had a competition as to who would be the protector of the city. The two were to give a gift to the people of the city, and which ever one was more useful to the people the giver would become protector. The other god, whose name or gift I cannot remember, gave a gift that was simple and unimpressive. Athena, on the other hand, gave an olive tree. This proved to be more useful, because from it would come olives, olive oil, and other olive trees. Thus Athena became the protector of the city, and that is how the city was named Athens... or so goes the myth. Anyway there is also a temple dedicated to the other god, but it is much less impressive. 

A theater on the way up to the Parthenon.

The Parthenon. 

Once we saw the Parthenon, we hiked down the hill a little ways and saw Mars Hill. Ring a bell? Yup you guessed it - or maybe you didn't. Mars Hill is the very place Paul gave his famous speech to the Athenians. There he not only challenged their religion, but also introduced them to the Creator and Savior. It was fun to imagine Paul standing somewhere on that hill in order to be heard. Slowly a crowd could be pictured gathering around him, holding on to each word wondering if it was truth. 

Me on Mars Hill looking over the city of Athens.

From there we continued down the hill looking at other ruins and so on. The next day we saw a temple dedicated to Zeus. This, had it been more in tact, would have been much more impressive than the Parthenon, however, only a fraction of the building stood.

Me next to the temple for Zeus with the Parthenon in the background. 

Continuing our journey through Greece, we traveled to Thessaloniki. The ruins there weren't as impressive... since there was only a wall... but the city itself was a lot prettier than Athens. We spent one day there, and left for Burgas, Bulgaria at 2 AM. But that's for a later blog. 

One of the pillars with the sun behind it. 

On the way up to Thessaloniki 

All in all, Greece turned out to be a beautiful country, with loving people, fascinating history, and lots of feta cheese and olive oil. 

Picture (not so) Perfect

Here are some pictures that my dad took to match the last post:
(If you click on any of the pictures you should be able to see them at a larger scale)

A typical scene in Amsterdam looking across from Anne Frank's hiding place.

The Blue Mosque is known for it's beauty. The domes (seen better inside) were meant to look like a waterfall. 

The Turkish are a beautiful people. 

All of us in front of the Hagia Sophia. It was once a Byzantine Church, then the Turks took it over and turned it into a mosque and now is a museum where they have restored it to show both Christianity and Islam.

A really cool fortress we climbed through... my camera had better pictures, but, like I said, they were deleted. 

Turkey Talk

Our tour of Europe began when we left the U.S. on Monday afternoon after visiting Daniel and Abby and little Anna. We took a 7 hour flight from Chicago to Amsterdam where we had a 5 hour layover. Being the Flemings that we are, we took advantage of that time and decided to walk around the Dutch city. My first thought was "Wow it's really quiet!" But that opinion changed around 10 AM when people finally started showing up... on bikes. It seems like everyone there rode a bike as their main means of transportation. My mom and I also got to tour the Anne Frank hide out which was also pretty cool because that had been Mom's dream. Then we finally went back to the Airport and finished our travels.
If you were to ask me what city I would want to go to before this trip Istanbul would not have been the first city on my list. However, to my surprise, it was a beautiful city. People and Mosques are every where. After all it is a city of 17 million people. In case you're wondering, yes they do pray 5 times a day, and no not everyone wears the full berka. Even though it's a very Islamic country, it's also a very westernized city. We saw everything from a full berka to shorts and a tang top. While there, we got to see the Hagia Sophia which is a museum that was once a mosque but beforehand it was a byzantine church. To see the mixture of the two was pretty neat. We also went on to see the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, and an ancient fortress. The history behind the whole city is fascinating as both the Ottoman Turks and the Byzantine Empire dwelt there when it was formally called Constantinople. I wish I could get pictures up for you, but somewhere in the transfer from my camera to my computer, all of them were deleted =(. I guess I'm not as good with technology as I thought. Hmm. Well... I would tell you more, but so much has happened since I visited Turkey (which was only 4 days ago) that I really can't remember. Now we are in Greece... but that's for another blog. 

Where Do I Look?

First things first: I wanted to make a statement of faith.

. . . . 

That was easy.

Ok, no, really. I have an amazing God who, even though we may not see it or understand, has a perfect will and is faithful to each of His children. The weird thing is I am one of those children. Why? I don’t know. But somewhere in history God wrote me down in His book as His, and is ready to carry out a portion of His plan through me. (Now here comes the wonderful segue:) And that’s what this blog is about.  You’ll notice the website is psalm1611andephesians32021.blogspot.com. Translated that’s Psalm 16:11 and Ephesians3:20-21. I know, I know, that’s a really long website, but I chose those passages because they have been true in my life as of late.

Psalm 16:11 says

                “You make known to me

             The path of life;

         In Your presence there is fullness of

            Joy;

         In Your right hand there

  Are pleasures forevermore.”

So basically, this year especially, I’ve had to learn to keep my focus on Christ, my God and my Savior. Without Him I have nowhere to go, no reason for joy, and I will never be content. But with Him I have a purpose, I will be filled with joy, and more than satisfied. By the way, I’m still working on this. Just ask my family. However it goes beyond me.

Ephesians 3:20-21 is as follows:

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according the power that works within us, to HIM be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

So when I focus on Him, not only is my heart contented, but He carries out His plan that is far, FAR bigger than I could ever imagine! But wait there’s more! (Sorry, couldn’t resist =P.) I, in my humility, must see, and will see that He is to receive all honor and glory – FOREVER! So it’s an awesome thought that I, as does every believer, have the power of Christ (the one who rose from the dead) in me that I could do the unthinkable all for the glory of the One who loved me enough to die for me. Praise the Lord!

Consequently, thou wilt understand my tale in addition to my present method of belief. (Ok, so I’ve been reading Shakespeare, and, to be honest, I don’t know if that’s even good grammar. Oh well.)

So I hope that was an encouragement to you. I promise not all of my posts will be this preachy. Oh, and I have a disclaimer: I’ve never been one to journal much, but I hope I can keep this up so that you all know what’s going on, where I am, and remember to pray for me no matter where I end up. Thanks, Christina.