Our Southern Greece Trip

We left Monday morning at 8am to begin our visit to Southern Greece. Our first stop was to Corinth for a stop to see the Canal, and then on to Ancient Corinth. The weather was beautiful. Not a cloud. In Ancient Corinth we saw all the sites associated with Paul 's ministry: the Agora, the Temple of Apollo, the Roman Odeon, the Bema and Gallio's Seat. We also visited the Archaeological Museum. We ate lunch at a restaurant in Corinth with a beautiful view of the countryside below. We next drove up to Agrocorinth. Gretchen took a wonderful picture of Christian standing at the very top. I hope to get some pictures downloaded later. On our way to the hotel in Tolon we stopped and had a short devotional time together at Cenchreae. We sat along the waters edge where the ruins of an early Christian 5th century basilica are. The singing was wonderful. Our rooms in Tolon had balconies overhanging the sea. Breathtakingly beautiful. We shared a meal together and then several of the students decided they wanted to jump into the icy water. That plan was short lived. They didn't last long :)on a sad note, the owner of the hotel, where we have stayed before, told us his 26 year old son had been killed two months ago in a car accident. His grief was still raw. We shared three conversations together, and he cried each time. He said his wife has aged three years. I so wished we could have brought him into our home and encouraged him. He has no hope. Having Christ, and our Christian family, we forget what it is like to have no hope. I did what I could in the short time I had, I only wish I had more time.so many here need to hear God's message.
The following morning we headed to visit the ancient Theater of Epidaurus, the largest, best preserved ancient Theater in Greece, famous for it's amazing acoustics. Our group sang two songs from the center of the stage. Beautiful.we then drove to Mycenae, where we visited the remains f the prehistoric citadel fortified with the Cyclopedan Walls, the Lioness's Gate, and the remains of the Mycanean Palace and the Tomb of Agomemnon. I went ahead of the group to the very top and enjoyed the incredible view with total silence. There were almond trees blossoming all along the hills. We ate lunch in Mycenae and then drove to Olympia for the evening. Earlier , we had some extra time so we visited Nafplion. It is a beautiful town built along the coast. I loved the old architecture. James, our guide, took us to an Italian he Atreus and we treated the students to an ice cream for Valentine's day. That evening Terry surprised me with a bouquet of roses at dinner. ( I strapped them in a seatbelt in a water bottle and brought them home with me the next day :)
Wednesday morning we visited Ancient Olympia which holds the stadium where the first Olympic Games took place in 776B.C. It began raining, and then hailing on us-- but we just kept going! We went into the Archaeological Museum and used the hand dryers to dry off the boys jackets and thaw out a bit. Just two days later this museum was held up by armed robbers and many antiquities were stolen. We lunched at a beautiful restaurant up in the wooded area. There were purple wild irises in patches around many of the trees. There was a warm fireplace we all enjoyed as the sun returned. On our five hour trip home, we saw a rainbow across the valley. A wonderful reminder of God's love. The remainder of the week has been spent with schoolwork. We are all enjoying having the place to ourselves since Harding is in Isreal this week. I am cooking the meals for the 16 of us. It's kind of like Sunday lunch twice a day! We are blessed with a special "family" with these students. We will be leaving on Thursday morning to fly to Tel Aviv, and will be spending eight days in Israel. Prayers will be greatly appreciated!