On Monday, March 23 we left for the airport to fly to Izmir, Turkey. Our flight was at 1:00 so we had to be there by 10:00 because of security. This trip we were joined on our flight by the Harding students, who we are sharing facilities with this semester ( we are staying at Hardings campus in Porto Rafti). Once we landed their group headed to Istanbul, while ours headed to see the sites of Izmir. It was a beautiful day, which is especially appreciated after this long, cold winter. Our guide, Omer, was a riot! He is a smaller replica of the Interior Decorator in the movie, "Father of the Bride". He would talk about himself in the third person, such as " Oh, Omer, you are so, so,so funny!" in this high squeaky voice. He most definitely made our trip memorable:)he is the only boy in thee family, with seven sisters, one of which graduated from Harvard and is a Medical Doctor in North Carolina. It made me wonder about this rural farm family in Turkey and what their story is...We first went to lunch at a restaurant in town serving traditional Turkish food. Our meal was interrupted by the loud call to prayers over the loudspeakers. You hear these calls to prayer five times a day. In the afternoon we visited the ancient Agora and Alexander the Great's "Velvet Castle" overlooking the Bay of Izmir. We then drove on to Manisa for dinner and to spend the night.
The following morning the group left early and drove to Pergamum. They explored the Acropolis (taking the cable cars over the fields of daisies), visited the steepest theatre in the world, the Asklepieion, the Altar of Zeus, and the Temple of Trajan and Library.We also visited the Red Baslica (St. john's Church). We ate lunch at a local restaurant and then drove to Thyatira, a city famous for it's purple dyes. We visited the remains of a basilica and some architectural fragments from the Roman period.before heading back to our hotel we visited a Turkish Rug Co-op and watched the young women tie the thousands of knots per square inch! We had a fascinating demonstration of this young man who raises the silk worms and then spun and unwound the threads, which were then knotted into rugs. Our students were each given silk floss to take with them. Terry bought me a beautiful carpet runner for our hallway, a wool on cotton. We have two silk on silk from previous visits, and this shop owner told us they would most likely be out of production in the next 10-15 years unless the Turkish government continued to subsidize the work. After this visit we returned to our hotel for the evening.
On Sunday we began our day with a visit to Sardis to see the great Temple of Artemis and the Temple of Cybele, which became a Byzantine Church. This is where we shared in a devotional, shared Communion together, sang hymns, and Terry read from the book of Revelation.As I listened to him speak I could see on the hill right behind him a shepherd with his flock of sheep, including a newborn lamb. We sang amidst the sounds of birds singing, lambs bleating, and the tinkling of the bells around their necks. It was a beautiful reminder that He is our Great Shepherd. After our service together the students were able to hold the baby lamb , and then enjoyed watching the shepherd set it down. On the far pasture the mother started calling the sheep and the little lamb prances away.Just adorable. We drove by Philadelphia and Thyatira (there are very few remains to see there). We also saw Colossae, which is just a few remains on the top of a hill. At Laodicea we saw the ancient theatre and the remains of a basilica, and then headed on to Hierapolis after lunch. We visited the Martyrium of the Apostle Phillip where he was martyred during the persecutions ordered by Domitian. We visited the Gate of Domition, the Arcadian Way, the 2nd Century AD Theatre, the Nymphaion, the Temple of Apollo, the Plutonium and the Necropolis. We were exhausted! But then came the wonderful end to a perfect day...Pamukkale! These beautiful limestone cliffs and Turkish baths! After a wonderful buffet everyone headed to the thermal indoor and outdoor baths. Our boys looked lovely in their swim caps:) They loved it. Even our bathtub had two spouts, the one normal one, and then a golden one for the "therapeutic" water! Monday morning we checked out and drove to ancient Ephesus where the Apostle Paul preached to the Ephesians and lived here for three years, we walked through history along the marble streets lined with wonderful public buildings, among them the Baths of Scholastica, the Library of Celsus, the Temple of Hadrian and the Theatre. The Temple of Diana of the Ephesians, another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in this city. Terry read to us from the book of Ephesians and the Book of Acts. I hope I always remember these places as I study God's Word in the future, and am reminded that these were real people, in real towns, who were in need of a Savior, just as I am. Last of all, we visited the Basilica of St. John and the Ephesus Museum. The academic portion was now over, but we still had two stops to make. One was to a pottery shop, where our students got to experience first hand a pottery wheel. They gave me two ceramic ornaments as gifts to take home. Our next visit was to a fashion show at a leather shop. The girls were a bit scantily attired under their coats but our students handled themselves well. They were pretty understanding that our group would not be purchasing any $3200 coats! This shop makes coats for Chanel and Gucci, so it was still fun to see the new Fall line ahead of those in the States. Our hotel for the evening overlooked the Kusadasi harbor. We had a beautiful view of the harbor lights, and when we awoke we saw our cruise ship waiting for us. To be continued...
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