What's Going On? BEMA Turkey 4

Martyrium of St Peter in Hieropolis

Marty teaching on the “tel” (hill) under which is the ruins of Colossae

Huge Roman theatre in Laodicea

There is a fair bit to catch up on. We are done with the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3.  We saw four of them and learned about the other three in a talk. The context in which they are written brings meaning to the strange references.  The rest of our trip is about Paul’s work. It is amazing how often we skip over names and places because they don’t mean much when you don’t know the setting or the person. Being here changes some of that. 

On Saturday we were given a sabbath from our travel with opportunities for hot air balloons and Turkish baths and the like. Right after that we went back to our intense schedule of walking looking and listening.

Interestingly, one of the ongoing themes is the question of how the early church dealt with cultural pressures around them. In what do you participate?  We all need to wrestle with what it means to be a dedicated disciple and our group is feeling that tension in both the learning and the experience of this simultaneously challenging and luxurious trip. 

ES