Day 07 - Western Coast: Lower Pergamum, Smyrna

Hello friends and family! This is Katie and I have the FUN privilege of updating you guys on day 7 of our adventure through Turkey!

We started off our day finishing up our time in Pergamum by visiting the lower part of the city. Here we got to sit in what used to be a hospital where people would come seeking a number of things for their ailments - a bath, massage, nutritionist or even physical therapy. The catch is that these benefits were never free. In order to receive any of this treatment, you would have to pay a sacrifice to Asclepius.

We then headed down an underground tunnel where people would receive treatment. This tunnel was flooded with soothing sounds of water and pipes that people used to use to speak healing over people. Again, Jared welcomed us into the tension Christians felt in ancient times, asking if we would compromise belief for relief through the act of sacrifice to Asclepius.

We continued in the letter to the Pergamum church, explaining this city’s depth of depravity through them priding themselves in obtaining 3 neokoroi. Jesus essentially poses the question to the church: Whose name are you going to identify yourself with? Jesus or Satan? Jared gave us a powerful analogy of walking by faith and not by sight by physically walking backwards. When Satan wants us to look ahead, we can walk into the future backwards, looking at all the ways God has been faithful. He then went on to explain that the church of Pergamum were living like pagans and held fast to their idol worship rather than the Lord Himself, allowing compromise to justify their actions. Jesus calls them to turn away from these things and to cling to the promises Jesus provides of eternal provision and deliverance.

Our next pit stop before lunch was in Desen at the Carpet Weavers Association. As we were met with apple tea at the door, we got the opportunity to learn about Turkish culture in the form of hand crafted rugs. This tedious art involved the weaving of wool and silk along with other material. Very cool!

After lunch, we loaded the bus and headed to the city of Smyrna. This city can be seen as the Los Angeles of Asia Minor - very high traffic! Smyrna is another wealthy port city - along with Ephesus and Pergamum. This city was known for their dedication to the worship of their empirical cults. Tyler brought a word here as we looked at the letter to the church in Smyrna. The church was being heavily persecuted and under trial, but Jesus does not promise deliverance, he only encourages them to continue being faithful in the fire. Tyler convicted us with the question: when we experience trial, how often do you want the removal of the thing that is pressing rather than embracing it? Jesus encourages the church to be faithful unto death, firmly standing in his grace. We are able to be encouraged by this truth today, as the world is facing more church persecution than we may realize.

We wrapped up our day with a surprise stop at the BEACH! We quickly realized that this was the beach where we would take the infamous group photo that would be hung up on the back wall of the classroom along with other past classes!

Thanks for reading and coming along with us on our journey!! This trip is flying by, but there is still so much to learn. Would love for continued prayers as we head into our final 2 days of our time here in Turkey! Tune in for more tomorrow!