Day 08 - Priene, Didyma, Miletus

Day 8 - Restoring Shalom

We have completed Day 8 in Turkiye!! First, we visited Priene today. The Temple of Athena is in this entire complex. We talked about the Priene calendar inscription which discusses Augustus as a savior and him arranging all things. It says Augustus brings an evangelion and peace. In John 1:1-13, it talks about the true light that is Jesus that will come into the world. He will die and raise from the dead. You have to choose between Augustus or Jesus. We also have to make a choice between Jesus or the ways of our culture.

The gospel spread so fast in the Roman Empire. There were house churches that gathered together to do life with one another. We are called to be ambassadors for our faith. Being an ambassador looks like planting roots and being with people. What is the mission, motivation, and mindset you have in your everyday life? Are you living as a disciple? Jesus uses our hands and feet.

We also visited the Temple of Apollo. It had 124 columns. You could come to inquire of an oracle. People would come to inquire about the future. People wanted to know about the future because of fear. God is bigger than anything we can face and his power triumphs our fear.

Then, we made our way to Miletus. Paul comes to Miletus for his third missionary journey. He wants to come to meet with elders in Ephesus. In Acts 20:15-38, he reminds the elders of the example that he had given them and is telling them to take it over from here. Paul sees himself as one person in a long chain of people that are making disciples.

Lastly, we ended our day with a sunset cruise. It was beautiful to be on the Aegean Sea. A takeaway from today is thinking about your race in life. Do you know how impactful your part is? I’m sure Paul didn’t know the tremendous impact he would make. He was just being faithful. We complicate things. Today was our final day visiting sites in Turkiye. Tomorrow, we head home. The hope is that we walk away from this trip different because we didn’t walk into this country as tourists but as disciples. We shouldn’t forget as disciples the importance of hearing and obeying the truth of God’s Word.

- Faith Wolverton