Where many Christian brothers and sisters lived out their faith

Today is our first full day in Turkey. After a long day of travel it was great to get some sleep last night and a good breakfast this morning before heading to the ancient biblical city of Tarsus. Ozan our Turkish guide spent the morning as we drove giving us context on the area and the geographic significance and why so many empires wanted control of this area and the trade routes. Dr. Hill took us to a place that tradition holds Paul was from. He began to unpack Paul’s upbringing and walked us through his conversion story on the road to Damascus.

For us as a group it was amazing to read these biblical accounts again with fresh prospective as Craig set up the narrative for Pauls missionary journeys that we will be retracing. Something that stood out was that after his encounter with Christ Paul headed to Arabia but then back to Tarsus for 6 year. Basically Paul reached out to his hometown about his faith in Christ before he ever headed out to tell others. From the coast we drove through the beautiful snow capped mountains before arriving at an amazing lunch set up next to an ancient Roman pool and aqueduct system. From lunch we continued north and jumped forward in time to learn about Christianity in the 10-12 century and how this area became the place of biblical learning and understanding and where many Christian brothers and sisters lived out their faith.

Some even choosing to live in underground cities to escape persecution when Christianity is not allowed. Already we can see that this trip will stretch us to not only learn more about our faith but to live it out in our daily lives as well.

Finishing the day we drove to the beautiful region of Cappadocia where we will rest for the night before beginning our adventure tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers and continue to follow us as we unpack the stories and teachings of the New Testament.