Day 01 - The Cost of Faith, the Power of Witness

Today marked the true beginning of our journey—our first full day walking in the footsteps of the early church.

We began by listening to Jesus’ message to the early churches, starting our journey along the circular postal route that once connected them. Just as the letters of Revelation would have traveled, today we moved from Smyrna to Pergamum—the beginning of the route where Jesus’ words called his followers to radical faithfulness.

We traveled from Smyrna to Pergamum, following the ancient postal route through the Roman province of Asia. In Smyrna, we heard Jesus’ call: “Be faithful, even to the point of death” (Revelation 2:10, NIV). In Pergamum, we faced the reality of a world filled with false promises—temples offering healing, wisdom, sustenance, pleasure, and power at every corner.

It was a city where the desires of the human heart were mirrored and magnified in stone, in ritual, and in politics. Every appetite, every thirst, every longing had a deity promising to satisfy it.

And yet the early Christians declared something profoundly different. Jesus alone could quench the deepest thirsts. I Am the Bread of Life. I Am the True Vine. I the the Resurrection and the Life.

The “I Am” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John were not mere theological poetry; they were bold confrontations to the gods and goddesses, to the idols and systems, that dominated cities like Pergamum. Every “I Am” was a defiant, life-giving invitation to step away from false promises and into the life only Christ offers.

Today, standing among the ruins, we were challenged to ask ourselves:

Where do our cravings lead us? Where do we seek our healing, our wisdom, our sustenance, our joy? Where do we run when our souls thirst?

The world still whispers and lures in a thousand ways. But Christ still calls: “Follow Me.”

He still promises: “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst” (John 4:14, NIV).

As our journey continues, we are not just learning history. We are living a challenge.

We are asking what it means to be faithful in a world that still offers easier, cheaper, and more immediate alternatives.

We are seeking to understand what made the early church so irresistible that people would join it—even at great cost.

We are listening for the Spirit’s invitation to live with that same courage and clarity today.

Tomorrow, the journey continues.

And so does the call to faithfulness.