Day 08 - Priene , Didyma, Miletus

RESTORING SHALOM.

Well, it’s our last day in the field and it has been an absolutely incredible day! We began in Priene, an important location to show us the waters the Romans were swimming in. One of the earliest temples in Rome is here and it was one of Alexander the Great’s favorites. We studied the Priene Calendar Inscription from 9 BC and compared it to John 1’s description of Jesus as “the Word who was with God and was God.” We sat in a 3rd century BC synagogue, dwelling on the fact that these Torah-following, one God worshiping, kosher eating, Shabbat honoring Jews were faithful to the Lord in this Hellenistic, influential culture! The Roman classes of citizenship were overshadowed by the fact that all followers of Jesus lived as equals in Christ. Incredible. Lastly, we talked disciple-making while sitting in a 6th century church, studying what Jeremiah 29 teaches us about living as exiles. We’re citizens of Heaven, ambassadors of King Jesus, the Shalom-maker. We were challenged to be faithful to Jesus one day at a time.

Afterward, we drove to a fantastic lunch at a fish restaurant, on the way stopping on the shoreline just 40 miles from the island of Patmos, where the apostle John was exiled and wrote the book of Revelation. We looked out into that water, able to see 20 miles in front of us asking the question, “What should I do when I wonder ‘why am I here?’” When things are difficult and painful. The discussion was wonderful (as it always is with this group!) and we settled on the thought that when we don’t understand the mind of God, we need to trust the heart of God.

After lunch, we went to Didyma where we saw the temple to Apollo and studied the oracle of Didyma as well as the oracle of Delphi (1 Samuel 28). We talked about how humans are desperate for control and that Rome took full advantage of that. We determined that the more time we spend with God, the more our trust grows. And the more time we don’t spend with God, the more our hunger for control grows. I challenged the group to consistently ask the Lord to speak to them through His Word, His people, and His Spirit and to watch how God uses that.

We wrapped up in Miletus where Paul’s third missionary journey ended and he tearfully said goodbye to the Ephesian elders. Last words are important and I shared from my heart about the story of the Gospel—the restoration of all things—and how the message of Paul to those elders is my same message to our team: I dearly love you and it’s your turn to do something with all that you’ve experienced. We had a sweet prayer time and meaningful conversations; it was the perfect way to wrap up our study time in Turkey.

We’re now heading back to the hotel to change and take a sunset boat ride on the Aegean Sea before dinner. We’ll leave for our first flight early in the morning so please pray for everything to go smoothly. Thank you again for following along and praying for your loved one! If you’re interested in going with us to either Turkey or Israel in the future, please let me know. It would be a blessing to lead you on these ancient paths!

God bless you.

Shalom, shalom.

Tommy