7 Churches Tour - Ephesus Day 2

The next morning we did the main excavated Ephesus, with the Library of Celcus, the Odeon, where music would have been performed and the senators would have met, the site of the temple of Domitian, the bath house and toilets, the terraced houses, and the theater, which was the largest theater in the ancient world when it was at its largest. It could hold over 25,000 people.  I just think of the St. Louis Muny and how it holds 11,000 people and how that feels large to me, and then I go and sit in something more than twice as large. It’s hard to describe visiting a place that you have dreamed about going for so long, that when you’re actually there, it feels like a dream. Did I actually see those sites? I did. I have pictures! There is so much to see at Ephesus. Yet only about 10% of the city has been excavated in the past 100 years of excavations. The excavations are continuing, but, according to archaeologists, it will take hundreds of years to complete the excavation.

The main road in Ephesus

The Temple of Hadrian

Ephesus was also a major port city in ancient times. Constantine thought about making it the capital of the Roman empire but chose the site where Constantinople (now Istanbul) is instead. The river that feeds into the harbor at Ephesus is a very fast river and carries a lot of silt with it, thus filling in the harbor. The city has been moved 5 times to try and keep it close to the water, but to no avail. The city that we know today as Ephesus was the 3^rd rebuilding of the ancient city. Today, the ocean is about 5 miles away from these ruins.

The Library of Celcus

The Theater

The body of believers in Ephesus included many names you will be familiar with: Paul (who spent 3 years here on his second missionary journey), the apostle John, Mary, Jesus' mother, Timothy (who was the pastor/church leader here), Aquila and Priscilla (who traveled with Paul from Corinth to Ephesus and remained here), Apollos (who only knew about the baptism of John and did not know anything about Jesus. Aquila and Priscilla shared with him about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and he became a great evangelist). In the letter to the church, God praises the them for being a very active group of believers, doing many activities. Their problem was that they had lost their first love, meaning they lost the proper motivation for the work they were doing. The church body had their regular routine of activities without any reason behind it, creating a rut. The message is: Remember your love and excitement for the Lord when you first heard the Gospel. If you have all of this motion without the right motivation, your work is not helping anything. Do things not out of obligation or tradition. Do things out of your love for the Lord.

We had lunch at a local restaurant called Bizim Ev (our house), and then went to the Bascilica of St. John, where John is actually buried. This Basilica was built by Justinian and his wife Theodora. They also built the Hagia Sophia. The Basilica of St. John was the second largest, second most grand basilica after the Hagia Sophia during the Byzantine era. Unfortunately, it is in ruins now, but you can still get an idea of how massive it would have been in its glory.

The Basilica of St. John

What the Basilica would have looked like

The view from the altar

Afterwards we went to take a few pictures of the remains of the Temple of Artemis, which was one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient world. There is only 1 pillar left. According to tradition, a man by the name of Herostratus, wanted to become famous, so her set the temple of fire on the same night that Alexander the Great was born. Maybe more of the temple would have remained if this guy would not have had this horrible idea. Regardless, I was still excited to see it, as it is a continuation of my dream to see all 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

The Temple of Artemis

7 Churches Tour - Smyrna, Ephesus Day 1

Thursday morning we departed for Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey (after Istanbul and Ankara) to visit the ancient city of Smyrna. As with Philadelphia and Thyatira, the current city was built right on top of the old, so only small parts of the old city have been excavated. We went to the ancient Agora, where all of the shopping, selling, and bartering would have taken place. This Agora is unique in that it ascends up the hillside, making 3 tiers or levels of shopping instead of a flat shopping area. Many of the archways have been reconstructed to give the viewer an idea of the beauty of this Agora.

Smyrna was one of the most important cities of the ancient world. It had about 200,000 inhabitants and was a port city. They had a close relationship with Rome at least 100 years before the Roman empire conquered Anatolia (Turkey) as part of their empire. They built temples to Roman gods and emperors to honor of the city of Rome. The Christians in Smyrna were persecuted due to their different beliefs. as they only wanted to worship the One True God. Because the Jewish people had contributed in many ways to the success of the Roman empire, the Roman empire allowed the Jews to only worship their God, so they got a "get jail out of free" card on this issue.

The church body in Smyrna was being persecuted from all sides. Rome persecuted Christians not for what they believed but because the Christians did not worship all the other gods and emperors. Rome wanted to create a vast body of gods for all their subjects to worship, which would unify the empire. They wanted Jesus to be added to this collection. The Christians would not agree with this, thus they were seen as a threat and as traitors to the Roman empire. The Jews wanted to be the only "special" group in the eyes of Rome and did not want to lose their privileges, so they persecuted the Christians.  The Jews in Smyrna would reveal the Christians in Smyrna to the Roman government because they did not like them and what they were teaching. The Lord says to the church in Smyrna “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of Life.” God knew that many Christians in Smyrna would be martyred and wanted to encourage them to remain steadfast in Him. He also tells them that there will be 10 days of persecution. This could be 10 literal days or it could reference something else. It’s fascinating that there were 10 emperors of Rome that were ruthless in their reigns to Christians where persecution was horrible. These include Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Maximum, and, worst of all, Valerin. Eternal death is worse than physical death. Hold on to your faith even in the face of death.

We then drove down to Selcuk, which is modern day Ephesus, and went to the Ephesus Museum, where they have many of the artefacts found at the site of Ephesus, including the famous Artemis statue, and the pieces of the huge statue of Emperor Domitian. It is a very nice museum where everything is being well preserved away from the elements. The hard part is trying to piece together what you see in the museum to where it would have been in the city of Ephesus.

Just to give you an idea of how big
he would have been

We went and had coffee/tea/ice cream in a local coffee house that is owned by a Turkish Christian. The place is called St. John’s coffee shop. I of course got ice cream with fresh strawberries. It was so yummy. The owner was so kind. I am so grateful for the Christian community all around the world. The Lord is indeed good!

Then, my dream came true. We went to a pottery store where they demonstrated how to make pottery on a pottery wheel. Then they asked if anyone would like to try. My hand shot up so fast. I have always wanted to try the pottery wheel, as it is one of the most amazing things to me. Let me tell you, it takes skill. The masters make it look easy. It is hard to control the clay and make it form the exact shape you want. In order to even have a chance, the wheel must be going at a very fast speed, which is hard to keep consistent while your hands are trying to be steady on the pottery. The master potter just spun the wheel while I attempted to make something. Ah! It was so neat! I really want to take a potter class now and use the wheel again. It was so incredible.

Lastly, we visited the House of the Virgin Mary. It is believed that when John came to live in Ephesus, he brought Mary the mother of Jesus with him as he was her caretaker now. John was exiled to Patmos, where he wrote the Book of John and the Book of Revelation. Once Domitian died, the emperor who exiled him, he was allowed to return to Ephesus, where he died. It is believed that Mary would have died here too. There is a house where she could have lived that is now dedicated as a chapel. It is a very reverent place, where I think monks and nuns live to take care of it. They have a tradition where people can write a prayer on a piece of cloth or paper and tie it up on a wall near the house. There is also a stream of fresh, clean, spring water where you can drink the water. I filled up my water bottle here and it tasted good. It is quite a neat site. And only 5 km up the road from the main site of Ephesus, so when you come, you should go and see it.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the chapel,
but this is a picture of what it looks like inside

The prayer wall

Beginning Turkish

In honor of my family arriving in one week, here is your beginning Turkish course, followed by some of my favorite phrases or words that I have learned. I attempted to sound them out for you as accurately as I could:

Hello - Merhaba (Looks like it sounds)
Please - Lütfen (Lewt-fehn)
Thank you - Teşekkür ederim (Te-sheh-kur eh-der-im)
Pardon/ Excuse me - Pardon
Good morning - Günaydın (Gew-nye-duhn)
Good night - Iyi geceler (Eeyee ge-je-ler)
How much is this? -  Kaç lira? (Kach lira)
Where?  - Nerede? (Looks like it sounds)
What time is it?  - Saat kaç? (Sa-aht kach)
Where is the bathroom? - Banyo Nerede? (Looks like it sounds)
OK - Tamam (Looks like it sounds)

Really, all you have to remember when reading Turkish is:
C makes J sound
Ş is SH
Ç is CH
Ü is EW like the German vowel in Für Elise
Ö is I as in "Bird"
I without the dot is like "Uh"

With these under your belt, you can read anything in Turkish, as it is a Phonetic language.

When someone sneezes, you say "çok yaşa," (choke yasha) which literally means "live long"
Anytime someone is about to eat, is eating, or just finished eating, you say to them "afiyet olsun"
(ah-fee-yet ol-sun) which is like Turkey's bon appetit
So-So - söyle böyle (shur-ley bur-ley) It's just so fun to say!
Mr. - Bey (Bay or Bae as my brother would say)

I know there are more, but this is a start for all those wishing to know a little bit of Turkish.

To my family, study hard!

7 Churches Tour- Colossae, Hieropolis, Pamukkale

Last week I had the opportunity to travel with a tour company to visit the 7 churches of the Revelation. This was supposed to be the first post detailing the trip, but somehow it did not publish. Whoops.

Monday morning I woke up very early to meet my tour company, Anatiolian Tours, at Kent Park mall to begin the adventure of visiting the 7 Churches of the Revelation. In the book of Revelation, John is instructed to write to 7 groups of believers in 7 different cities. They all just so happen to be in Turkey! Every day that I am here in Turkey, I become more and more aware of all of the major events that happened in this country, not just in Christian history but in world history.

Day 1 of the trip actually did not involve visiting any of the 7 churches. We drove from Ankara to Pamukkale and visited the cities of Colossae and Hieropolis, along with the natural, limestone formed Hot Springs in Pamukkale. Colossae, the city that the book of Colossians was written to, has not been excavated yet. Instead, the build up of silt and dirt have covered the acropolis in a large mound. Only a few pieces are visible. The only major building that you can see the shape of is the theater. I had no idea that there are still sites that have not been excavated yet. I just assumed that the heyday of archaeology in the early 1900s had found and excavated everything. However, as you will see on this trip with me, many things are being discovered every year. Colossae has not been excavated yet because the Turkish government does not see enough significance of the city's importance to have a group come in and spend all that time and money on an insignificant city, as not much is known about Colossae except for the fact that a book in the Bible is named after it. I have a feeling that eventually it will be excavated, which then I will have to go back to see the city as it would have been. But, even with it just being a mound, it was peaceful with the orchards surrounding it and the mountains in the distance. Note: Anywhere you go in Turkey, expect to see mountains on the horizon. Many have snow on the tops for the majority of the year. Turkey seems to be plains surrounded by hills repeated over and over until you reach a coast line, then it is beach with mountains in the distance. OK, maybe not mountains, but very large hills. Philemon, his slave, Onesimus, and Epaphras, who was in jail with Paul in Rome, were all from Colossae. Paul actually never visited Colossae, but wrote to encourage them none the less.

This trip is giving me a new appreciation for archaeologists. I look at the mound that would have been the acropolis in Colossae and know that every single city now excavated used to look like this. Where do you even begin to dig in such a vast area? How can you piece together small shards of pottery to recreate vases? How do you fit pieces of stone together to rebuild pillars? How do you not destroy what is underneath you as you are digging? It is definitely a long, tedious, and rewarding process.

The city of Hieropolis and the natural pools of Pamukkale make up a UNESCO world heritage site. Hieropolis is not one of the 7 churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation, but there was a group of believers in Hieropolis that is mentioned in the Bible in Paul’s letters to the Colossians. It is a massive city acropolis with temples spread across the hillside. Their theater is one of the best excavated theaters in the world. It is in the hillside and is VERY steep. But it is absolutely stunning,  and the view that it offers of the distant hills is beautiful. One of the Philips, either the apostle or the one who ministered to the Ethiopian, was stoned in Hieropolis after preaching the Gospel to the people of Hieropolis. A few hundred years later, a church,  was built in his honor. Everyone believed that Philip was also buried somewhere in the city of Hieropolis, but his tomb was not located until 2011. Just down the hill from the church there is a tomb that has the name Philip on it. See? Things in history are still being found. They are still doing restoration work on the chapel and tomb. History is still being unearthed!

We then got to walk in the natural hot spring pools of Pamukkale and taste the mineral water from its source. The water tasted like a rock, but it is very good for you as it has so many important nutrients in it. Walking in the pools was something I have been looking forward to doing ever since I came to Turkey. It is one of the most amazing natural beauties I have ever seen. God is certainly creative as he forms each of these unique places.

We then walked through the Necropolis of Hieropolis, which is where all of the rich citizens would have been buried if they were not cremated, which was the more popular thing to do. The most important citizens had huge house like dwellings while others just had a sarcophagus. There was a large Jewish sect in Hieropolis as well with many rich Jewish tombs. While walking through the Necropolis, the sky was absolutely breathtaking. So I took many MANY photos. It was a wonderful day 1.

3 Month Anniversary

Yesterday marked being in Turkey for 3 months! In one more month I will finish out the semester here at Bilkent and in 5 weeks my family will be arriving for our adventure in Turkey! I am very excited to finish school. I am in that final stretch. It is hard, but school is always hard. I am learning and growing immensely.

I would like to report that the weather is actually nice, but, unfortunately, it is still very cold. In fact, on Wednesday night it snowed a little bit! I really want to break out my shorts as it is the end of April, but it's just too cold. There are hints of spring with leaves beginning to form. And the flowers are so beautiful! While walking in Ankara, you get this lovely aroma of the flowers on the trees. Turkey has a lot of pink flowered trees. I will try to get a picture, as they are a very pretty color. Hopefully May will bring the wonderful nice weather.

I have seen many beautiful sunsets over the past few weeks, which is always a calm reminder of God's Love.

Thursday was a national holiday in Turkey, the National Sovereignty and Children's Day. It is a day celebrating the founding of the Turkish Parliament and to celebrate the children of Turkey and of the world. So Bilkent decorated every building with at least one Turkish flag. Here is my dorm and the flag hanging outside of the music building. They were very large flags! All classes were cancelled for the National holiday, but I had to be here for class on Friday, so I did not travel. I just had a relaxing day, which is nice once in a while.

 I was able to attend two concerts this week in the Bilkent Concert Hall. The first was a piano trio (violin, cello, piano) performing a Tchaikovsky piece. This evening I attended the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra performance that commemorated National Children's Day. They performed The Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Carnival of the Animals, and a Disney Medley with the choir students from grades 5-10 who attend the music conservatory. There were so many singers! It was a lovely concert with a reminder that music is fun and brings so much joy to life.

That's all to report for this week. Have a blessed week!

Care Package

A week ago I received a care package from my university campus ministry, Wittenberg Lutheran Center. I was expecting it for over 2 weeks and was very excited to receive it. I got back from my 7 Churches tour on Sunday and had a note indicating that I had a package to pick up. Well, Monday was crazy, so I was unable to go pick it up. But Tuesday, I ventured over to the PTT (post office). The gentleman working there did not know English, but I had my note indicating that I had a package, so he was able to go and find the right one. He handed it to me, and then I tried to carry it. Well, this package was 13 pounds! It was actually a bit of a struggle to carry across campus back to my dorm. What could possibly be in this package that would make it weigh 13 pounds?

I promised my church family at Wittenberg that I would open the package over Skype so they could see my reaction. So my package just sat in my room that evening, tempting me to open it. So I went to bed early and set my alarm for 3am, which is 7pm back in Normal, IL, right in time for their Bible Study. It was so wonderful to see all of the people that put together my care package "face to face." I was actually quite nervous to open this package since they all wanted to see my reaction to it. What did they put into this package? Was there live snakes? Confetti? Jack in the Box? I was excited but a bit apprehensive.

I had requested for them to send me a few things: 1) granola bars from Aldi, which are my favorite kind (granola bars are a bit hard to find in Turkey and are quite expensive when I can find them), 2) A Hershey bar, as I absolutely LOVE Hershey's Chocolate bars (you can find chocolate in Turkey, but more Snickers and Twix, not Hershey's. There are other chocolate bar brands, but I wanted some good ol' Hershey's), 3) dried fruit (as it is very expensive in Turkey), and 4) a notebook for a new journal, as my current one is almost filled up. 

Well, when you ask the LORD for something, the LORD will give abundantly. He just used my church group to display this to me. Here's what was in my package. If you notice, most of it is food, since I really love food!

 

I received 30 granola bars (almost enough to eat one a day until I leave!),

 23 Hershey chocolate bars AND a 1 pound chocolate bar (so much chocolate!!!!). 

There were also 2 notebooks and some additional candies from their Easter basket at church.

In the dried fruit department, they truly went overboard. A regular amount of dried cherries and then a HUGE bag of dried cranberries! Look at how big that bag is! 

 But my favorite part was the personal letters from my Wittenberg family and some of my other friends. 9 individual, personal letters just for me! There is nothing as wonderful as a hand-written, thoughtful note from people you love. They made me laugh so much! You can hear the writer's voice through their writing. It makes me miss them so much, with all of their hugs and smiles, but this semester is coming to a close quite fast. Then I will be back at ISU to personally thank each person that wrote me a letter and to thank all of you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers!

7 Churches Tour - Thyatira, Pergamum

Before continuing the travel adventures, let me tell you about Turkish breakfast. Turkish breakfast is wonderful. At the hotels they always have a spread of about 10 different cheeses, 10 different breads, 10 different jams and honeys, and then eggs, potatoes, sausages, cucumbers, and tomatoes. They also have many kinds of coffees, Turkish tea and other teas, hot milk, cold milk, and many kinds of juices. It is definitely a delicious spread that I cannot get enough of. But I didn't take any pictures of it, as I was too busy stuffing my face. 

The ancient city of Thyatira has little left, since the current city, Akhisar, has been built on top of it, just like Philadelphia. The one section that has been excavated was part of the major road connecting Pergamum and Sardis. There were also ruins of a basilica from around 1000 AD. Originally, Thyatira was a military outpost for the Lydian empire whose capital was Sardis. Then, thanks to its location, it became a major trade city. It was very famous for its trades like dyes, specifically purple and indigo, and textiles. Each of these textiles had a trade guild that all of the producers had to be a part of, similar to today's unions. These guilds would have a specific deity that they would pray to, sacrifice to, and have festivals in honor of them. All guild members were expected to be involved in these events.

The road at Thyatira

The Basilica at Thyatira

The Lord praises the church of Thyatira for their faith, service, perseverance, and growth. However, many people were living a double life. They were Christian when they were with Christians, but participated in non-Christian acts when they were with non-Christians, like performing the guild rituals. The prophetess, who is called Jezebel in the letter, was pulling people away from the Word of God. She may have reasoned with them that there are some things that you must do in your line of work that go against what God says, but you have to do them because you have to make a living somehow. However, the Lord has eyes like flames of fire. He can see everything. He tells the people to “keep my work,” meaning display God everywhere you go in everything you do, even in your line of work.

Next we went to Pergamum, or Pergamos, in today’s city of Bergama. Pergamos was the capital of the Pergamum kingdom. It was a very wealthy city, not just in gold, but in knowledge. On the Acropolis of this ancient city was the second largest library in the ancient world, only being surpassed by the library in Alexandria. In fact, the Egyptians got so worried that the Pergamos library would surpass their own that they stopped sending Pergamos papyrus. So Pergamos invented a new writing material called parchment. Pergamum actually means parchment (in German this city is called Pergament). Their parchment was originally made from leather, but this is the origins of our parchment and paper from. Much later, Marc Antony, in his love for Cleopatra, stole many scrolls from Pergamos and carried them back to Egypt with him, where they then burned in the fire in the library at Alexandria. The last King, Attalos III, did not have a worthy heir so in his will he gave his empire to Romans in 133 BC. Pergamos is the place where emperor worship began in the Roman empire. They built temples not only to Augustus, but to Trajan and Hadrian, also their pre-Roman kings like Attalos I, II, III, and Eumenes I, II, III. in addition to all of the Greek gods. 

The Acropolis at Pergamos had two major temples, one to to Zeus and one to Athena. They were excavated by a German team, and thanks to the relationship between the Ottoman sultan and the German king, the archaeologists actually carried both of these temples back to Berlin, where they are now very well preserved and very much intact.

The Theater at Pergamum

The temple to Trajan

Pergamos also had an Ascelepion dedicated to Ascelepius, the god of healing. A famous doctor named Galen worked here, assisting the ill. Ascelepions were places dedicated to healing. They were the ancient hospitals. Their remedies included some medicines, but also psychotherapy – thinking to yourself that you can get better – and prayers to the gods. They would let the patients sleep, then wake them up in the middle of the night to descend into this tunnel and one of the doctors would dress up like Ascelepius and tell the patients to get well soon. This would spur them on to work on getting better by reading books in the library, making prayers to the gods at the temple, or even participating in plays at the theater. Over the entrance to this hospital were the words "death shall not enter here,” a positive message for those entering the hospital. However, they did screen people and if people were deemed terminally ill, they were not allowed to enter the hospital, as the doctors wanted a good record. 

"Death Shall Not Enter Here."

The Tunnel for healing

The Ascelepion at Pergamos

The church of Pergamos is praised for their faithfulness as they are in the “where Satan has his throne.....where Satan dwells.”  However, the church of Pergamos had started to compromise on some of their convictions. They were being pressured on all sides to not follow the Gospel, as it was not popular. Some believers were even killed for their faith in Pergamos. But the Lord gave them the sharp two-edged sword, which is the Word of God. This is what they, and we, should stay true to, because, in the end, the Word of God is the only thing that will remain. This world will pass away, with all of its lies and pressures. So remain faithful to His Word, not to the world. Never compromise on the Truth.

We next went to a carpet store where they demonstrated how silk is made from the silk worm cocoons. The cocoons are boiled in regular hot water, then the woman grabed a few of the cocoons and gathered the threads together. Each cocoon is made of one single strand and can be anywhere from 300-750 meters long, depending on the size of the cocoon. She set the threads on a spinning machine to let them unravel, which took at least 5 minutes. It was truly incredible to watch. They even let us have one of the dry cocoons to take home. It is a little sad that all of those silkworms have to be suffocated in order to harvest their cocoons. The Lord’s creation is definitely diverse as silk is strong enough to cut marble, yet the most smooth and breathable material. And it never seems to wear out. Praise the Lord for silk.

Next there were women demonstrating how handmade carpets are made, whether wool or silk. They take the dyed thread and weave a type of double knot onto the carpet weave. They repeat this many, many, MANY times, using different colors to create the different patterns on the carpets. It reminds me a bit of crocheting or knitting as you perform the same action over and over to create a large masterpiece. It also seems to be like cross-stitch or embroidery work, using multiple colors to create patterns. It is also like creating a mosaic, as you cannot really see the big picture until you have put hours into the work. We were told that for the silk carpets, the weavers can only work on it for about an hour at a time, because after that the silk cuts into their hands as it is so fine yet strong, smooth yet sharp. This was extremely fascinating to me. Maybe I'll move to Turkey and make handmade carpets. 

 These last two are just some of the amazing designs made on small carpets, purely for display I think. Both are silk on silk, the most expensive kind. The one on the left is of birds with the Turkish designs surrounding it. The one on the right is of the four seasons, like in Vivaldi's masterpiece violin concerto. They also had one of DaVinci's Last Supper painting. It's just amazing that this much detail can be done on a carpet.