Turkey Wrap... Up

I realize that I have been back from Turkey for almost two weeks now, but I wanted to share some last thoughts. For my Old Testament class I was required to write a reflection paper, I figured, if I put that much work into something then I might as well milk it for what it's worth.

So here it is:

Overlooking the Agean Sea, Paul walked a lonely road from Troas to Assos,.Acts tells us that here he met his companions before traveling to Mitylene. As I sat overlooking the Southwest, where we believe the harbor would have been I couldn’t help but wonder what Paul must have felt here towards the end of another missionary journey. The song, ‘A Poor Wayfaring Man’ came to my mind as I tried to relate the emotions of this devoted disciple who would soon be tried, charged and killed for his work preaching the gospel. I was drawn to the final verse where the author is reunited with the Savior who speaks these words: “Of me thou hast not been ashamed. These deeds shall thy memorial be; fear not, thou didst them unto me.”

            Pergamum, the city of temples, is referenced to by John in the book of Revelations. As we walked through the ruins and ended at the Altar of Zeus, what is referred to as Satan’s seat in chapter 2, it became real to me that Paul had many of the same cultural obstacles that we have to today when sharing the gospel. Like we talked about in class, idols don’t have to be made of stone, they can be found in what we set our hearts upon. I realize that Paul in his work here in Pergamum felt many of the same frustrations that I did as a missionary serving in the South.

Pergamum, the city of temples, is referenced to by John in the book of Revelations. As we walked through the ruins and ended at the Altar of Zeus, what is referred to as Satan’s seat in chapter 2, it became real to me that Paul had many of the same cultural obstacles that we have to today when sharing the gospel. Like we talked about in class, idols don’t have to be made of stone, they can be found in what we set our hearts upon. I realize that Paul in his work here in Pergamum felt many of the same frustrations that I did as a missionary serving in the South.

As we entered the crowded old Roman city of Ephesus I imagined that this must have been close to what it was like when the city was in its prime of nearly a quarter of a million people. As we bustled through the crowded street I couldn’t help but feel like I was in an ancient New York. This was likely one of the strongholds of the Church, and yet within it Paul faced some of his fiercest opposition. In the Grand Theater we read of Paul nobly entering a place where his companions asked, even begged for him not to enter, knowing that this could be the end of his mortal mission. I can’t help but awe and the bravery of Paul entering an arena that was not foreign to the spilling of blood. I can’t help but wonder if this event is behind my favorite verse in Romans, which the Bible Dictionary informs was written from Corinth during his 3^rd missionary trip (in which he purposely avoids Ephesus). In Chapter 8 he asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?... Nay, in all things we are more than conqueror through him that loved us.” While I will likely never have to stand before a crowd of 25,000 persecutors, I too can say with a surety know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

      

As we visited St. John’s Basilica I envision he whom the Savior loved reflecting and writing upon the life and ministry of Christ. In Revelations we read that Ephesus had begun to accept false apostles and in stark contrast we see how a true apostle likely lived outside of the main city during his final days, showing to me that the apostasy had already begun. The soberness and spirit has changed the way I look at John’s writings, I can now put myself into his place in a context that was unavailable to me before visiting this site. Undoubtedly we know as latter-day saints that John continues his ministry until the second coming of the Lord.

 The last day of our trip took us to a place that many consider the solidification of apostasy, ancient Nicea. Here Constantine assembled a council of 300 bishops to help determine the nature of Christ. Ultimately their ruling of Christ as homoousios with the Father led to the Nicean Creed of 381 AD. As I sat here overlooking the now underwater palace of this council I couldn’t help but wonder if the Lord, by allowing this council and the ones to follow which undoubtedly became the backbone of Christianity for centuries, was preparing the world for the last and final dispensation. To me I will remember this place not as the beginning of apostasy but as the beginning of preparation for the final dispensation, where the Lord (even without prophets) was able to place stepping stones for the gospel to be restored through Joseph Smith Jr., a young boy in upstate New York nearly 1500 years later.

Ephesus Pictures!

 Time is going back way to fast here. I have had complaints from some of the readers (mainly family, but let's be honest, I know that you're the ones who are mainly reading this) that I don't post often enough and that I don't post enough pictures. Well, let's just say I'm living up the experience! But, to satisfy the mob, this post is all pictures and they are mainly from my favorite place in Turkey: Ephesus. I will put captions.

This is St. John's Basilica on the outside of the main town of Ephesus. It is Christian tradition that this is the burial place of John, LDS tradition believes otherwise, but there was a special peace about this area. Most scholars beleive that this is where the Gospel of John and perhaps one of his epistles was crafted. We also know that Mary was in John's care after the Savior's death, and it is believed that she died somewhere around here. 

This is a baptismal font from the Byzantine period (when the Church was built) you can see that it's not deep enough to imerse, showing that sprinkling had become the mode of baptism by the period. 

This is the overlook at St. John's basilica, it was a very beautiful, but windy day. Behind me is a mosque. While we were there there was an announcement from the mosque (a prayer really) that one of the members of the town had died that night. Our tour guide informed us that in small communities this is very common. 

Behind me are the pillars of the courtyard of St. John's Basilica

As you walk through the main entrance of the Hellenistic and Roman Ephesus (what the city was during the New Testament period) you walk down a path and are met by the Goddess Nika, known as the goddess of victory. Ten points to whoever guesses the International shoe company that used her wings the create their logo and her name for their company name. 

Those are what you think they are. If you ever wanted to sit on pure granite to use the restroom look no further! What's best is that if it was late at night, the aristocracy of the town would send their servants to heat of the seat before they got there!

This was one of the most amazing sights of the trip. Walking through the gate of Ephesus and seeing the Celsus library. This library held around 12,000 scrolls and has been amazingly preserved. (Here's a fun tidbit, that building (or the ruins of a building) to your right, that's believed to be a Brothel)

This is me and Kimmie in front of the library, she's one of my favorite people.

Ah, the marble road. It was closed for renovations, but I was able to snap this pic. This road linked the library to the Great Theater, which you'll soon see was the highlight of Ephesus for me. 

The stage of the Great Theater! In Acts (19 I believe) when Paul is dragged into to town by the silversmiths (you see they made their living by creating statues of Artemis, so when people converted to Christianity they weren't too thrilled!) The backdrop or stage that you can see build up, was build by the Romans who didn't like people to be distracted by the beautiful view of the harbor.

This is the view from about halfway up, pretty cool!

Here's the view from the bottom, I thought that this would be the perfect place for a Hercules sing along!

Here's a view from outside the theater, just to give a little perspective.

The temple of Priene, well, the pillars of the temple in Priene

Overlooking Miletus in the background

Another one of my friends, Sarah and I with the temple ruins in the background.

This was one of my favorite days of the Turkey trip. I will try and put up pictures from the other days as kind of a Turkey overview, but we will see what homework constraints allow me to do!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came early this year and I realize that there is much to be thankful. Now, you might be scratching your head thinking, he's a good 6 months early for that. Not So! This week I am in the beautiful land of Turkey. After arriving we explored our neighborhood, which is across from one of 4,000 beautiful Mosques. Then, we had a kabob dinner and tried to get some rest for the adventures that awaited us in the city the next day.

Bright and early we woke up and walked past Istanbul University and through the main streets of the city until we arrived at the site of the ancient Hippodrome. It was originally built by the Byzantine empire and then expanded by the Romans to hold, what has been said to be 100,000 people. The horseshoe shaped track was lined in the center by different monuments, often as prizes from the conquests of the empire. One of the monuments that still stands is the Obelisk of Thutmosis the 3rd (see below).During the Nika (Nike) revolt Justinian took advantage of the shape when the revolutionaries entered the hippodrome he had his guards stand that the exit and entrance and killed nearly 30,000 thus ending the revolt.

 Below is some of the tile work of the blue mosque. My camera doesn't do it any degree of justice and this is the best picture I got, hopefully some of the other ones will turn out better!

If you tilt your head you can see the Blue Mosque from the outside. Try and see if you can count all six minarets. This was a big controversy because only Mecca had a six minaret mosque at the time. So what did Sultanahmet do? He sent his architechts to build a seventh minaret in the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

This is Nathan and I (my Turkey roommate) outside of Hagia Sofia, we will go in later this week.

Welcome to the Basilica Cistern. This cistern used to hold A LOT of water, an estimated 2.8 milion cubit feet. It has also been host to the 1963 James Bond with Sean Connery. It reminded me of Phantom of the Opera!

 This church is called Hagia Irene. It was the place of the second of the seven eccumenical councils. Here the question was whether the decision of Nicea was correct that said the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were one. They upheld the decision at Nicea at decided that the Holy Ghost was also divine.

Topkaki palace was huge and there were a lot of places we couldn't take pictures, but this was some of the beautiful tile work that adorned some of the living quarters of the palace that was home to Sultans, could feed 4,000 people and overlooks the Bosphorous and Hagia Sofia. This tile also does more justice to the incredible Blue Mosque, which has over 20,000 of these on the first floor alone. 

The following pictures are from our river cruise on the Bosphorous. I don't remember any of the actual sites, I was too busy taking it all in. But I hope you will see some the beauty that is surrounding me here in Turkey. 

Enjoy!

Garden Tomb

Shabot Shalom! Peaceful Sabbath to you all. This beautiful Sabbath we journeyed from the Jerusalem Center to the Garden Tomb and it was a beautiful experience! The first picture is me standing outside of the walls of the Garden Tomb.

 Below is a picture of Golgotha. This is proposed to be the place of the crucifixion of Christ because it is outside the city walls and if you look you can see the skull (which is what Golgotha means). It's interesting to note that there is some debate as to whether he was crucified at the top of the hill or at the bottom (Roman tradition was that you would crucify prisoners on the side of the road so they could be seen. But, as I am continuing to learn, it's not as much the exact location of where it happened as much as what happened.

 This sign marks the tomb where our Savior rest for a short time until he rose again on the third day. His rising provides resurrection to all, breaking the bands of death set in place by the fall, providing ransom for us all. I truly believe that it was on this green hill, which for me is very near, that our dear Lord was crucified and died to save us all.

 In the words of Cecil Frances Alexander: "He has burst his three days' prison; Let the whole wide earth rejoice. Death is conquered; man is free. Christ has won the victory."

Bethlehem Overlook

Our first field trip consisted of traveling to a variety of sites overlooking the Old City. One of the first places we went was the Augusta Victoria church and tower. This Lutheran Church built by Wilhelm the Second was named after his wife, Augusta Victoria. It is a beautiful church with a conglomoration of styles ranging from Byzantium to Mamulak... unfortunately the lighting isn't the best, so all my pictures are really dark, but here is one, just so you can kind of get a feel.

My other favorite stop on this trip was our overlook of the hills of Bethlehelm. As we sat upon these hills we read the verses in Luke 2 about the heavenly messengers. I couldn't help but think about the joy and wonder of that night. As I've participated in Savior of the World the last couple of years I have had the opportunity to be in the angel chorus that welcomes in the good news of the birth of the Savior. That same joy was now filled  with a new peace, awe and respect realizing that from this hill on the outside the city of Jerusalem I could see that special hill where angels visited those who could be trusted to go and tell. To testify that the Lamb of God had come to save us from our sins. As I sat there I penned the following poem:

Insert Poem 

I am very much looking forward to the future field trips as the scriptures come alive to me like they never have before.


On Friday we went into the local neighborhood and played soccer with some of the local kids, what a great experience. As you can see below we played on a dirt field and it was a blast. I love when we're able to connect with locals and generate positive relationships. One of the things that I'm learning in my time abroad is that there is so much goodness in the world. Of course there are always opposites, and the evil and hatred in the world isn't going away, but we can choose to focus on and foster the good or dwell on the negative and allow it to bog us down. It is such a blessing to be here and to learn about God's love for all of His children.

שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם

The title, Shalom Aleichem, literally peace to you. On fast Sabbath we had a beautiful meeting overlooking the old city. It was spiritually rich to see this beautiful background as we listened to testimony from fellow followers of Christ. One visitor from Finland  who is blind, stood up and shared with us his powerful testimony of the power of this place. He said, "I do not need to see Him, to know that He lives and that he was here." I reminded me of the apostle Thomas and his journey to apostleship after uttering the words 'except I shall see Him, I shall not believe.' After a Sabbath meetings a group of us treked towards the Mount of Olives. As we climbed the mount we came to Dominus Flevit meaning the Lord Wept. This church built in the shape of a tear represents the scripture in Matthew 23: 37-39 that says "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets..." This may be the view that Christ had as he overlooked the city.

As we descended down the Mount of Olives we came to a little street. We began to travel up the road (we do a lot of adventuring since we don't know the city yet) and after a couple of minutes turned back down the road and amazingly to our left was Gethsemane. As we walked in I felt an immediate peace and reverence for the place. Whether or not it truly is the locating of the greatest act in the history of mankind I do not know. But regardless, the commemoration is close and spirit was strong. As I sat a reviewed the gospel accounts I realized, each of these accounts has something unique to it from the others, and yet they all teach and inspire me to be a better person. My time there was too short and I look forward to going back soon.

It is custom in Hebrew to greet with the phrase Shalom Aleichem and to for the returning party to say Aleichem Shalom. As I leave you I say,

Aleichem Shalom!

The Night Before

In just a couple of hours I will leave fore the airport and still there is so much to be done. But I find myself drawn to my computer to take a small moment to express how I am feeling about my upcoming adventures. To be honest, I'm not completely sure what style this blog will end up being. It may be factual and educational at times and at other times it may be like reading a personal journal. Regardless, the single underlying purpose of the blog is to share my experiences in a small way. I will be diligent about sensitive to the cultural issues related to my adventures, so if you feel inclined to comment on my posts I ask that you do the same. I am also presently aware of the limitation of my ability to fully share with you through writing what I hope will be something that you someday are able to experience in someway. Nevertheless, I hope you will overlook my weaknesses and find some level of interest in what is being shared. 

I feel a great peace and yet great anticipation at this time. I'm not sure that these emotions are supposed to blend, but in me they have. Due to the crazy nature of my schedule the last four months I haven't really had time to sit and ponder what I am about to experience, so as I have had time today I have felt a sweet assurance that this is where the Lord wants me to go. I already feel tremendously blessed to be having this experience and understand that I am just beginning to recognize the blessings that God has given me. 

I hope that I as I continue this journey and this blog that you will in some way travel with me on my adventure to the Holy Land.