Günaydin! It is truly mind blowing that today already marks our 6th full day of being in Türkiye! Before we began our tour today my sweet friend Selah shared a morning devo! She went through Pslams 39:5-6 and reminded us how important each moment has the potential to be. To evaluate if each breath taken is for personal gain or used as an opportunity to further God’s kingdom and glorify Him. It was a great way to start the day with our minds set above on the mighty being that allowed us to be in Türkiye in the first place!
Our first site of the day was the city of Sardis. Sardis dates back to 400-500 B.C and it’s a city where people lived long before Greek colonies came. Sardis is known for being the first culture to invent coins, so they controlled the economy at the time, as well as building the first highway in history. Sardis was a huge city, and you know the saying, “All roads lead to Rome,” back then it would’ve been, “All roads lead to Sardis.” We walked past what would’ve been markets and we got to see this one called, “Jacob’s paint shop” because they found the name “Jacob” on two jars and a menorah showing that there were Jews in this city before Greeks. Then we walked over to the synagogue of Sardis, which was a truly memorable site. Our tour guide, Ozan, said it was one of the biggest synagogues he has seen, which speaks volume to how wealthy this city was. Ozan shared that some of the artifacts that would have been in Sardis would be in the Met in NYC, and my friend Leilah and I were stoked because we just went to NYC during Spring break. Now if we ever go back to the Met, we can look for the statues/ artifacts/ coins from this city!
We ended our time in Sardis by going to the temple of Artemis. It was so surreal to imagine what it would’ve looked like back then. There were 76 columns that would’ve been in the temple, which again, speaks to how vast and rich this city was. Back then, if you were to walk into the temple, you would feel small and most likely be filled with fear, approaching Artemis. Dallas was sharing how beautiful it is that we have a personal God, who doesn’t desire a temple, but relationship. How we have the temple of God in our hearts now dwelling in us wherever we go and not just in a certain building.
Dallas also shared the letter to Sardis in Revelation 3:1-6 (It truly never gets old reading scripture where it would have taken place). In the letter the Lord is saying how the people of Sardis have soiled their clothes because rather than Christ being there one thing, they allowed other things of this world/ idols to be added to their faith. If Christ is truly your one thing then that means dropping those idols the world tells you to cling so tightly to and to run the race that is set before you with your eyes solely fixed on Jesus! Dallas ended the talk by asking us the question, What will your life look like after JWI? Will you run back to idols that will never truly satisfy you or run to the one true thing that gives you eternal life?
We ended our day by visiting our second site, Upper Pergamum. Once we got there we took gondolas in groups of 8, up to the acropolis. It definitely put into perspective how long it must of taken someone back then to walk up the hill. Once we got up to the top we started to visit different temples, some included the Temple of Zeus, Trainaus, Dionysos, and more. In Pergamum there is over 10 temples, which got me thinking how common it was to believe in multiple gods in that time. It was definitely challenging being a Christian in the 1st century because you had to say no to what was common and yes to what was true! A highlight from this site would have to be the Tiyatro Theater. Ozan shared with us that this theater was the steepest in the ancient world. After walking down the steps of the theater I would believe that to be true! It was a crazy sight seeing how many people would be able to fit in that theater.
All in all it was a sweet day! I have been filled with gratitude these past couple days being in Türkiye, in awe that God gave me the opportunity to be here! It truly is a wonderful gift being able to walk where scripture happened and seeing sights that just strengthen my belief in Christ. It is sad to think that JWI is ending soon, but I am thankful that we get to all be together for one last trip:)
⁃ Taylor Britton 🙂 (Current Student)