Thursday, March 27, 2008
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Location: Bus to Poseidon Palace Hotel
Last time we wrote, we spoke about Easter Sunday. So it's Thursday...we're only a few days behind.
Monday: Monday began our day of travel. We first traveled to ancient Corinth, then made our way to Epidaurus, and finally journeyed back to our familiar home Hotel Oscar. Being in Corinth was an awesome experience. Seeing the ruins of Corinth's ancient Agora (marketplace, administration and justice, and places of worship), larger than the size of Rome's Agora, and all of its significance and Biblical history really brought Scripture to life. In Acts 18:1-17, Paul was brought by the Jews to the Bema, or the court/place of judgment, in order to accuse him and have him beaten. Gallio, a leader of the Roman court council, had the accusations thrown out, and Paul was released. We had the awesome privilege of standing at the place where Paul was released, the foot of the Bema, and were reminded of God's faithfulness and Paul's trust in God's provision.
Next we traveled to Epidaurus and visited a 13,000 seat theater. There the Chorale was able to sing our Russian piece, Bogoroditse Devo, and the Greek National Anthem, and Sounds was able to sing He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. The acoustics of the theater were astounding for a 4th century B.C. architectural design, and due to this, the sound and experience was great.
To end our day, supper was prepared for us at Cosmovision Center, an evangelical ministry center that Fotis and his family are very involved in. After our supper, a Greek P.E. teacher was brought in to teach us some traditional Greek dances, which we all very much enjoyed. Finally closing our day, updates were given on the other T.W.O. Spring Break teams, and we were able to pray for them as a group.
Tuesday: Tuesday was another day of long travel, this time up to northern Greece. On the way, we stopped at the place of the Battlefield of Thermopylae, site of where the recent movie 300 took place. We continued our bus ride on to the breathtaking views of Meteora. This is the area where many monasteries and nunneries have been placed in incredible positions on top of "large boulders dropped from Heaven," as Costas put it. These boulders are the size of mountains that jut up out of the flat plains and rise extremely high above the surrounding areas. We were fortunate enough to visit St. Stephen's Nunnery; we saw these nuns' everyday lives along with historical Church artifacts placed in this incredible scenery.
--Chorale co-bloggers Erin and Mark
Prayer requests:
*Rest and rejuvenation during our free times
*Health...specifically for our voices
*Continued excitement and energy to share this ministry with the people we come
into contact with
*The language barrier will be able to be broken by this music
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