Chorale - Greece

Wednesday:  We woke up Wednesday morning able to look at the Aegean Sea on one side of our hotel and Mount Olympus on the other.  We began the day on our double-decker bus to Philippi.  After a multi-hour drive and a couple of breaks, we arrived at the ruins.  Costas showed us the place in Acts 16: 12-40 where Paul was brought before the "magistrates" or generals to be punished.  As the story goes, Paul demanded the demon to come out of a posessed slave girl and so ruined her masters' chance of gaining wealth through her.  The Chorale was able to stand in the meeting place of those magistrates where Paul was brought.  We continued walking around ancient Philippi, seeing the Agora, one of the earliest churches built, and a theater that had been turned into a stadium where many Christians were publically persecuted.  Next we were able to see the spot where Paul baptized Lydia.  We continued on our journey after Philippi to see one of the original roads in Neapolis, a road that Paul had traveled on.

Wednesday night, we had a concert in Alexandroupolis, at a community theater.  The mayor of the city welcomed us, and there was another full audience.  A few encouraging stories about interactions with audience members were told to us after the concert.  Dr. Rediger talked to a music teacher here in Greece who had been very discouraged and drove an hour to come to our concert.  As she talked to Dr. Rediger afterwards in tears, she said it was a very uplifting experience for her, and she left encouraged.  Philip Byers talked to a military man who had deliberately broke the law by traveling too far from his base to attend our concert.  He told Philip that he wasn't able to hear many choirs like this, so he had decided to travel this far just to attend the program.

Thursday:  Leaving from the retreat center we stayed at Wednesday night, we traveled to Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece.  While here we visited a museum with the history of the ancient city and were able to spend some time walking around the marketplace and the town square. 

From there we traveled on to Katerini to perform in a Greek evangelical church.  Before our performance, we had the great privelege of hearing Costas' personal testimony, and his story of mission work in Albania.  We were very blessed to hear this wonderful story of our brother and how God has worked and is working in his life.

This performance was at one of the best venues for our sound; the church design made our sound resonate with much energy, and it was great to have that help at this time in the trip.  Although in a church, our concert was seen by many people from the community who didn't attend this church.  The minister was able to give a "short" sermon to the audience, and we were able to share our message with these people as well.

Friday:  Finally on to today.  We were granted an extra hour of sleep by the vote of Costas and our officers before we headed out to visit Vergina, the ancient capital of Lower Macedonia and the place where the the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, was found.  Costas told us that the discovery of this underground tomb was the second most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century...after the burial site of King Tut.  This site and museum was very educational...and a little haunting.  We walked down into a dark tunnel and saw the actual tomb, along with many of the items found intact within it.

We traveled to the city of Volos, Costas' hometown, to perform in the cultural hall of the city.  Dr. Rediger explained to us before the concert that we were the first Protestant choir to ever perform inside the building.  This program had been sanctioned by the Evangelical church here in Volos and was attended by members of the community.  Although some health issues plagued a few members of the Chorale, we had one of our best overall performances.  Many of us were very blessed to talk to people from around the community after the concert who shared with us their views on how they saw America as having hope due to the young people of our country.  This was a great way to end our night.

This will most likely be our final blog while in Greece.  Tomorrow we are traveling back to Athens for our final concert at the Olympic Royal hotel for a celebration of AMG International.  Very soon after that, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, we will be starting our flights back to the States.  We will see you soon!

                 God bless,

                                  Chorale co-bloggers Mark Statler and Erin Hinnen