day 2

Well, we awoke this morning around the time John McCain was giving his concession speech (this was 6:15 a.m. here) and I said a prayer for our new president Barack Obama that God would use him to accomplish his will (see Hebrews 13:1-4). I was up for a morning run before joining the group for the day. The world certainly was watching our election, very strange from this side of the pond. Anyway, I hit the streets of Athens for a three mile run (sara was afraid I'd get lost, but as I knew, i didn't ... I just came back a different way than I came!)

Anyway, we ate breakfast (some really good dates and breads with jam), and then hit the museum of culture here in Athens. Very cool, mostly statues (some that dated back 10,000 bc.) from the Greek culture before Rome (around 4th century bc.). Then we headed to Corinth. It was historically a great city because it lay in a 2.5 mile stretch of land between the Aegean and Adriatic Sea. This caused it to be a world city with cultures and races from literally all over the world. They actually dragged ships across this land mass to get from one port to the other (now there is a canal). So Alexander the Great was here and then the Romans destroyed it and left it desolate in 2nd century BC. It was totally destroyed until Caesar Augustus (same one in the Christmas story in Luke 2) rebuilt it in 44 BC and restored it to it's greatness. It was this cosmopolitan city that Paul entered in the middle of the first century ad (Acts 18).

I stood at the place where he stood before Gallio and where he preached for 1 1/2 years in the collonaded stoa. We walked through the market area where he made and sold tents! This is an awesome experience. Corinth was known for Bronze (bronze mirrors that you could polish and kind of see - read I corinthians 13:12 - were actually excavated and on display), and gold and for exporting wine, olive oil and inventing raisins! When it's all said and done we felt a deeper connection with our brothers and sisters from the past (yes we have pictures).

After, we got back to our hotel, Bob, Sandi, Sara and I took a twenty minute walk through the city in search for an alleged Starbucks..and we found it! Awesome to enjoy my favorite drink in the Athens air (it has been unseasonably warm - 80's - the last two days). We have eaten supper and the ladies have gone to the old market to shop and I'm just chillin' in the room writing this. Tomorrow we will get up early and head north eventually getting to Phillipi and Thessolonica.