Ephesus and Smyrna

Today we woke up early and headed for Ephesus and after it rained all day yesterday, it was another beautiful sunny day. We had an hour and a half to do two video shoots in first century Ephesus and so we moved quickly to the Arcadian Way (or Harbor way) that led from the theater to the ancient harbor. We set up and J.k. began his teaching and as he got through his introduction and was ready to read his Scripture some loud production music began for some period acting thing they do from the Roman period so we stopped. After the production was over, J.K. picked right back up and finished his deal. Then we moved north towards the theater and got in position for another filming. I went through the teaching and then the same production kicked in again - God worked in perfect timing to let us get the teaching done. Then after we left the first century site; it began to rain and then hail - crazy hard, but we made our way back to the agora of ancient Smyrna (Izmir) and the rain stopped. We saw some security guys, but we began to shoot anyway. The minute we finished a security guy came up and said we could use a tripod. So we said "o.k." and then left - our work was done. the point is that Jesus was with us and helping us accomplish this good work which we hope to share back home some day.

It has been a really great time of seeing the biblical sites and hanging with some great people from church, but I'm ready to be home. Sermon is baking and coming together as I'm in this inspirational place. Tomorrow we hit ancient Pergamum on the way up to Istanbul and then home on Saturday. In case you're wondering, there is a plan in case I don't get home. And when I'm preaching at 11:30 a.m. central time on Sunday, my body will think it's evening - jet lag sermon oughta be fun...don't miss it.