Turkey Day 6: Ephesus

My biggest travel dream is to go to Jerusalem and visit all the places from the New Testament. I eagerly anticipate someday walking where the Savior walked, taught, and blessed. It's no surprise, then, that the day I was most excited for on our Turkey trip was our day in the ancient city of Ephesus, where the apostle Paul himself lived and taught for about two years.

The day before we went, I studied Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, as well as the section in Acts which briefly describes his time there. I don't know how else to describe my feelings that day other than honored and privileged that out of the billions of people in the world, Heavenly Father saw fit to allow me to travel to such a special place. 

A fig tree, often used in parables in the scriptures.

Greek goddess Nike, who personified victory (and the namesake for the athletic company).

Sorry I can't tell you what all of these things are. We had a tour guide for this, too, and I actually did want to hear all the information he had to share, but he was really controlling about when he would talk. Like he would only talk if all of us were close to him and he would get bent out of shape if we didn't adhere to our allotted time to explore each area. Also, he said "that's the reason why" instead of "so" and "exactly" instead of...I don't even know. He said it all the time at weird times, for example "This was exactly a library." Petty, I know. But it's hard to listen to for hours on end, so I started wandering.

This facade was the front of a library. Most of the facade has actually been reconstructed.

The scriptures show that in Ephesus, Paul clarified that baptism had to be done in Christ's name and that the gift of the Holy Ghost followed baptism by water. He healed the sick and cast out evil spirits. As a result of Paul's teachings, people in Ephesus began putting away their former beliefs and "curious arts" in favor of following the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many in the city had worshiped the goddess Diana, or Artemis, and frequented a temple dedicated to her not far away. Obviously, when they stopped worshiping idols, the silversmiths who made the idols didn't love this, so they created a big fuss about it. They grabbed two of Paul's associates and drug them into the theater, hurling accusations and increasing the chaos, since "the more part knew not wherefore they were come together" (Acts 19:32). Paul was going to go to the theater, to help I assume, but was retrained by other disciples who recognized that it wouldn't do any good. That theater is pictured below. Real life, friends. This is real life.

We had some time to explore this area, so after walking around, I found a spot under a tree and reread this section of the New Testament in the shadow of this magnificent theater. I tried to imagine Paul walking these streets, teaching and testifying of Christ. I imagined the mob of confused people in the theater, fighting against the truth because it wasn't convenient for them. I imagined Paul's beloved followers who restrained him, fearing for his safety. I marveled at the privilege to be sitting where one of my scriptural heroes may have sat at one time. I know these people were real and that the events in the Bible are not fables told to teach us a lesson. They are historical accounts of people trying to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus Christ, of whom they taught, was a real person. He wasn't just a prophet. He was the Son of God, the Only Begotten, the Messiah who came to the Earth to live among men and to die by their hands so that we can all overcome physical and spiritual death.

There were all kinds of genuine fake things in Turkey.

After Ephesus, we visited the site of a house which is now a church, and it's claimed that this is where Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived after Christ died.

Pure water from the spring.

We visited another pottery gallery and this time Kelly got to try her hand at spinning. Check out the sweet pants they gave her to cover up her clothes!

Our last stop was a visit to the beach (along the Aegean coast). The crazies (AKA the boys and Himsel and Kelly. So everyone but me, Amy, and Mandy) ran into the freezing cold water. We just enjoyed the view.