Today marked the start of our tour of Paul’s first missionary journey. We traveled from Cappadocia to Konya. On the way we stopped by an 800 year old Celtic Fortress and an excavation site of a pre-neolithic Stone age village. Then we visited Lystra, however this biblical location has not been excavated yet and remains just a mound.
The city of Lystra first appears in the Bible when Paul and Barnabas visited the city on their first missionary journey (Acts 14). It was in this city where Paul and Barnabas healed the man crippled from birth. Due to this miracle the locals of Lystra were very impressed and mistakenly called Paul and Barnabas, Zeus and Hermes. Paul then taught these people in the synagogue until they found out his teachings were not the orthodox jewish teachings. They then stoned him and dragged him outside the city and left him for dead. Paul would later revisit and bring Timothy with him on his second missionary journey. Paul reminds Timothy of his persecution in Lystra in 2 Timothy 3:11.
On a different note, our hotel for the night is fantastic! It is very first class, and tonight we had our best meal by far. The food here is quite different, and for those of you who know me well I am a bit of a picky eater, so it has not been easy to eat. I will post pictures when I can! There isn’t much to see today since we just saw an unexcaveted mound. I hope everyone is doing well!
P.S.- Previous Pictures are posted under the tabs above (Istanbul, Cappadocia)
In Him,
Greg
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