Sunday, October 18, 2009 (Late Post)

Sunday, October 18, 2009: Sunday morning we dock at Thessaloniki, the modern day name for Thessalonica. After breakfast, Dr. Stanley conducted a morning worship service with the music lead by Mike Speck and John Starnes. At noon we boarded a bus for a drive through Thessaloniki which is the capital of Macedonia and the second largest city in Greece. It is built around a major seaport and the city is a major industrial center of Greece. Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica on his second missionary journey.

We visited the Citadel where Paul addressed the Thessalonians.

(Acts 17:16-34 When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went to the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”). Many of the Thessalonians came to believe in Jesus through Paul’s ministry. The Jews were jealous, and ran Paul and Silas out of town.

Paul retreated to Berea, a nearby town, which we visited next. Berea is known as the place where Paul preached to the Jewish nobility. (Acts 17:10-15). Along the drive, we enjoy magnificent views of the city, along with the numerous monuments from centuries ago. It is evident everywhere we go, that new construction waits on the old when ruins are unearthed. This is an example in Berea.

We visited St. Paul’s Tribune (built in 1950 it contains many colorful mosaics of Paul) and the Byzantine Church of Christ from the 14th century. The Church of Christ contains a number of frescos which on first glance looked dark as if they were covered with soot, but when the photographs of the frescos are viewed a wealth of color can be seen.

We also visited the Eptapirgion Walls (ruins) that stretch along the northern edge of the old city. From the top of the hill it is possible to imagine where the wall originally went to the south because the Lefkos Pirgos (White Tower) still stands and is all that remains of the southern part of the wall down by the seaport’s coast.

It was in Berea that we saw a dog that looked exactly like Jill, Billy and Grayson’s dog, Jilly. There were tame dogs or cats in all the cities that we visited in Greece. The city feeds and cares for the animals, and they are all well fed and well behaved.