Corinth and Athens

This whole cruise has been called "Journeys of Paul" but other than Malta, we had yet to be in any place Paul was known to have been.  We have been learning a lot in the lectures by Adam Hamilton and we've learned about the climate and terrain where Paul traveled, but today we finally stood in two places where Paul was known to have stood.

We started the day before the sun, loading onto our 16 tour buses.

First we went to the ruins of ancient Corinth.  Paul spent 18 months there and wrote two of his epistles to the church in Corinth.  We saw the Bema where Paul stood when he was brought before Gallio.  We ate a great Greek lunch and then went to Athens where we saw Mars Hill (and read Paul's speech from there in Acts) and then climbed up to the Parthenon.

I took hundreds of photos and have lots to share with my church when I get back.  But honestly, I literally ran around each place snapping photos of everything in sight and all of the signs so I would know later what I actually photographed.  It was not the way I like to travel - leisurely reading signs and looking through museums.  But we saw some very cool things and I have a new understanding of the life and journeys of Paul.

The day ended with a gorgeous sunset at sea!

Tomorrow is another lecture in the morning and then a day at sea.  I need the rest!

Santorini

I have seen photos of Santorini since I was a child and it was amazing to finally see it in person.  It is built on the caldera of a HUGE volcano that erupted around 1600 B.C.  The legend of the lost city of Atlantis comes from the eruption and the 100-ft tsunami it triggered.  The streets of Santorini are narrow with shops on either side and there are times churches everywhere.  Since Clif has been working late at night on the graphics for Adam's lectures, we slept in and tendered over to the island around 9:30, not sure what we would do.  We immediately saw a tour service that would take us to Oia by speed boat and then back to Fira (Thira) by bus.  So we did that.  Both cities were beautiful but Oia had more high-end shops.  We weren't interested in shopping so we just took photos.

There was another cruise ship in port so everything was very crowded.  We used Trip Advisor to find a cheap local restaurant and had a great lunch.

Then we came back to the ship for worship and teaching from Adam.  It was a long, full day!

Tomorrow is our longest excursion to Athens and Corinth.

Mykonos

There is nothing in the Bible about Paul ever being on Mykonos or Santorini, so there aren't any spiritually meaningful things to do here other than notice all the beautiful church buildings.  But since Paul sailed and traveled in this part of the world, we have a better understanding of what the climate and geography was for his travels.

Mykonos is known as the party island but we were there in the morning and things were pretty quiet.  We found a great recommendation on Trip Advisor for a lunch place so we explored the area for a while and then walked uphill and uphill and uphill some more.  It turns out that the restaurant wasn't anywhere near the dock.  It was all by itself, a place where locals eat.  It also turns out that they didn't open for lunch until 12:30.  Since we got there at 11:30, we weren't willing to hike back down so we found a little cafe and got drinks for an hour.

We met a young couple from Texas outside the restaurant and ended up sitting with them at lunch.  It's fun to talk to other travelers and hear their stories.  And, the food was fantastic!  Worth the long hike up (and back down).

Malta

I'm writing this at the end of our third full day of the cruise, our first full day at sea.  I couldn't write about our day yesterday because I was EXHAUSTED. People who wore fitbits said we walked over 6 miles yesterday - on cobblestones with no lunch break until 2:30.  Clif and I are two of the youngest people on our bus of 46, and we were pushed to our limits.  Part of the problem is that our own tour - 650 of us - create a HUGE line at every place we need to go.  So we spent at least 1.5 hours just standing in line.  Our bus was full of intrepid troopers, but good Lord, we all needed a day to decompress today.  Of course, we still had an hour and a half lecture/worship time  with Adam Hamilton but it was on the ship - no buses or lines required!

Now that I'm done complaining, we saw some cool things in Malta!  The view of the sunrise on the stone buildings was breathtaking.  I felt transported back in time.  We saw the traditional place it is believed that Paul's ship ran aground - St. Paul's island.  Then we went to Mdina, the city where the governor Publius lived.  Paul converted him and he became the first bishop of Malta.  The city is enchanting with narrow streets and tall stone buildings built in the 1300s  where people still live and work.

Next we toured the ruins of the home of a wealthy Roman family.  It is believed to have been inhabited when Paul was on the island so it is likely he visited or even dined with that family.

Then we went to Valletta to see St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was incredibly ornate.

We had lunch with local Maltese foods and saw the preparations for an Indian wedding that was estimated to cost $4 million.  They even closed a street for it!

Taormina

The first 48 hours were a blur.  It was impossible to sleep on the plane so when we arrived in Rome, we were exhausted.  And then we had a bus ride to the ship, check in, tour group meeting, muster meeting and dinner.  I was asleep by 8:30 but Clif still had work to do to get ready for worship.  Sunday morning he asked me to get him 2 large coffees but I got him an Americano with 2 extra shots.  It did the trick!

Worship was great.  Adam taught about Paul and we sang Oceans as our theme song!  We shared communion and then quickly prepared for our first excursion.  We went to the ancient city of Taormina.  There is no evidence that Paul ever stopped here, but he did stop in Syracuse on his way to Rome so he likely sailed by Taormina

at least.  There is an ancient Greek theater on the hillside that existed in Paul's day so he might have seen it.  We also had great views of Mount Etna with smoke wisps coming out.

It's hard being a part of a tour of 650 people.  We have 16 tour buses taking our group to each site, and we make everything super crowded.  You add in a lack of sleep and lots of walking, and we have a few cranky participants.  But mostly we're glad to be here.

It's definitely not a sabbath.  I'm not sure it can even be called a vacation.  It is going to be an amazing trip to Rome and cruising around the Mediterranean, following the footsteps of the Apostle Paul.  But since Clif is on staff at Church of the Resurrection, he will be a bus captain and will be helping Adam Hamilton with all the AV stuff for the week.  Which means he'll be working - more a mission trip leader than a vacationer.  And I'll be his bus co-captain which means that I'll also sort of be a mission trip leader.  In other words, we won't have a whole lot of time to relax by the pool!  But since he gets the trip for free and I only pay half price, we really can't complain.

So we fly to Rome tomorrow and board the ship on Saturday.  Adventure awaits!

The End

This will probably be my last blog post here.  I have great ambitions of continuing to blog after I return from sabbatical, but my past behavior tells me that I probably won't.  So I'll try to wrap up my three months worth of experiences here by answering the question, "Did I sabbath well?"

Yes.  Yes, I did.  I blogged at great length about my experiences in Guadeloupe so you can read all about the things I saw and experienced and learned while I was there.  It was an amazing opportunity to live someplace else, someplace completely different from where I usually live.  I saw what life is like for a missionary, for a prison chaplain.  This is what helped me completely disengage from my usual life as a pastor in Kansas City.  Once I stopped being consumed by thoughts about the people in my congregation and how they were doing and whether everything was going ok without me, I could start to remember how to be Laura, not Pastor Laura.  This was crucial for the beginning of my sabbatical.

Then I enjoyed a little bit of time at home to try to get my own house in order - literally.  Purging my stuff was painful and exhilarating, but it too helped me wake up in the mornings with a different set of tasks for the day, things that I never seemed to get around to doing when I was always in ministry mode (because ministry never ends - there's always more you can do).

Our Alaska trip was much like a vacation except the constant traveling was brutal and exhausting.  We saw amazing things that we would never have seen otherwise, but I came back from that 3-week road trip with a couple loads of dirty laundry, over 1,000 photos and a desire to crawl into my bed and never get out again.

In the two weeks that I've been back, I took a quick trip to Des Moines to see my sister and visit the Iowa State Fair with my kids

and then another quick spiritual retreat at Tall Oaks Camp.

Today is my last Sunday off for a very long time.  Tuesday, I'll officially be back to work, starting my time by adding all my congregants back into my Facebook feed to see what has been going on in their lives the past three months.  I'm meeting with the summer pastor twice this week and the worship leader once and there will be other conversations and emails and a Turkish Festival I'll attend as well.  Just as I shed my identity as pastor for three months in order to rest and reflect and tend my own spiritual garden, soon I will take that identity back on.

And I'm ready.  I'm rested and refreshed.  I found a different rhythm for my life over the summer and it was joyous and relaxing and intriguing and educational. But I have also been disconnected from a church all summer, and that has been disorienting and lonely.  I have attended quite a few churches, but none where I felt at home, with people who knew me and cared about me.  I have missed that tremendously.  Three months is about as long as I can go without having a community where I can learn and share and worship and laugh and cry and sing and hug.

So yes, I think I sabbathed very well.  I am so very grateful to my church - Living Water Christian Church - for giving me the time and space to step away so that I can return and continue to serve as their pastor with joy and thanksgiving.  My two sabbaticals have both helped me hear God's call again, feel that flame of the Holy Spirit telling me that there is more to do, that God is not finished with Living Water Christian Church (in fact, has barely begun!) and that there is more that I can offer God and the church as the pastor.

Instead of sitting here on my last Sunday off feeling sad that I must return, I am antsy and so looking forward to next Sunday. It will be good to be home again!