On Wednesday, we toured Milan and saw the marble cathedral that is built on the spot where Ambrose baptized Augustine after his remarkable conversion (photo #1). The cathedral represented one of the foremost places that promoted the Counter Reformation in the 16th century.

Afterward, we began our lengthy journey home, arriving in Grand Rapids at midnight on Thursday—tired from our 18-day itinerary and 30 speaking occasions but humbled by God’s goodness and faithfulness throughout our journey. Please pray for God’s blessing to follow this trip. In God’s kind providence, we received a good view of the snow-capped mountains and glaciers of Greenland on the flight home (photo #2) and we also got bumped up to the first row of business class seats on our 11-hour flight from Istanbul, Turkey to Chicago. Apparently, they recognized that my wife is indeed the Queen!

Last Tuesday we had a day off with no speaking. Keith and Debbie Jones took us and a friend (Marina) to the Monte Tamaro in the Alps in Switzerland where we took a cable car a good piece of the way up the mountains and then hiked for close to 6 miles on a rather stony, rough path up and down the mountains surrounded by stunning scenery (photos #1-3).

Afterwards, we devoured a tasty meal of bratwurst and fries (photo #4).

This week Monday afternoon Keith Jones and three brothers (Jonathan, Danilo, and Daniel (photo #1), took us to the church site in Milan, Italy where Augustine was buried (photo #2).

Though the church was closed, in God’s kind providence we found someone to open the church and give us a very informative tour for half an hour.
Later in the afternoon and evening, I thoroughly enjoyed giving four hours of lectures on Reformed experiential preaching to a few dozen ministers (photo #3). They asked excellent questions.

Throughout the weekend, both the pastor’s wife, Debbie, and Pastor Keith served as excellent translators for me—and treated us superbly. After my last session, Mary felt helped in speaking to 65 women on “Blooming in Your Church Garden” (photo #4).

Last Saturday, Mary and I flew from Athens, Greece to Milan, Italy in the morning. At the airport, we discovered that we had failed to fill out one of the forms that was needed for my entrance into Italy, but by God’s grace we managed—not without stress—to complete the job in order to board the plane on time.

We were warmly greeted at the airport in Milan by Keith Jones, pastor of the Veritas International Church of Milan, and a young pastor named Marco who was wonderfully converted about half a dozen years ago. Pastor Jones served as the organizer of my itinerary, which included speaking ten times in three days. First up was a conference of five messages for about 150 attendees (photo #1; which is not a small conference for Italy!)—three addresses on Saturday and two sermons on the Lord’s Day—that revolved around the theme of how to live for God’s glory, particularly as exemplified by the Puritans. On Saturday, I spoke on vital Christianity for God’s glory, marriage and children-rearing for God’s glory, and embracing a Trinitarian view of God for God’s glory. On the Lord’s Day, I preached on worshiping God for His glory and on being united in utopian marriage with Christ for His glory. After the service on Lord’s day evening, I gave an address to a few dozen ministers and elders on the need for and challenges of holiness in the ministry (photo #2).

On Friday, October 15, we concluded our tour of following the footsteps of John and Paul in Greece and Turkey by traveling a scenic coast south of Athens down to Sounion which is overlooked by the Temple of Poseidon (photo #1). The scenery was breathtaking (photo #2)!

This was one of the best tours God has ever granted us to lead. David Woollin was a great help throughout, in edition to his speaking nearly ten times. I was privileged to speak about twenty times, half being lectures and the other half were short talks at various sites. I cannot help but remark that God wonderfully granted that, despite traveling through several downpours while on the bus en route to various sites, we never encountered rain while at the sites throughout this entire 12 day itinerary.

Early the following morning (last Saturday), we drove to the airport with most of our tour group who flew home, while Mary and I went on to Milan, Italy, where I was scheduled to speak ten times in the next three days.

On Thursday, our tour group of 39 headed out for the city of Corinth, Greece. On the way, we stopped to see the beautiful Corinthian Canal (photo #1), and visited nearby Canchrea, one of the two harbors of ancient Corinth (photo #2).

Paul most likely sailed from this place and it was also the home of the ancient Corinthian church to whom the apostle ministered and wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians. The city is located on the slopes of the towering Acorinth that was crowned in ancient times by the temple of Aphrodite (photo #3). Extensive ruins include several temples, water fountains, shops, public buildings, the largest Agora (gathering place) in the ancient world, and the Bema, where Paul met and was judged by the governor Gallio (photo #4). We also visited the Corinthian museum.

We then traveled back to our yacht, where we enjoyed a farewell dinner with our captain and crew, as well as our tour guide. Our group sang the naval hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” to the captain and the crew. After I prayed for them, the captain movingly told us that this was the first time in all his years of serving as captain of ships that anyone had publicly prayed specifically for him (photo #5).

We left Patmos early afternoon, October 13, to sail to the touristy, beautiful Greek island of Mykonos, arriving at dusk. Captain Mike unfurled the sails on this sunny, calm afternoon (photo #1).

The port is shallow, so we were transported ashore by a tender boat. Andy, our tour guide, led us to the 16th century windmills (photo #2) through the narrow walkways between the white painted buildings with blue or red doors and window trim (photo #3).

Marilyn DeMeester, Mary, and I enjoyed a gelato by the waterfront (photo #4).

We left Turkey, sailing overnight to wake up on Wednesday morning, October 13, docked at the beautiful Greek Island of Patmos where John wrote the book of Revelation while in exile. We visited the Grotto of the Apocalypse, the cave where John is believed to have received his vision and recorded his message to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor (photo #1). (No pictures were allowed inside the Grotto.)

Kevin Ash and I had the privilege of delivering short lectures to the tour group just outside of this special place on John and the Grotto (photo #2).

After exploring this serene island a bit, some of us walked to a site where John, on the shore of Patmos, baptized converts who frequently came to him for baptism (photo #3). Across the street from this baptism site is a beautiful, small church dedicated to the apostle John (photo #4). The whole morning at Patmos was memorable, humbling, and beautiful; in fact, it was hard to leave!

We ended a very full Tuesday last week with a quick visit to Thyatira, in Turkey, where the archeological remains are limited because they are surrounded by the modern-day city of Akhisar (picture #1). Thyatira was admonished by Jesus for being an overly-tolerant church, and was also known for being the hometown of Jezebel and Lydia. In the midst of rush-hour traffic surrounding the archeological site, some gypsies in a horse-drawn cart stopped and waved at us (picture #2).

When we arrived back at the boat a seafood feast awaited us (picture #3).

On Tuesday, October 12, we visited the ancient remains of three of the seven churches in modern-day Turkey that received letters from Christ In Revelation 2 and 3 via the apostle John. 

First, we visited the ancient remains of Smyrna, which today is the port city of Izmir, Turkey, with a present population of 4.5 million (picture #1). Smyrna is still being excavated and was known for being a suffering church that was greatly blessed by Christ in NT times. Christ had no word of reproof for these strong believers. It was moving to be there, knowing of Smyrna’s faithfulness, even though the archeological remains here were not as overwhelmingly impressive as in Ephesus. 

The seven churches of Asia were located on a clockwise, circular mail delivery route in the time of John and Paul. So, our next stop was Pergamum known in biblical times as Pergamus. We took a cable car to the very windy and scenic hilltop of this dramatic archeological site (picture #2). Many gods were represented in this ancient worldly city where Jesus said that Satan’s seat is. Happily, there was a faithful remnant in Pergamus, including Antipas, Christ’s “faithful martyr.” We also visited the temple of Dionysus and the medical center of Asclepius, which was on a lower level, near the present day city of Bergma. Here we took a group picture (picture #3) and got a spontaneous shot of a gypsy leading his sheep and goats, all the while talking to them (picture #4). Shortly after he was feeding the lead goat, the goat butted him in the back.

(Thyatira to follow in the next post.)