"Grace and Peace To You"

These famous opening words written from Paul to the church in Corinth never held so much meaning. Today we were given an off day to visit the ancient city of Corinth, an hour outside of Athens. The experience will be ever present in the corners of my mind every time I flip past the pages of 1st/2nd Corinthians and Acts 18.

The special attribute to the city of Corinth is that it is the single most significant archeological site in the Christian faith. Many years after Jesus died, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. The city of Athens has been built on and atop most ancient ruins. Same for Rome, Thessaloniki, etc. The city of Corinth is one of the rare sites we see today AS IT WAS in the days of Christ and Paul's missionary journey. You can still see the seat where Galileo issued the lashings on the one who blasphemed against Paul. You can still see the place Paul is historically stated to have stayed during his tenure. There is a round stone with the inscription "Erastus, financial leader of Corinth" thus proving his existence and ending this debate. We saw busts of every major Roman emporer (including Julius Ceasar and Nero, who is famed to have martyred Paul) up until well after Christ's death. We visited the port where Paul set sail to Syria, ending his 2nd missionary journey. Even the ancient bath still contained the sound of rushing water inside (we could not enter, however). I found a tablet that had a decree etched into it that was dated to 51 A.D. (this is the time Paul was believed to have landed and stayed for a year and a half). There were unbelievable art works dated back to 1000-800 B.C., thus blowing my mind and sense of time (we think things from the 1800's is old!). We took a thousand pictures, so please be patient (the internet here is slow and it takes forever and a day to post them up) but I cannot wait for everyone to be able to see how incredibly preserved most of the city is.

Just a short blog, as we have a team meeting in 3 minutes. Tomorrow we will be aiding the 2nd Evangelical Church in immigrant and refugee centers, and holding our last festival of the week tomorrow afternoon at 7 (meaning it will be a long day!). We still cannot believe that we are able to serve here in Athens, and continue to seek ways the Lord can utilize us each day. Our deepest appreciation to those who are praying for us, and continue to pray God will mold us more with each experience along with those we touch.

-Austen