Colossae

 In the morning, I went down to breakfast alone.  Allen was sick.

It was the rose juice!  that stuff was awful.....well, not really.  I mean it was nasty, but it probably wasn't the drink that caused his illness.  Don't know what he had, but several on our trip got it - achy, fever and stomach issues.  Not fun.

I sat down to breakfast with this couple, Janice and Mike.  We had never met one another before this trip.  As we began to visit, as often happens in Christian circles, you begin to make connections.

When they told me they had worked with Wycliffe, I asked if they happened to know Travis and Jenny.  And they did!  Jenny is my son-in-law's sister.

Small world.

Have you heard of the "small-world phenomenon, or the 'six degrees of separation' between people”? It is often true.   This was less than 6 degrees. 

We packed up to leave.  Al slept on the bus. 

Sheep farm

The bus stopped at a gas station to fill up.  And we all went to get some goodies and hit the restrooms.  Jim always wanted us to sync our bladders!

A pistachio nut chocolate bar - pretty good! 

 salt factory, I think, or a soda cracker factory - ha ha!  or soda pop factory?

The bus stopped in the middle of nowhere.  From the front of the bus window, all we could see was a big mound of dirt and a big field.  Actually, this is the location of ancient Colosse, situated in the Lycus valley.  It has yet to be excavated.

We got out of the bus to look around.  Al stayed put and continued to sleep.

Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians who lived here from his prison in Rome (where he was under house arrest.  We got to visit that place too!)  In this picture below, the modern city of Honaz is in the background.

A couple of hundred years before Paul, Colosse was a leading city, but by his time it was a second-rate market town.  Laodicea and Hierapolis (next post) had surpassed Colosse in importance and in power.

 The church in Colosse had come under heretical attack and Paul wrote the letter to address those concerns.

The hill is the Acropolis - the main center of the city.  A river used to run through the city.

I love the book of Colossians.  Many years ago, Juli Franz (now Dirks) and I tried to memorize it - or maybe it was just part of it.  I am not very good at memorization!  The book is so rich and it is heavily underlined in my Bible!