The Ever-Changing Life of a Military Wife: December 2010

Just here. That's all I've got for now. Sorry I haven't been around much, but it's just been too much. To tell the truth, I never thought I would be here. I never thought we would be at this place. Not us, I thought, we did it all right. We went to college, we dated for 3 years, we enjoyed our time as a married couple, and then we were ready. We tried and we waited. And we waited. And waited.

People asked, almost everyday they asked. When? Why not? How many? In church the pastor talked about Hannah. A sweet sermon made to encourage us through the diagnosis of a friend made me cry uncontrollably in the front pew. A sermon that marked the second time I walked out of church.

Every month it's hard. Will it ever get easier? It's hard to read the announcements, it's hard to hear the complaints, and it's hard to deal with the disappointment again and again. It's hard to see that stupid single line. It's lonely too, people don't really want to hear about it, and when they do you can't expect them to understand. They have a cousin, they say, who blah blah blah. It's not what I want to hear. It's more than I can handle.

So here we are at this place. This place where I don't want to be. A place where we need a medical intervention to help with something that comes so simple to 16 year olds on MTV. We are labeled. We are now one of those couples. Maybe in February (with our first IUI) that will change, but for now, here we are.

Over Thanksgiving we spent four wonderful days touring the seven churches of Revelation (churches John was told to write letters to for various reasons) and other historical sites in the area. To keep it simple, this post will just be about the seven churches themselves, and later pots will cover the other sites and stories I want to share. (Just in case you needed to know every detail of my thought process.)

Here is a map of the location on the seven churches as they would have been in Biblical times. Now, of course, each location has a modern name and just ruins remain. Patmos, the island to the left, is where John actually received the vision of the book of Revelation. (See our trip to Patmos here.)

1. Our first stop was Smyrna (now Izmir) which is the second letter, found in Revelation 2:8-11 (the church that would suffer persecution).

Not much was left of the ancient Smyrna sight. It was said that Alexander the Great was the one that had the vision to bring the city to the place we visited, high above the port, giving it a natural defense system. It was neat to see the modern city from the site of the ancient city. We visited this city a few years back, but never made it up to the ruins.

2. Our next stop was Pergamum (now Bergama), which is letter 3, Revelation 2:12-17, the church that needed to repent. These ruins were really neat. We pretty much had the place to ourselves, and despite the weather, were able to see it all up close.

It was interesting to see the site of the ancient temples to gods/goddesses, and how much of a part of daily life they were. Thinking of that, and then seeing the place where early Christians (who spoke out against this beliefsystem) were martyred was very humbling. My Germany friends can go see the altar to Zeus from Pergamum in Berlin, as it was excavated by Germans and moved to the Pergamum museum there.

3. Next up Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29, the church with the false prophetess), now Akhisar, with a very small set of ruins located in the middle of a modern city. We all wondered what else was under the apartment buildings surrounding the site.

The people of this church were working class people who allowed a prophetess (who John compares to the infamous Jezebel) to lead them into all sorts of sin. I imagine it was like it is now, where people easily get caught up in what is best for them and will help them succeed, losing site of what is right.

4. The church of Sardis (now Sart) was next on the list, found in Revelation 3:1-6. This church was known as the sleeping church, dead in it's works. These ruins have been maintained and reconstructed by an American group, and while I typically dislike such huge reconstruction, it was neat to think of this place as the grand capital it once was.

This church/town had two locations, and we were able to see them both. The upper area was for the wealthy (below) and the lower area (above) was the working class agora (shops), gymnasium, political type area. The people of this church were much like many Christians are today, dead in their faith. They believed, but lacked the fervor and works of their early days. It was routine to them, they were no long radical, sold out Christians- and God still cared greatly about them, just like he does us! Talk about convicting.

5. Philadelphia (no cheese steak!) was up next, found in Revelation 3:7-13. Philadelphia (now Alasehir) was the enduring church, persecuted by local Jews, but still believing.

This was a VERY small place in the middle of a town that we visited at the end of a very long day. I don't remember anything the guide said. I did, however, get to visit the Mosque that was across the street from this place. Our tour leader took Logan and I inside and upstairs to the women's area (none were there). She told us about the prayers, what is said during the call, and what is expected of them. I'm really glad I got to see it, especially since being allowed to visit during prayers in very rare.

6. Laodicea (the lukewarm church, Revelation 3:14-22) was our next church to visit. We visited just after a visit to the natural hot springs, located across the valley from this church, which gave a very new perspective to the "lukewarm" reference in the letter. Obviously being so close to the springs, water was a big part of the lives of these people, and the reference to lukewarm water would have been very meaningful to those people.

There was a tn of excavation still going on at many of these sites, and at this one in particular. With this site you could see all the rooms being uncovered and the plan of the town was very apparent.

7. Although it was the first letter (Revelation 2:1-7), Ephesus was our final stop of the 7 churches. Presumably this is because it is so impressive, seeing it first would make the others pail in comparison. We have been here once before (See here), but it was neat to see it again with more travels under our belt, and with the perspective of the letter in Revelation rather than Paul and Acts.

While we were visiting Ephesus, I started thinking about a picture of us from our first visit. I thought I had a green shirt on, the same one I was wearing this time. When I checked out the pictures at home, it turned out I was right. How in the world did I manage to wear the same shirt to the same place two years apart? Oops. We also visited the same carpet shop we came to last time we were there. Crazy huh?