A Field Trip to Antioch in Pisidia

We have so much Biblical history in Turkey. As I have taught Bible for a few years, I have always wanted to take the kids to see some sort of Biblical site. This year since a new Bible teacher joined us for grades 9-10, I asked him if he wanted to try a joint field trip to Antioch in Pisidia, which is about a 4 hour trip away. He readily agreed. I told him I would take care of all of the logisitics of getting our 40 plus kids there if he would just be the tour guide once we got there.

The drive down, even with a full bus of kids ages 12-16, was fabulous! The views were so beautiful, the kids were sweet and excited to get to take a field trip, and we were happy to be on the road.

Here are a couple of my students.

This is the whole gang, once we got to the site!

The ruins are in the town of Yalvac. They are a little off the beaten path, and thankfully, they have been fenced off for protection. There were plenty of rocks to climb and places to explore. We were fairly laid back about letting the kids turn into mountain goats.

I was especially happy that when I finally got to take this field trip, my Sweet Cheeks was with me!

This is about the point at which I said, "Ok, get down! We don't want any broken bones."

Another bonus (and to be honest, I planned the timing as such), was that Mason got to go with us. He plans to attend seminary, so I really wanted him to get to see a Biblical site in his one week here. These guys were troopers and really helped us watch the kids.

To be honest, our kids are just super grateful. They really didn't care where we went or what we did, they were just so happy to get to go. And take mid-air jumping pictures then run to my phone to see what they looked like.

The special part for me was that there was indeed a church established here by St. Paul. It was here that he came to preach in the synagogue and was run out of town. (Acts 13)

 By far, the most special moment of all was when my colleague took all of us to the church ruins. He preached the same message that Paul preached, only he inserted their names. We then went inside the church and sang a hymn together. I was moved to tears at the privilege of experiencing it.