Are Christian holidays to biblical sites more than just 'sun, sea, sand and Scriptures'? Paul White and Philippa Jones went on a tour of the Seven Churches of Asia to find out.
The wind took Christ's words and whipped them away. We were standing on castle battlements surrounded by the sprawling Turkish city of Izmir. It was the second stop on our whistle-stop tour of the Seven Churches of Asia. The Revelation letter from Christ to his church was being read aloud at Smyrna.
From our precarious vantage point, we could see the ancient site of Smyrna - no more than a handful of pillars on a patch of greenery in the heart of the city. But Christ's words still stood. 'I know your affliction and your poverty,' he spoke to Christians he knew and loved. Surrounded by street children selling bread for what they could, it seemed nothing had changed - except where once there was a thriving indigenous church, now there was none. It was a glaring absence that became more familiar as the tour progressed and drove us to pray for Turkey, its people and its Christian revival.
