The Acropolis

The camera came back to life! Nice! Tomorrow we leave for Israel. Today we will do research and plan for our time in Israel. Yesterday we took advantage of the free entry Sundays and went to the Acropolis and other museums. At one museum we saw pieces of clay pots with peoples name written on them. We read that there was a vote each year to ostracize one person from the city for a ten year period. Crazy! The Acropolis is quite a magnificent building. I expected it to be more intact than it was. There is an ongoing restoration of the site which started before the summer Olympic Games in 2004. As a result there is scaffolding and other construction equipment everywhere. We walked back to the Areopagus and found the site of the Church of Dionysius, located just below the Areopagus. Dionysius was a member of the Areopagus (Greek Council) who responded to the good news Paul shared about the resurrection and saving grace of Jesus. This was the site of one of the first church communities in Athens. On the east side of the Acropolis we visited the remnants of the cliff carved alters to different gods. It is possible that the “alter to the unknown god” Paul refers to in his sermon in Acts, was in this very place. We are excited about the upcoming pilgrimage to Israel. Mariella also laughed at me because a bird pooped on me at one of the ancient outdoor theaters. I am glad I can still make her laugh. We can officially say we've been through a lot of crap together. There are times when we get sick of each other and long to be around family and friends, but we continue to be grateful for everyday we have exploring this great world. What a blessed season in life!