Embedded Files
How it all started...
How it all started...
My introduction to traveling in the footsteps of St Paul came as a participant in a Salvation Army study tour in September 2008.
The original tour was the passion and brain-child of Lt-Col. Wilfred Arnold, Territorial Secretary for Personnel in the then New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga Territory. Wilfred, with his wife Margaret, while serving outside New Zealand in the 1990s, had traveled extensively in Greece and Turkey hunting out New Testament locations for themselves. This was long before a later rise in the popularity of “Biblical tourism” focused on such sites.
Wilfred's idea was for a development opportunity for Salvation Army officers, as part of the twenty year review process. Formal interviews at this milestone in officer service would be conducted in conjunction with a Biblical study tour.
Mosaic detail from the memorial to St Paul at Veria.
Photo: 6 Sep 2008
During 2007, working with Allan Orton of Orton International, a wholesale travel company based in Auckland, New Zealand, Wilfred developed an itinerary covering Pauline and Johannine sites in Greece and Turkey. Greece and Turkey were chosen in preference to a "Holy Land" tour as Israel was perceived to be a greater security risk at the time. Once the the project was approved by territorial leadership, plans for the first tour could be put in place.
I, of course, had no idea that these plans were brewing at Territorial Headquarters. I found out about it when on holiday in Christchurch, with my wife Suzanne. We happened to be in a supermarket car park when Wilfred called my phone to extend an invitation...
“Would you be interested….?”
“Um,... well, you had better talk to Suzanne....
It is her twenty year review, not mine!”
But, of course, the decision to accept, even if I was only tagging along as Suzanne’s baggage boy, was not difficult!
The Original Itinerary
The Original Itinerary
Wilfred organised an Orientation Day on the Saturday morning of Commissioning Weekend, December 2007. It was a great help and gave us plenty of time to prepare. On that day we learned that the planned route would take in sites associated with Paul's Second Missionary Journey and six of the Seven Churches of the Revelation. The full itinerary for the tour, as it was originally conceived, is detailed below.
Day One: Depart Auckland for Athens
Day Two: Arrive Athens
Day Three: Visit Corinth (half day tour), afternoon free to explore Athens
Day Four: Visit the Acropolis of Athens, followed by a short bus tour of the city before traveling on to Kalambaka
Day Five: Visits to Meteora and Veria, then on to Thessaloniki
Day Six: Visit the Basilica of St Demetrius, meet with Captains Polis & Maria, the pioneer officers of The Salvation Army in Greece, then to Kavala
Day Seven: Visits to the Baptistery of Lydia and Philippi, followed by travel to Alexandroupolis
Day Eight: Cross into Turkey, visit Gallipoli, then transfer via ferry from Eceabat to a hotel south of Çanakkale
Day Nine: Visit Troy, Assos and Pergamum then overnight at a hotel in Dikili
Day Ten: Travel through Izmir (Smyrna) to visit Sardis and Philadelphia, then on to Pamukkale
Day Eleven: Visits to Hierapolis, Laodicea and Colossae before continuing to Kuşadası
Day Twelve: Visits to the Basilica of St John, Mary’s House and Ephesus
Day Thirteen: Ferry from Kuşadası to Patmos via Samos (Vathi & Pythagorion)
Day Fourteen: Visit the Cave of the Apocalypse and Monastery of St John before returning to Samos for departure to Piraeus
Day Fifteen: Arrive Piraeus and then return to New Zealand (or proceed to furlough)
That, at least, was the plan. To read how that first tour unfolded, follow the continuing story here.
You can view a facsimile of our tour itinerary booklet here.
Google Sites
Report abuse