I’m never too sure whether being in transit at an airport constitutes a visit to a country? What do you think? I guess Tom Hanks of Terminal (2004) fame might have an opinion on the matter…

On one occasion I had a transit that settled a key transition in my life. It was on a flight from Larnaca to Athens—and then the transit in Athens—that I felt my heart ‘strangely warmed’ towards an invitation to be the principal at Carey Baptist College. Looking back, it was the Lord’s doing—the Lord’s call.

But last month it was good to return to Greece, finally, for a more lingering visit. The key leaders from across our European work—40 people from 19 countries—gathered for a few days in Thessaloniki. While the meetings, as always(!), were exciting and absorbing, many of us had our eyes on that visit to Philippi in the schedule. Acts 16 is one of the most absorbing chapters in Scripture, especially that ‘Macedonian call’ that takes Paul to Europe for the first time—and his encounter with Lydia, its first convert.

On the whole I’m not really a rocks-‘n-rubble archaeological kinda guy—but take me to the very place where we know biblical characters walked and talked and it is very exciting. The experts are confident that the site commemorating Paul’s conversation with Lydia can be located on this stretch of river bank, within a 100 meters or so. Here it is…

The story lasts just three verses. Incredible. Here it is again. It is so beautiful.

¹³ On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵ When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.

(Acts 16.13-15)

One of our number—Slavko the Evangelist, from Sarajevo—was wanting to take the opportunity to bring a little devotional to us at the very site. And so it came to pass. Knowing Slavko a little bit—winsome and warm, appealing and convicting, direct and clear—I decided to record the 9.08min message. I am glad that I did. Here it is (sorry, I should have used ‘landscape’!)…

As it turned out, Slavko’s preaching was far more convincing than Oliver’s baptism. The slightly crazy Croat slipped into the (very) cold waters for what he referred to as an ‘upgrade’ of his baptism!

But Slavko was still not finished with us…

By the time we headed for home, we were well behind schedule. He decided to do the collaborative session on evangelistic preaching in the bus. So up they stepped, one by one—Slavko, Samuel and Zef—and on the journey from Philippi to Thessaloniki, with the tour guide’s microphone in hand, we had this brief, but stirring, presentation from a Herzegovinian, a Serbian and an Albanian. That first century Apostolic band would be well-pleased with their twenty-first century Balkan brothers.

nice chatting

Paul