Sunday afternoon/evening

Sunday night Kristin and I went to the Acropolis. The views were amazing and we got some pretty cool shots, but the coolest part happened when we were leaving the Parthenon area.

I asked a guy where Mars Hill was and he pointed to the place. (The place where Paul first preached the gospel when he came to Greece-Acts 16 or 17?) We went over to check it out, but when we got there, security and police were everywhere and there we stands set up all over, and a throne sitting on the top of Mars Hill. Turns out that June 29th is the day, every year, that the Greek Orthodox Church celebrates Peter and Paul bringing the gospel to Greece. The stands filled with people and car after car dropped off officials of the GOC and the Greek government. A procession of soldiers was followed by a band and then dozens of GOC priests in their black hats, black robes, and long beards.

We sat and talked for about 30 minutes to a very devout GO layperson. He explained many "miracles" within the GOC, and the differences between GOC and Catholicism. As Kristin started to ask him about the GOC's requirements for salvation, which happened to be very "works" dependent, he said that he had to go. All in all, it was a very interesting conversation and hopefully a seed was planted.

We watched the ceremony for about 20 minutes before moving on, but found the whole thing very interesting.
We left Mars Hill and headed for the Greek market place for some shopping and dinner. We had a great night and came back home to our hotel for some much needed sleep.