Turkish Cloned Sheep and Other Thoughts

I wonder if it will be ok to sacrifice cloned sheep? Turkey just announced their successful attempt at sheep cloning, as Muslims are getting ready to sacrifice lambs.

I’ve spent a lot of time the last couple of days working on the finalization of the Greece/Turkey portion of my travels; still not finished. There is so much to consider and so much to figure out. I’ve been working through a biblical atlas and a modern atlas, trying to figure out what the modern names are for ancient places. I am learning much about geography.

In Greece I am staying in Athens for a few days. I am definitely going to Thessalonika for a couple of days. While there I will try figure out how to get to ancient Berea. The Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians, you know. It’s less than a hour away.

A lot of my time in these places will be unstructured, so I will have to figure out how to get around. That alone could be interesting. I am still working on getting to Corinth and Philippi. All these places were not in my original plans, but they are relatively close to where I am going to be and seem “doable.”

In Turkey I have a lot of things set. I have a private guide for the 7 Churches of Asia Minor, and I have a few days set aside to experience Ephesus. I will be based in Kusadasi, which seems like a neat place. I have several days in Istanbul, which is ancient Constantinople. At lot of early church stuff took place there. From there I will do a few things, like go to Nicea where some very important church councils took place. The one in 325 is very important, and then one in 787, the Seventh Ecumenical Council, dealt with the use of icons. I am also trying to figure out how to get to Troas and Troy.

We are trying to get ready for the first trip. In light of Eastern trip (Russia, Greece, and Turkey) the one to Australia and New Zealand seems fairly easy, but there is still a lot of stuff to do. I think the next few days are going to be fairly active getting ready to go back to where we’ve been. I’ve let my other trip overshadow this first one, but it’s now time to begin focusing on it.

I am still finding myself wanting to hurry and rush. I’ve been doing it for so long...

It reminds me of the Alabama song, I’m in a Hurry to Get Things Done (But Don’t Know Why)

I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why

Sabbath is the answer, and this sabbatical, I think, is going to help me see that I don’t have live like this.

Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.