Your pilgrimage begins as you depart the USA on your international overnight flight.

You will arrive in Thessaloniki, Greece, where you will be met by our representative and transferred to your hotel for dinner and overnight.

Follow in the footsteps of Paul and Silas to Amphipolis and explore the ruins of the many Christian basilicas. In Philippi is a baptismal site commemorating where God opened the heart of Lydia (a seller of purple from Thyatira) to hear the words of Paul (Acts 16:13-15). Lydia and her household were the first Christian converts baptized on European soil. View the Roman-era crypt thought to have served as a prison for the apostle Paul, and explore Philippi’s famous Acropolis, Market Place, the Basilica of Paul, and Theater. Today’s last stop is Neapolis (Kavala), one of Greece’s most picturesque mainland ports where Paul landed with his disciples, Timothy and Silas. See the Roman Aqueduct and Acropolis before continuing to Kalambaka for dinner and overnight.

After your short tour of Thessaloniki today, you travel to Vergina to visit King Phillip’s (Alexander’s father) tomb in Vergina, one of the most outstanding archeological finds in all of Greece. Then we drive to the breathtaking rocks of Meteora. As you visit the rock forest of Meteora (“in the heavens above”) in western Thessaly, imagine the apostle Paul walking that treacherous terrain on his missionary journey. Gaze up at the breathtaking Byzantine monasteries spectacularly perched on soaring, sheer-sided grey sandstone pillars. In the 13th century, monks sought refuge in cliff-side caves before fleeing higher to build the original wooden shelters that later became these monasteries. After a monastery tour, you go to your hotel in Kalambaka for dinner and overnight.

Today you travel south to scenic Delphi, religious center of the ancient Greek world and marked by the conical stone called the omphalosor (“navel”). Walk the Sacra Via to the Athenian Treasury, Theatre and the Temple of Apollo, where the oracle performed her prophetic rituals. As you consider the incredible amount of pagan influence just in Delphi alone, you will gain a new appreciation for the religious history here. In the Museum are many ancient treasures, including the 5th century bronzed Charioteer, so detailed you can see his eyelashes. Continue to Athens for overnight.

Tour the ruins of Corinth, where the apostle Paul founded a church that would serve as his base of operations in Greece and Macedonia. Here he lived for months at a time and wrote several letters, including his most famous, Romans. Observe how Corinth sits on a narrow land bridge or isthmus between upper and lower Greece, acting as both a naval and overland hub of travel. In this highly cosmopolitan setting, Paul struggled with his fledgling church, ultimately leaving us two great letters of his pastoral advice. Stop briefly at the port town of Cenchreae from which Paul later departed for Syria (Acts 18: 12-18). Return to Athens for dinner and overnight.

Today visit the ancient city of Epidaurus. The theatre at Epidaurus is the best-preserved example of a classical Greek amphitheatre in the Mediterranean. The theatre can hold 14,000 people, and it has been said that you can ‘hear a pin drop,’ in the center of the theatre stage from the top row. Next, visit Mycenae and tour the monumental site which King Agamemnon, a key figure in Homer’sIliad, called his home. Here take time to look upon the impressive Lion Gate. Even headless, the lions convey a sense of the power and majesty that was Mycenae. Continue up to the citadel to Grave Circle A, a cemetery of royal tombs that dates from 16th century BC. Return to Athens for dinner and overnight.

Board the ship and sail the blue waters of the Aegean Sea. In the evening, you will arrive at the world-famous Greek Island of Mykonos, where gleaming white-washed buildings seem to climb atop each other to reach the azure sky.

This morning, you arrive in Kusadasi, Turkey, and journey to Ephesus, where the apostle Paul spent three years of his ministry. He planted a church here and later wrote to them in his Epistle to the Ephesians. Many of the ruins of Ephesus (known as “the marble city”) have been restored to show the city as it was in the apostle John’s time. Visit the Agora and imagine where Demetrius the silver- smith, sold his silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. Stroll through the great theater where Paul witnessed faithfully for Christ. Not far away is the stadium where chariot races took place and gladiatorial combats were held. Tradition has it that the Apostle Paul himself fought here against wild beasts. Visit the ruins of St. John’s Basilica, where early Christian tradition tells us the “disciple whom Jesus loved” was buried. View one of the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”, the ruins of the Temple of Diana (Artemis) before setting sail for the Island of Patmos to visit the Monastery of St. John, high on the mountain overlooking the entire island. Walk down to the Grotto of the Apocalypse and the caves where it is believed that the exiled Apostle John lived and was inspired by God to write the Book of Revelation as well as other letters to the early church.