First foot

I hope my Scottish friends/family forgive me for borrowing their Hogmanay tradition of 'first foot' for the title of this blog. This mosaic, in the town of Kavala (ancient Neapolis), celebrates the first Christian foot to step on to European soil - that of the apostle Paul. Some refer to him as St Paul, but Baptists rightly don't go in for 'Saints' as commonly understood. All Christians are 'saints' according to the Bible. Here is the whole mosaic, rather spoilt by a selfie with St David.
On the left you see the apostle Paul asleep in the port of Troas, across the other side of the Aegean sea in modern day Turkey. The figure in the middle is 'the man from Macedonia' who Paul saw in a dream, saying  “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9)
Paul and his companions "got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." (Acts 16:10) They landed somewhere in this bay.
Here he is, in all his resplendent saintly glory, setting foot in Europe.
Very little remains of ancient Neapolis today. The fort on top of the hill overlooking the harbour is from the Ottoman era, where an ancient acropolis once stood. Looks nice at night though.
On our journey here we did visit a city with some remains that Paul would have seen in all their former glory, Thessaloniki. I'm finding visiting these places inspirational, having read and studied the letters and history of the New Testament.
It was VERY hot in Thessaloniki so we quickly moved on to the most easterly destination of our European odyssey, Kavala, just 150 miles from the border with Turkey. Did Paul see the sun set behind these hills overlooking the harbour of ancient Neapolis?

Next up: the nearby ancient ruins of  Philippi. Really looking forward to visiting there. The apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians is one of my favourites.

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