Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter Seven
“What this world needs is a new kind of army—the army of the
kind.”
—Cleveland Amory
I
lay down in the back of the Bulgarian truck driver's cab—or what Mihali called
“home”—trying to find a comfortable position to sleep. I had met Mihali at a truck stop, and
he had offered me a place to stay for the night, in the not-so-large bed of the truck that he
used to transport lumber across Europe.
Mihali had kindly cooked me dinner and given me a place to rest, even if it was next to a
large, snoring Bulgarian. But more than that, Mihali had offered me the opportunity to make
an important detour on my journey.
We had been having tea before retiring to his truck, when he told me about the city of
Ephesus: “It is most beautiful city, friend. City of all faiths. You will be different man for
visit city.”
I had become fluent by now in broken English, and from Mihali's description, it sounded
like a trip to Ephesus would be a perfect farewell to Turkey. Even though it was a few hun-
dred miles off course.
The ancient city of Ephesus is located in southern Turkey and was once home to the
apostle Paul. Historians believe that most of his writings, including those that later became
the topic of Acts in the New Testament, were written in Ephesus. It wasn't just the religious
story that appealed to me, however. As Mihali spoke, I thought back to when I was very
young and learned the stories of Paul and the Apostles in Sunday school. I still remembered
those words from Paul: “So these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest
of these is love.”
In many ways, it was that sentiment that was driving me east through the ancient lands of
our ancestors—Christian, Muslim, Jewish—to experience the birthplaces of so many of the
world's major religions. I wouldn't call myself a religious man, but I have come to believe
