The Roman Road

Yesterday was fabulous and just built on the great time we had in Sofia on Monday night. We left Sofia about 10:30am and traveled by car not quite two hours east to Plovdiv. This is truly an ancient city and was the seat of the Roman empire in this area centuries back. It has a much older feel than Sofia. There is even some scholarly debate, apparently, that this city was the Philipi that Paul wrote to. The Roman name for Plovdiv was Philipopolis, and the geography of the area matches the Biblical description as well. Evidence of purple dye making has even been found.

We met Marina Dimitrova who took us her own renovated apartment where we settled in and had a break for an hour or so. I liked her right away. She has been remodeling the place for two years, and it is beautiful. After she gets a refrigerator and washing machine, she will move in in September. So, we felt pretty special being able to stay there. About 2:30pm we met with a group of pastors from in and around Plovdiv, laid out our purpose and vision, and took questions. As always, a big area of interest was home-schooling. It is not legal here, and there was much interest in what could be done to both change the law and homeschool in spite of it.

After that meeting and another dinner at "Happy," we went to Life Through Christ Church near the old town for another meeting with interested lay leaders. There were about 25 people there including business people, teachers, and even a judge. Bruce and Darin shared briefly and then we all took part in a panel discussion taking questions and expounding further on what was said. There were some good business questions that I was able to address. It was a great meeting. About a dozen people gave us their contact information for follow-up, and we were really charged up when we left.

As I said, Plovdiv is a very old city. We left the evening meeting and drove to the old town. After stopping in a fantastic Internet cafe, we walked down the main street of Plovdiv. To start, you walk >past an archaeological museum that houses a Roman mosaic floor, intact, from a house that has been excavated. That lies directly next to a Roman road from the 2nd century! And that road is a part of the main walking street. We walked right down a 2nd century road! It was amazing and we were all sort of in awe. As we walked past all of the shops, we came to part of a Roman stadium, also from the 2nd century and well-preserved. Incredible. Another late night but the day was worth it. It was fabulous! More to come...