From the city of Ephesus to the port city of Troas was a journey, on foot, of 349km (about 217 miles). In the spring this would have taken about 12 days of hard walking. From Troas, a boat across the Thracian Sea to Neapolis in Macedonia would have only taken...

The sowing of a seed is such a common thing that it sometimes escapes us how marvelous and counter-intuitive it is. Imagine being asked to sow seeds if you had never heard of the idea or seen it done before! With a field of nothing but lifeless dirt all scratched...

I was in my final summer as a seminary student when I conducted my first funeral. The grandfather of a little boy Tara cared for had died, and his wife asked me if I would do his funeral. We had lived in a guest house for two years in exchange...