Participants in Briercrest’s upcoming Greece/Turkey study tour will get to see Scripture come to life.

“I hope that people’s reading of the Bible will be transformed,” David Miller, associate professor of New Testament and co-leader for the tour said.

Assistant professor of theology Kevin Daugherty, who is also one of the tour leaders, sees the opportunity of visiting Greece and Turkey as “a double blessing”.

“Not only is the background of this area so important for the Bible,” he explained. “I teach theology and early Christian theology developed in that part of the world too.”

The tour scheduled for April 28-May 14 of 2013, focuses on Greco-Roman sites related to the journeys of Paul and the seven churches of Revelation.

“My understanding is that there are more and better preserved archeological remains from the Greco-Roman period in Turkey than there are in Greece,” Miller said. “Turkey is huge. Paul walked all over the place. When he talks about the sufferings he endured – although we’re going to be travelling on a tour bus – we’ll at least be able to imagine that better.”

The idea for study tours came from students.

“The first Israel tour (in 2009) came about from a student chatting with me,” Miller explained. “(I said) ‘If you get the ball rolling, I’ll organize it.’”

 “There’s something that deepens a person when they travel the world and interact with other cultures first hand,” Daugherty said. “There’s an intangible benefit that is hard to put into words.”

“I think it’s like going to Israel,” Miller explained. “To some extent it’s hard to discover afterward what changed as a result of going there, but you can never read the Bible the same after you’ve been to the place.”

The Greece/Turkey study tour is open to everyone. More details about the tour can be found here: http://www.briercrest.ca/studytour/about/