Ahh...Venice !!

We left Memphis and flew a whole 50 minutes before laying over in Atlanta for four hours. Then came the longest plane trip I've ever endured, an eight and a half hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. After being rushed through the airport and having my passport stamped for the first time in my life, we were bussed out onto the runway to walk up to our plane. This began the final leg of the journey, our plane ride over the beautiful Swiss Alps to Venice.

We arrived at Venice and was taken to our hotel. We stayed one night there and had a tour the next day. But it was this day that we had two very memorable things, one being the best Pizza ever in a little town just outside Venice and the other a very cold Gondola ride through Venice. Then after some shopping, it was back to the hotel where we slept and got ready for our official touring to begin.

The tour around Venice was truly exciting and informational. If you had asked me before the trip where I thought my most spiritual experience would have come, I would probably had said from Patmos or some place where Paul had traveled. But I would have been wrong.

We toured through St. Mark's basilica without much moving in me other than possibly hunger. But after the tour of the city we had some free time before boarding our ship. There were four of us together and one of the group wanted to go back into the basilica. So we did. The second time around we went to the back of the church where the altar was. We had to pay 1.5 Euros to go back there (the best money spent on the trip). But when we got back there it hit me where I was.

I was standing next to where the actual remains of Mark (the gospel writer) were laid. I began breathing funny and felt weak all of a sudden. It's like God was telling me that I was truly on holy ground. I just stood there and took in all the beauty of the painted walls and the altar that was over the place where the man who wrote the gospel that I've been preaching out of this year laid. This was a man who sat with Peter and learned from him. This was a man who had been inspired by God to write the first gospel. This was a man who truly had been touched by God. And I was right there where his remains were laid, if only for a short while.

The experience so overwhelmed me that I had to go over to the chapel area and get on my knees and pray. What an experience! I will always love the sights and cafes and small walkways of Venice. But nothing will ever stand out in my mind as much as the day I visited St. Mark's basilica. Ahh...Venice !!