Friday, July 17, 2009

Playing in Patmos...

Day three of our cruise through Greece and Turkey was spent in Patmos, Greece. Jill, Jimmy, Josh and I opted not to go into Patmos for the guided tour...instead we went scuba diving! It was the first time for Jimmy and I and we had so much fun! We also enjoyed some other activities on the boat that afternoon. On Patmos, our group toured the Monastery of Saint John and saw the cave were the Apostle John supposedly wrote the book of Revelation. Everyone said that we didn't miss much on the tour, so we were happy with our decision to scuba dive!

A little history and biblical significance on Patmos...

Patmos is located at the northwestern end of a group of islands known as the Dodecanese. It is 10 miles long from north to south and about 6 miles wide at its widest point along the northern coast. Patmos was one of the many places to which Rome banished exiles. The Apostle John was banished from Ephesus to Patmos in the 14th year of the reign of Domitian (A.D. 95). He remained there for a year until after Domitian's death in A.D. 96, when he is said to have returned to Ephesus. The Book of Revelation was written by John while he was in exile on Patmos because of his faith....

I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a sound of a trumpet, saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches" Rev. 1: 9-11

Sailing into Patmos...



The Monastery of Saint John...


A cute little sail boat sailing next to ours...

Getting ready for our dive...we were so hot in our wet suits...the water was chilly, but it felt great!

Getting a quick "lesson" from our instructor, Ivan...

Scuba Steve...

Jill and Jimmy...

Josh and Jimmy climbed the mast...



They didn't get to go all the way to the top, but they were way up there! You can barely see them in this picture...

A little closer...

Love this picture of them!

The water was incredibly smooth that day...it was mesmerizing!

The bow of our sail boat...

Josh standing on the bow...

Playing in the nets...it was so much fun (and a little scary)!

Mom and Jill relaxing...

Our shadows in the water...

Jimmy and I at sunset...


Stay tuned for Ephesus...one of my favorite stops on our trip!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Two friends and I are taking a cruise this July. I was searching for scuba diving at Patmos and clicked on your blog in google's search results. Sounds like you had a great time. I am just wondering where you found the information on crews to take you out diving? Thank you much, Jim (Dayton, OH)

Mindy Rives said...

Hi Jim!

We were on a cruise and the crew from our ship actually took us scuba diving. We did not hire a crew from Patmos, although I'm sure there are companies that do that there.

Good luck!

Best,
Mindy

Unknown said...

Mindy,

Thank you much for the response. Unfortunately, our excursions don't include diving, but like you say, I am sure there will be opportunity to hire someone there.

Thank you again!

Jim