My wife and I, on behalf of Reformed Theological Seminary, are hosting a Reformation Heritage Tour. This wonderful travel and learning opportunity is scheduled for July 1-11, 2009. This once in a lifetime trip will begin in “Luther Land” in the shining renewed capital of Berlin, Germany. We will visit Luther’s famous seminary where I am hoping to lecture on “Justification by Faith Alone.” We will see the church door at Wittenburg and the Wartburg Castle where he wrote the anthem of the Reformation: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. After pausing to ponder the beauty of Heidelberg and worshipping there on the Lord’s Day, we will travel to Strasbourg where Martin Bucer taught and pastored. This relatively little known reformer, who was John Calvin’s teacher and pastor, is one of my favorites. We will tour the great cathedral before traveling on to Geneva. There we will join with believers from all over the world to participate in the Calvin 500 birthday celebrations of this great Reformer.
We will enjoy the Reformation monument, worship at St. Pierre’s (Calvin’s church), and hear a lecture on John Knox at the church where he pastored to an English exiled congregation after he fled for his life from his native Scotland. Then we will depart from beautiful Geneva for an overnight train ride through the Alps and arrive in Rome.
Why Rome on a Reformation Heritage tour? Well, Rome is the perfect place to get a context for the Reformation. We will enjoy the Vatican’s repository of Western Civilization’s greatest art and treasures. You will be able to visit some of the great sites of ancient and modern Rome.
All along the way we will enjoy devotionals, singing, and fellowship and there will be plenty of free time for shopping and sight-seeing on your own. Mr. Luther Bigby will serve as the official tour administrator, on-site at all times for your convenience. Combine all of this with top-of-the-line accommodations and plenty of elbow-room on the touring coach, and we promise you the trip of a lifetime.
I hope you will consider this tour of Germany, Switzerland and Rome as an investment in life long learning. Perhaps someone will even sponsor a student to go along!
A WORD OF APPRECIATION:
RTS hosted a tour this fall to Greece. Here are some sentences from a “thank you” note that one of the guests wrote us:
December 2008
Dear Friends – I have realized I have told just about everyone I know what a wonderful trip our October adventure was – and that I would never read the Bible the same way after having been in the places where Paul traveled/lived/ministered… I have not told YOU how much I enjoyed sharing the days with each of you! Wasn’t it just a great trip! So, THANK YOU! Luther – for all your planning and pre-arrangements. Lewis and Melissa – for your sharing of your many gifts with us, thus the smoothing over of any bumps in our international travels, anticipating and meeting our needs before we even knew we would have them!
John and Dennis for presenting fascinating studies about Paul and his letters and the necessary background info – and for being so patient in answering the myriad of questions from your students! To Charlie and Connie for being the go-to folks, who made it happen! And, to the rest of you brothers and sisters in Christ – thanks for sharing the adventure! Because of our spending this time together, we have been embedded in each other’s spiritual journey!
As we enter the Advent season and as I prepare to welcome the Christ child, I find myself marveling once again at the Christmas story – HIS story. I marvel at the way the Lord prepared hearts to receive the Good News and I am thankful, in a more experiential way now, for Paul – in a way I never really appreciated him before! Something about standing on the Via Egnatia or before the bema in Corinth or on the Areopagus in Athens or looking at the remains of all the pagan temples where he was declaring Christ! I know you know what I mean!
To those of you whom we will never see again – Au Ciel ( until heaven!) To you others – I look forward to hugging your neck and tripping over each other’s words with “Do you remember…” and “Wasn’t that just …”
And have a wonderful holiday! May the Spirit of the Christ child be with you as you celebrate His birth this year!
In Christ’s love,
Marty and Larry Grimes