Knights Abroad
Reflecting on Our Trip to Europe
Dr. Robert Stacey
In March, a group of 12 Augustine School juniors and seniors, along with 5 parents, embarked on 17 days of travel throughout Mediterranean Europe. Stops along the marvelous journey included Rome, Barcelona, Mallorca, Sicily, Athens, Crete, Ephesus, and Naples/Pompeii. I had the honor and privilege of joining this remarkable group on their overseas adventure. Believe me when I tell you, God did more than just bless these travelers through the experience. It is fair to say that He changed our lives.
Our travels to so many significant classical locations across Europe brought us face-to-face with some of the truly great sites of Western Civilization—the Acropolis and Parthenon of Athens, the Colosseum and Caesar’s Forum in Rome, the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, and the tragic ruins of Pompeii to name a few.
To these vital sites were added several opportunities off the beaten tourist path—walking the remains of Aristotle’s Lyceum, standing on the foundations of the house-prison where Socrates drank the hemlock that ended his life, enjoying a stunning classical music concert on the shores of an underground lake deep within a Mallorcan cave, eating an unforgettable lunch in an open-air Barcelona market place where countless vendors sold every imaginable delicacy, strolling the same streets of Ephesus where the Apostle Paul would have walked. Reading aloud Paul’s sermon from Acts 17 on the very spot where he preached it. Any one of these moments might provide lifelong memories of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. Taken together, they are an indelible, unforgettable joy.
Perhaps our most significant experiences, however, were not chiefly about what we took in. I am so proud of all our Augustine students, but I wish all of you could have seen how these juniors and seniors absolutely radiated the love of Christ everywhere they went. Let me offer just two examples out of the many I could point out.
At the outset of our trip the students organized a daily activity we observed at every dinner. They would choose one person from our party and have everyone else gather around. Each member of the group would take turns declaring their “favorite thing” about that person. Can you imagine what it feels like to have 16 fellow believers state out loud the best things they see in you for all to hear? Imagine further all the other patrons seated nearby, seeing and hearing this. I can’t say how many times other diners commented to me or another parent about how they were moved to witness this daily outpouring of love for one another as they watched our students lift and build up one another in Christ without shame or apprehension.
A second example comes from our visit to a public amphitheater in Ephesus. The acoustics of the ancient construction were stunning, and we wondered if Paul himself had ever walked across the stage upon which we stood. Spontaneously, we began to sing Amazing Grace, and in that place it was uniquely beautiful. As we sang, the crowds of tourists—perhaps a hundred or more from all over the world—fell silent and listened as we sang the Gospel in the form of one Christendom’s greatest hymns. Who knows what fruit that single moment might bear.
There is no doubt this trip changed the lives of our students, but our students changed the lives of the people they met too! And our journey contributed to their education in a way no classroom could begin to replicate. It is my prayer that every one of our students will have the opportunity to participate in such a Christ-honoring experience as we prepare them for a life in service to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To God be the glory!
