Iconium - and a bit of a rest!

Our time spent in Pisidian Antioch was short but effective. There hadn't been much opportunity to refresh ourselves after the long, mountainous trek into the city and then with such a rush to depart, we were glad to get to Iconium and stay planted for a while. It ended up being about 60 miles and at a higher elevation, so it was a bit of a harder go, but lovely and breezy and cool.

Naturally, we made our way to the synagogue, where we introduced ourselves to the Jewish folks and received the customary invitation to speak in the synagogue. We were faithful to our message of Christ's salvation, and many in the congregation - both Jews and God-fearers again - received salvation. And yet, again we had the unbelieving Jews who grew hostile towards us and went behind our backs, whispering to the new believers, sowing seeds of doubt and suspicion. This time though, we just kept on keeping on and took our message into the street. We preached and G-d showed up in signs and wonders!

So we did our best to promote the Gospel, the unbelieving Jews spread their dischord, and eventurally things came to a head. There was a huge split in public opinion and the city ended up in two factions - those that were for the Gospel and those that were against. That wasn't anything new to us of course - we had been facing persecution everywhere along our missionary path in some form or another. So, despite the rising tensions and opposition, we stayed a good, long while in the city. Eventually though, the anti-Christian party kicked things up a notch by somehow gaining the permission of the authorities to stone us. When we heard that, we decided that it was time to move on. We continued along the Via Sebaste to Lystra.