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SailingActs:
Following an Ancient Voyage
The Apostle Paul was one of the first century’s great travelers, covering at least 12,000 miles by land and sea. On these journeys he was shipwrecked, imprisoned, and attacked as a Jewish believer in Jesus in the pagan Roman Empire. This dramatic story was recorded in Acts by Luke, who traveled with Paul almost 2,000 years ago. SailingActs is likely the first book – since the book of Acts – written by someone who actually sailed the routes of St. Paul.
In 2004, Linford and Janet Stutzman undertook a 14-month voyage aboard their sailboat, which they christened “SailingActs,” spending time in all 54 cities, 37 harbors, 9 islands that Paul visited mentioned in Acts.
Buying a grimy, junk-filled, aging 33-foot sailboat in Greece off the Internet, Linford and Janet moved aboard, and for six weeks cleaned and repaired the boat while delicately negotiating through the maze of Greek and US bureaucracy in order to complete the paperwork. Then they set off, logging more than 4,000 miles over two sailing seasons.
Stutzman’s detailed knowledge of the sociopolitical setting in the first-century Roman empire, combined with his own sometimes alarming, often hilarious and occasionally profound experiences, brings St. Paul’s journeys vividly to life. |
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With Paul at Sea: Learning from the Apostle Who Took the Gospel from Land to Sea
Since the sabbatical voyages of 2004-05, Linford and Janet Stutzman have returned every summer to continue exploring the world of the Apostle Paul aboard SailingActs. Incorporating experiences, encounters, and insights that began during the sabbatical have continued in subsequent voyages, research and seminars, With Paul at Sea takes the reader into the first century world of the Mediterranean-centered Roman Empire, the precursor of twenty-first century of globalization. Like Acts, this is a first person account of exploration – the ruins, history, culture, myths, drama, violence, hopes and fears – of first century Romanization. Insights for navigating with confidence the storm-tossed and rising seas of today’s changing world are included throughout.
Suitable for both admirers and scorners of Paul and anyone else interested the achievements and relevance of the Apostle to the Gentiles including undergraduate and graduate students, Bible study groups, arm-chair adventurers, pastors, and theologians. |
