Festivals, Faces, and Feelings

This last week and a half has been full of some many different things, places and emotions.

The festivals have started and when we arrive at the square there are always kids waiting for us. They run and hug us and ask what craft we will do, or what games we will play. The square is always filled with laughter and screaming, and no matter what we do, the kids go crazy over it. Whether it’s a painting contest, making bracelets and hats out of newspaper, or water balloon fights, they all want to do it over and over. They don’t just paint one picture, they paint five. Over a hundred kids come out to the square and most of them come back every day. One little boy, named Rei, comes to the square out of breath from running the whole way there. He is so happy when we do crafts that he does them as fast as he can, then runs to give it to me and then runs back to start a new one. These kids glow under the love and attention that they get from us and in turn I am filled with joy because of them. A lot of these kids come from the community center that Courtney and Tolis started to give kids a place to come and grow and just be kids. They have built amazing relationships with the kids and love them as their own.

 In the mornings we divide our time between helping at a homeless ministry and helping at Nea Zoi. At the homeless ministry we boxed up lunches to pass out and gave clothes to people. One of the biggest impacts it had on me was the attitude of the lady I was helping hand out clothes. She wanted to make sure that anything we gave out was clean, with no holes or stains. She even tried to put together outfits for the women. She would not give anything that she would not wear herself. She treated them with such dignigty and respect that it challenged me to do the same.

Nea Zoi (New Life) is a ministry that seeks to build relationships with girls that work in prostitution. We were given an orientation yesterday and we were able to get a lot of information about the problem of trafficking in Greece as well as how Nea Zoi seeks to help the girls in it. It is completely overwhelming just to hear the information. We saw a map of an area and it had dots where all the brothels were, the map was covered in dots. Today, we went out on an outreach. Beth and I went as support for the groups actually going into the brothels. We stayed outside and prayed while the groups went in to talk with the girls and give them tea and cookies. My heart hurts for them, I was reminded of a line in a song that says “Break my heart for what breaks Yours” and that has definitely happened.

At the orientation Vicki reminded us of the parable of the lost coin. The woman searches her whole house and turns it upside down to look for a small coin, because it had worth and value. Then when she finds it she invites all of her neighbors to a party to celebrate her finding the lost coin. Vicki said that the thing about a coin is that it has two sides, one side with an image and the other with its worth. We are all image bearers and we all have worth that cannot be taken away. That is why we give the best clothes we have to the homeless person, because they have value and worth. That is why we build relationships with girls who are being prostituted, because their value is not a price that can be bought with money.

I am overwhelmed by the thoughts and feelings going on inside me, but God is working and is chipping my heart away so that I see people as He sees them so that I can love them as He loves them. 

Two weeks later.

The Akropoli. The view from our apartment in Athens.

Two weeks after arriving in Greece I still have to remind myself to take deep breaths. There are so many things that threaten to overwhelm me but so far I'm holding on. When we arrived, Beth and I got a brief introduction to Athens before we headed to Volos, Greece for a week an a half. Volos is a beautiful coastal town with beautiful people as well. My time there spent learning, learning and more learning. 

Volos.

I learned so many things from the pastor there, Meletis. I the first thing I learned  about was service and the difference that picking up trash can have on a community. We picked up trash on the highway and in a neighborhood and Meletis told us about the impact that the simple act of picking up trash has had on the community, it has opened doors with the Greek Orthodox Church that would be unheard of in other parts of Greece. I am so thankful that I got to be apart of it, we would be sweaty, filthy and exhausted each day but we were joyful because of what we were doing. Their approach to picking up the trash captured my heart: God created this world for His own glory and the trash represents our glory and our materialism. Creation groans because of the way we treat it and picking up the trash is a redemptive work and honoring what God created.

Inside an Orthodox church.

Another thing I learned, and will keep learning about for the rest of my time here in Greece, was about the Greek Orthodox Church. Greece is a very dark place spiritually even though it is considered a Christian nation. There are roughly 8,400 Greek Orthodox churches in Athens. There are roughly 5 Greek Evangelical churches in Athens. The more I learn about it, the more my heart aches for the Greek people. Everyone is Orthodox here, to be Orthodox is the same as being Greek for most people. Evangelicals are considered heretics. Orthodox people want to become holy through good deeds and kissing icons, and then they can have a relationship with God. A few days ago, I went in an Orthodox church and I watch one man kiss about twenty icons and cross himself and my heart hurt for him because he thought that kissing icons was a necessary step to become right with God. Another things I saw was the "Holy of Holies" where only the bishop can go. The doorway was covered by a black heavy curtain and an iron gate. It shook me up that they have a physical barrier between the people and communion with God. They don't understand that the curtain has been torn. 

On a lighter note, our days in Volos were filled with wonderful food, wonderful people, and wonderful sights. We ate our weight in fresh peaches and cherries from Meletis' village, amazing salad with whole slabs of feta on top, fresh bread, and ice cream everyday. We spent so many hours around the table talking, laughing and building relationships. The people from the church were so kind and welcoming and invited us into their lives to take part in what every they were doing, like watching the Euro Cup, going on walks, or taking us to the mountain villages where there are no cars, only donkeys. They taught us some Greek words, and were so patient with our mispronunciation of it. Beth and I now know about 15 words, but we are learning more everyday.  Volos is absolutely beautiful, it has a port with fishing boats all lined up, each with a Greek flag waving in the breeze. It also has amazing beaches with water so blue, you can't tell where the water ends, and the sky begins.

The sea. I jumped off of that big rock!

Laiki (market)