September 30, 2006 - Saturday

September 30, 2006 – Saturday

Today was Saturday, our last day of service here in Athens, Greece. Our team debriefed and had a devotional time in the morning before heading over to the ARC for Tea House. Before leaving the house, Jean Y had me do a photo walkthrough of the house and take a picture of every room and hallway in the house so that she could have a record of it. It’s a pretty good idea, now we will have pictures to show you of where we Enjoyed God through Worship, Encouraged one another through Community, and Engaged the world through Mission (to quote Southside Fellowship’s three environments). ;)

After I was done with those photos, I left the house and arrived at 9:30AM and immediately got to work preparing the food bags to give away. I was only a couple of minutes ahead of the rest of the team, so we all arrived about the same time.

I was in the middle of the line today, tying the bags that contained olives and peppers (bagged by Jean A) and handing them to David who then put it in a larger bag with some bread, napkins, and hard-boiled eggs. We prepared bags for families (with larger quantities) and then moved on and made bags for singles.

After we were done, we all gathered for prayer time. A few people shared requests, and then we specifically prayed for the ministry and the refugees that God would bring through the doors today.

When we were finished praying, jobs were assigned. I was appointed to serve outside of the kitchen with Mark and hand out the bags of food. It was fun to serve in a different are that I had not helped out with before. Mark would accept the tickets from people coming in, and tell me how many. Family bags were in quantities of 3, and singles were obviously 1. So, 4 tickets would be one family bag and one single bag. Or, 4 single bags. However I wanted to count it out, really. It was a fun task and I did not get bored or feel unused while doing it.

I pretty much was involved with this task all day long. After 1pm, they do not require tickets for food, so that sped up the process of giving away the rest of the food bags that remained. We had plenty of tomatoes to go around today too, so T* (name removed for refugee) went around and gave out the rest of those.

I helped with the sweeping, mopping, mopping, and mopping during the cleanup time today. When we were done cleaning, all of our team from SC (that was present) met with Scott in the children’s room, where he again thanked us for helping out these past two weeks, and prayed for us as we prepare to leave.

After that, it was time to say goodbye to the rest of the team. Photos were taken, hugs were given, that sort of thing. It has really been great to make new friends these past two weeks, serving alongside of the missionaries that God has placed here. So, as you pray for us coming home, please pray that these missionaries will continue to have the eagerness in their heart to pursue God with the work He is doing here.

Before we left, I booted up my laptop really quick and posted another blog entry (Friday’s). I wasn’t sure if we’d have another internet connection available before coming back home to Greenville.

When we got back to the guest house, everyone brought down the luggage we had packed earlier, and we all got ready to leave. A final run-through was performed to make sure we had not unintentionally left anything, and we were on our way.

We walked towards the Monistraki metro station, and turned down a different street to our hotel, Hotel Attalos. We are staying at this hotel because it is close to the airport and we have an early flight.

After everyone had some time to relax from the day, we all met downstairs in the hotel street lobby at 6:15PM for dinner. Jean and Skip had reservations at a nearby restaurant. We all ordered appetizers and then some of us ordered meals as well. I was strongly encouraged to try some of the different appetizers. I tried the fried eggplant (tastes like potatoes) and I also tried the beetroots (ugh). I ordered a burger and immensely enjoyed that, especially considering that I had skipped breakfast and had not eaten lunch.

We debriefed one last time as a team and enjoyed community and fellowship. We all met in Jean and Skip’s room (and, these rooms are pretty small, but we managed to fit all 9 of us in there). First, we started out singing some songs and worshipping, and then we shared stories from the week of how we saw God work. Kerry led us all in Communion. After that, we all picked one of the other team member’s name from a bag and wrote a letter to that person to then read aloud, about how we saw Christ in them during this trip. That was a fun exercise, to see how we all perceived each other and how God was really a part of this trip. After that, we sang a few more songs, answered some debriefing questions, and then we were dismissed.

I am able to pick up a free wireless internet connection from our room (David and I are roommates… again) so that has been great. I have been able to catch up on emails and messages. I even called a few people on Skype (great internet-to-phone service) but I ran out of free credits in the middle of a call.

Our flight leaves at 5:30AM (Greece time), so we have to be there a couple of hours early, which means we are leaving the hotel at like 2:30AM. We will have a short flight to Amsterdam (about 2-3 hours) and then a long flight overseas to Atlanta, and then a long drive back up to Greenville.

I may post one final catch-up blog when we return to Greenville as time allows. I hope you all enjoyed reading these updates as much as I enjoyed writing them and making myself laugh while re-living each day through writing. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to update the blog as often as we did.

We’ll be home soon! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. Don’t forget to come to our return summary meeting on October 14 to hear personal stories and see some pictures. No, I don't know what time the meeting is. But I can post that when I find out.

-Joe

September 29, 2006 - Friday

September 29, 2006 - Friday

Today was another work project day. We all stayed at the guest house and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. We started out the morning with our team debrief and devotional time. I think it is great that we have really all enjoyed this devotional time. It can be easy to just ignore it or “skip” devotions since we are doing God’s work here anyway. Many of you received the prayer calendar that mentioned specific things and items to pray for, along with verses, etc. That is exactly what we have been using for our team devotional time. Granted, we’re probably doing it 7 hours ahead of you, but we are still on the same page! Just a neat concept, I thought.

We finished our devotional time around 9:30AM (We all agreed to a 30-minute late start today). After that, we assigned cleaning duties for the rest of the house (bathrooms, kitchen, etc.—places we had not cleaned on Wednesday). I was assigned the task of organizing some pictures to give to the long-term Athens team members here.

Kerry, Cynthia, and I left around 10:30 to go to the ARC. Kerry had left his backpack in the office there, and I was asked to bring the shop-vac back to the house again. Cynthia came along to write a quick email and to run an errand. When we arrived at the ARC, we stopped in the office. Mr. Ali was there and on the computer, so he stepped up for a few minutes to let me post some blog entries while Cynthia used the other computer. Then, we grabbed the shop-vac and came back.

On the way back to the guest house, we took some pictures of Kerry holding the vacuum and me using the nozzle and “single-handedly cleaning up the streets of Athens”. I’ll have to show you the picture when we get back. The local Greeks were no doubt quite confused as to why we crazy Americans were taking a vacuum down the streets and pretending to clean with it.

When we got back, I helped David sweep and mop the laundry room downstairs. While we were cleaning, Skip yelled down the stairs if we wanted gyros for lunch. Who could turn down that kind of offer? So, he went and got lunch for everyone.

After lunch, I finished the slideshow selection and burned it to a CD. I was then called upon for my fan-cleaning abilities and I had to go downstairs to clean a fan. Here is an observation. It might not be the best idea to brush your hair in front of a fan. This fan had so much hair wrapped around the motor, I’m surprised it still worked. Anyway, I took the whole thing apart and took all of that out, soaked all of the plastic parts, scrubbed and rinsed it all down, and put it back together. It looks like new, I hope it stays that way for a while. At least until after I leave… ;)

For the rest of the afternoon, if we weren’t packing or filling out our team debrief survey, we could really do whatever we wanted. So, I watched the rest of the Mr Bean episodes left on my computer, while everyone else just relaxed and rested. David finished watching the “Ghandi” movie that he had started here. I watched part of it with him but could not watch for long. The tv’s here run at a different refresh rate than those in America. I think it’s about 50Hz but I’m not sure. That is what it looked like. Anyway, my computer nerds/friends will know what I’m talking about. Looking at a low refresh rate always gives me a headache.

Ilir and Kate showed up around 3:30pm. They stayed for a few minutes and then we all walked to the metro station at Monistraki. We all got on the metro headed towards Evangelismos. When we got off, Ilir and Kate left in another direction. We continued on and met Susan to go hike Mount Likavitos.

Mount Likavitos is the highest point in Athens, Greece. From the top of the mountain, you can get a 360° view of the entire city. Only Susan, Kerry, David, and myself participated in the hike, although other team members might feel differently about that. Let me say it this way, the four of us were the only ones originally willing to hike. The rest of the team had decided to take a taxi to the train which takes you to the top of the mountain. As it turns out, they were unable to get a taxi and had to walk. From what I understand, they walked in the wrong direction uphill for a bit, had to turn around, go back, etc. They finally made it up there.

The hike was relatively easy, from my perspective. And that’s from someone who never hikes or does anything like this. I just figured it would be good exercise. We stopped periodically to catch our breath and pray. Susan showed us several popular “views” as we went up, and would give us a specific item or task to pray for as we went on.

When we got to the top, we all took some time to pray over Athens. There really was no better spot than Likavitos for this. The view is amazing. You can literally see the entire city. So, we spent some time praying for the people that God has put here and for those He will bring here.

After everyone else finally arrived, we stayed for about 30 minutes and then walked back downhill on a different route than before. Jean and Skip took the train back down while the rest of us walked. When we arrived at the bottom, we walked down some streets and got on the metro. We took the metro to Ambelokipi and had dinner at this nice Italian restaurant.

During dinner, Susan shared some personal stories from her experiences here. She then asked us about things that were “good”, things that were “bad”, and “ways to improve” on the ministry here. We all had a lot of good constructive comments and suggestions. I personally think that everything here is run really well. Although I might just be saying that because I know that Scott started reading my blogs a few days ago. ;) But seriously, it was great to be a part of this team and serve in the way that we did.

After dinner, we went back to the metro station and came home.

Please continue to pray for Erika and Jean Y. They are not quite back to full health yet. Just some sort of stomach virus thing going around I think… probably from being in the kids room at the ARC with all of the children would be my guess…

Tomorrow is our last day of service. It is a tea house day. Many pictures will no doubt be taken. After we are done, we are taking all of our bags and checking in to a hotel for a 5:30AM flight. We have to be at the airport at like 3:30AM, which means we have to leave the hotel at 2:45AM, which means I won’t get any sleep tomorrow night, which means I should probably finish this blog and go to bed now.

-Joe

September 28, 2006 - Thursday

September 28, 2006

Today was Thursday. A Tea house day. We had a team debrief at 8:30AM this morning before heading over to the ARC. I didn’t really sleep that well last night and had a bit of an upset stomach, but it wasn’t too bad. Jean Y and Erika really felt bad though. Erika stayed home all day and tried to rest. I think Jean might have outdone herself with trying to work under illness. She eventually left to rest for a while.

I spent most of the day in the office, working on the project for Scott (with the Mr Bean dvd’s). He gave it a high priority and said I could stay in there all day if needed. So, I got started right away. I wasn’t feeling superb anyway, so it was great to be able to sit and just rest for a while.

While working on the dvd project, I also helped Mr. Ali with his laptop (he was in the office most of the day too). His power adapter had a short in it, and whenever he couldn’t get it to power up, he would occasionally pinch the cable and tape it back together. I knew that this wasn’t the best thing to do, so I took the tape off, cut both ends, and stripped back the wire and pieced it back together, taping the wires separately so that it wouldn’t happen again.

I finished with the DVD around 1pm. It took a while to encode, rip, burn, etc. so I just surfed the internet and showed Mr. Ali how to do some stuff on his computer. I showed him how to download some pictures off of his email and save them to his jump drive, transfer to his laptop, etc.

After a while, I left the office to help clean up from tea house. Kerry and I wiped down the tables, and then I went around and mopped them. Jean A, Skip, and I swept and mopped the floors.

We finished all of that around 3:30pm. Instead of heading home, we met Nadir at the ARC and he took us to his house for dinner. It was a long metro ride and walk but well worth it. Ella is a fantastic cook and she prepared a lot of great food for us. I have been asked to specifically mention the food in this blog, so here you go. We had white rice, steamed vegetables with chicken, fried chicken, lentils/noodles with chicken, spring rolls, and a special Persian dish involving corn stew and fries. It was a bit of a Persian/Filipino dinner. While we enjoyed dinner, Nadir shared his story of how he found Jesus.

On the way home, we took the metro back to Omonia Square. When we first got on the train, I heard “Chariots of Fire” playing over the music system in the station. I immediately started whistling the theme. No one else did. Sometimes, you have to be willing to be the first person to try something, even if no one else joins in. And I’m ok with that.

When we came back home, everyone sort of informally gathered in the library. Erika came downstairs, feeling a little bit better. Jean Y immediately went upstairs to bed.

After talking for a while, I turned on my laptop and started watching some episodes from the Mr. Bean dvd that just so happened to stay on my computer… Before I knew it, everyone had gathered around to watch as well. We all enjoyed some great comedy portrayed through Rowan Atkinson.

While watching, I was told from across the room that I apparently got Karen in trouble for writing about our ice cream stops. Charlie supposedly heard about it from several people who have been reading this blog. Great to know that we have a lot of readers though! So anyway, I am in trouble for getting Karen in trouble. So, let’s not get Joe in trouble anymore.

I went ahead and got my team debrief questions done and out of the way tonight. I didn’t want to have those looming over me as this trip draws to a close.

Tomorrow is another work project day. We are all stationed here at the house to clean and organize. I think I might be working on a slideshow or something to give to the ARC team before we leave…

Well, I’m out to go take a shower and then watch some Mr. Bean before going to bed.

-Joe

September 27, 2006 - Wednesday

September 27, 2006

Today was our work projects day. I was stationed at the guest house along with Jean A, Jean Y, Cynthia, and Kerry. Everyone else was at the ARC doing projects. We started by cleaning all of the bedrooms. We quickly discovered that we lacked a powerful vacuum, so I was sent to retrieve the shop-vac from the Center to use at the house. I got a lot of weird looks as I was carrying a vacuum down the streets but hey, if I’m not used to weird looks by now…

So, I brought that back and received my first assignment: Cleaning the fans. There are several floor fans stationed throughout the rooms of the house, since it lacks central air conditioning. I started with the two fans in the room that David and I are staying in. I took each one apart, took the grills, propellers, and plastic pieces and washed them.

I started washing them in the kitchen sink but was quickly scolded so I moved down to the men’s shower downstairs. I cleaned each fan this way. They look like brand new now! I also fixed one fan that was “broken”. It just needed a good whack on the side, like all things electric do sometimes.

We cleaned the kitchen, dining room and library also, vacuuming each area and working until the room was completed. Around lunch time, Jean A and I went out to grab some stuff from the market for the fellowship dinner tonight and also some lunch to bring back. Everyone else had decided to just snack on food that we already had there.

We continued cleaning until about 3:30. I took the vacuum back to the ARC. On the way, I saw David and Erika coming home. While going up the steps to the ARC, I passed two people on the stairs that were just passed out from having just participated in some sort of illegal narcotic activity. I dropped off the vacuum and checked my email and posted some blog entries.

When I got back to the guest house, I changed clothes and got ready to go with everyone else to the McCracken house for a fellowship time to meet the newest long-term family addition, the Cotrells. We had to walk to the metro station at Monistraki, and then take a subway to Ethniki, the station closest to Scott’s house. When we got off the train, we had to wait for Paul to show up and take us the rest of the way on foot. We were a bit early, so we all just sat down in the corner of the station and waited.

It was a bit of a walk the rest of the way, but it wasn’t too bad. We took a bus for most of it, and walked through a neighborhood for the rest. We finally arrived after a few minutes of walking. We came in and were greeted by many people. There were about 25 people there altogether, with all of the other team members.

We had a potato bar for dinner. It was really good. Everyone sat around the house and talked during dinner and enjoyed fellowship. I was in a seat surrounded by other people, but all of the other people were involved in their conversations, so all I could do was listen. I would turn to one group and listen for a while, and then turn to another and listen for a while. It worked out pretty well. I was able to listen to just about every conversation in the room without having to say a word.

After dinner, we all played “two truths and a lie”. For those who have not gathered the definition of this game from the title, several people would tell two things that were true, and one thing that was not. We had to guess which one was the lie. It’s a good thing that they didn’t ask me to play. I can be extremely creative with my answers and I’m pretty good at lying with a straight face.

Before we left, Scott asked if I could handle a special project for him. Susan described it, “the reason I am here, for such a time as this”. He had some Mr. Bean dvd’s that he wanted to show at the ARC, but a few of the episodes were just not appropriate for that environment and he wanted to know if I could remove them. So, I told him that I could and thought to myself that I would figure out how to actually do that later.

When it was time to leave, instead of having to walk all of the way back to the station, Scott and Ilir drove us to the metro station. David and I, along with Nadir and his wife Ella, rode in Ilir’s vehicle, and the rest of our team rode with Scott.

We took the metro back to Omonia Square and walked the rest of the way home. When we got home, I was challenged to another game of Blokus. I lost again, continuing on with my losing streak.

Well, that just about wraps up this blog. Tomorrow is another tea house day. I know that for part of the day, I will be working on fixing a laptop that we brought with us. I have to install an operating system on it and get some stuff installed on it. That should be fun…

-Joe

General Observations from Kerry Buttram

September 27, 2006

Athens refugee ministry has been a great experience from several angles (IMHO). One has been the opportunity to build relationships with brothers and sisters from across the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia. Many have come through tremendously tough circumstances. Most are separated from their families and some would have serious threats on their physical well-being if they were to return to their homelands. It is a privilege to reflect the love of Jesus at such a critical time in their lives.

God brought an unexpected blessing to our team. We got to serve alongside another short-term mission team. They are not from North America but from Egypt! Their congregation sends out many teams and long-term workers to places like southern Spain (partnering with another US congregation serving North African refugees) and about 7 or 8 other locations around the Middle East. Egyptian Arabic is (I’m told) understood by most other Arabic speakers because they produce and distribute so much TV and film. This team of Egyptians came well-prepared to speak one-to-one and know how to establish a friendly relationship with refugees, many of whom are lonely visitors to this city. The neat thing about this Egyptian congregation is their desire to partner with other worshiping communities from around the world. They came to Athens at the invitation of a local Greek church. Helping Hands was a natural fit for some of their ministry time here and we got to be in on it!

Several on our team have noted the potential that an unending stream of needy people passing through (or stuck in) a mega-city like Athens can have on the physical and spiritual health of those serving them. The staff of Helping Hands/International Teams is constantly confronted with this reality. I wonder if it is something like a wound which never heals. On the other hand, we’ve had opportunity to see quite a few whose lives have been powerfully transformed by the gospel of Jesus. So there is healing and hope along with the tough times. I’m really glad our team has been able to participate in so many facets of this work. The long-term missionaries are real. We’ve seen and heard some of their joys, heartbreaks and trials of faith. Perseverance is a word which comes to mind when I think of them.

Finally, I’m thankful for the community that has developed among our SF team. We are learning what it means to serve and love one another as we love and serve others. That said, it is a messy business. I naturally tend to think of my own “needs” first. I filter everything through the lens of “me first”. Thankfully, we are a community of grace! Living in close quarters these eleven days has reminded me that God often shows up to do things we did not plan on him doing. He often chooses to do this through the most humble of means. For instance, how could it mean that much to a man (who has no job and is an “unwanted alien”) for a few of his new friends from South Carolina to look at pictures of the products he once made in a factory in his homeland? Just offering our friendship in a concerted way has been a big encouragement to him. It is a humbling thing to be used to bless another in such a mundane sort of activity as this. Serving as a community of Jesus-followers powerfully communicates the love of Jesus to some of our refugee friends. The Spirit of God can use our meager efforts done in community to reinforce what our friends are hearing and reading. I’m thankful that this kind of thing doesn’t require an overseas trip! I think there are many people in Greenville who will be reached most readily by a community of people serving one another, loving others and living out the gospel (imperfectly as that may be). Thanks, friends, for sending this community.

Thank you for praying! Please keep doing so. By the time you read this we will be starting preparations to return to SC. We will have one more Tea House on Saturday. One big request: more long-term workers for this ministry! (Arabic-speaking men would be a great help right now!) Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 9:37-38 (NLT)—“The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields.”

-Kerry

September 26, 2006 - Tuesday

September 26, 2006

Today was another tea house day at the Refugee Center. I woke up at 8:15AM, got ready, and came downstairs to join the team at 8:20AM. I am fast, what can I say. We debriefed quickly as a team before heading over to the ARC.

Upon arriving at the arc, we saw a couple of boxes of bread to carry upstairs, so David and I grabbed those on our way up. I immediately went in to the kitchen to help get things going for food preparation. I had a new task today. Last week, I was “bag-opener”. Today, I was “feta cheese bagger”. Cynthia cut up the blocks of cheese while I bagged them, rolled them, and put them in a crate. Thankfully, we got to wear latex gloves, so my hands did not smell of feta cheese all day. Other members of our team were counting olives, peppers, bread, etc. to prepare in the bags.

We worked right up until about 10:15AM or so and then everyone stopped for group prayer time. We shared prayer requests and prayed. I prayed for my refugee friend T * (name removed for refugee), who has been looking for work. It is difficult for many of them to find work since they lack the proper papers, aren’t citizens, etc. T* volunteers with the ARC when he cannot find work.

After prayer time, Ilir, one of the Helping Hands staff members who was on vacation last week, assigned jobs to everyone for the day. I was assigned to help with the clothing ministry and pass out shirts to those with tickets. Before I could go perform that task though, I had to help finish with the cheese. So, I quickly finished that task and joined Mr. Ali and Skip at the tables outside of the kitchen to help pass out shirts.

I enjoyed this job assignment today. Basically, people would come to the table with their ticket that they had received earlier from Susan, they would tell Mr. Ali what size shirt that they wanted/needed, and he would translate and tell me in English what to get out of the boxes. We had boxes set out for each size (small, medium, large, extra large) and I would just pull a couple of samples from each box to give them a choice. I found it was easier to give away the striped shirts by first offering them a solid boring color and then show them the striped one. I should really go into marketing… ;)

The interesting thing about the shirt giveaway was that when someone didn’t know what size they needed, they would look around the room and point at someone and say “Like him! Like him!”. They pointed at me a lot and said “Like him but not as big”. I wanted to tell them in Greek or Arabic, that I’m “voluptuously muscular” but I held back…

So, while we were doing that, Skip was basically behind us making sure no one could walk around behind the tables and grab shirts without us seeing them. After a while, Skip and I traded places. S* (name removed for refugee) (I mentioned him from the men’s retreat) was there and we played a few games of Tavli. I beat him in the first game but only by lucky high rolling of the dice. I lost the rest of the games. But hey, I prefer to call it the “ministry of losing”, and I have mastered the art of making it look realistic.

Around 1:15pm, Susan came and told me that I could give a shirt away to anyone who had not already gotten one without them having to have a ticket (after 1pm, they turn off the computer and stop taking registrations). So, when we were done, we gave away about 200 shirts.

After I was done with this, I stopped in the office to try to start uploading some pictures to an FTP server so that I could upload them to the site later. It didn’t work, it timed out. So, I am going to have to figure out another method. But, this late into the trip, perhaps I will make everyone wait to see our presentation when we get back. Perhaps…

I also helped Mr. Ali with his laptop computer. David gave his own wireless adapter to Mr Ali for him to use on his laptop around Greece. So, I installed it on his laptop and configured it to work with most of the wireless connections, and then showed him how to use it. Mr. Ali is an older man from Somalia who knows very much about Jesus and the Christian faith yet still continues to seek and find out as much truth as he can. He is very intelligent and speaks several languages and is constantly learning new things.

After they closed the tea house and started dismissing refugees to leave (more accurately, turning off some of the fluorescent lights and saying “goodbye!” in many different languages), we started the cleaning process. Wiping down tables, turning the chairs upside down on the tables, sweeping the floors, mopping the floors, picking up trash, etc. Something occurred to me today though. We wipe down the tables with soap and water so that they will be clean. And then, we put the chairs upside down on the tables without washing the seats of the chairs. What good does it do to wash the tables if we aren’t also washing the seats? Just a thought… ;)

When all of the cleaning was said and done, we met with Susan for a team debriefing. She asked how things were going, our impressions of things today and the past week, how the retreat went, etc. After discussing some plans for later in the week, we were dismissed. I went in to the office to check my email and then left with Cynthia and Kerry and came back to the guest house.

I relaxed in the dining area for a while. Karen and Jean Y left to go shopping, David and Erika left to go shopping, and then Jean and Skip left to go shopping. So, I went with the Buttrams to dinner at KFC. After dinner, we walked across Omonia Square to the Hondas Center to look at all of the stuff there. We went up all 10 floors, back down all 10 floors, into the sub-floors/basement floors, and back up and out. Didn’t purchase a single thing, but it was neat to look at all of the stuff there.

After all of that stair-trekking, we went to get some ice cream. I wanted to try a new flavor, but ended up just getting “Green Apple Sorbet” again. I like it. While we were enjoying the ice cream outside, we saw T* (name removed for refugee) walking through the square, so he stopped and said hello. We bought him some ice cream too so that he could enjoy it with us. After talking to him for a while, we left the square and headed back to the guest house.

We weren’t home for long before Skip and Jean returned. Jean was ready to play another game of “Blokus” and try to beat me. So, Jean, Kerry, Cynthia, and I played 3 games. I lost all 3 games. After that, I played a game of Tavli and lost that too. I am in a major losing streak now.

I called home for the first time today. David and I called our friend Matt from our accountability group. Then, I called my cell phone to check my voicemail, and I also called my parents to talk to them. They have enjoyed reading the blog.

Tomorrow is a work project day. I am going to be stationed here at the guest house to carry and move heavy stuff I think. Should be interesting. I think David and Skip are supposed to be “handymen” at the ARC, fixing stuff. Some of the women are stationed here at the house also, and some will be doing some cleaning at the ARC. I will also have to fix and repair a laptop while I am here. Boy I haven’t done that before…

-Joe

September 25, 2006 - Monday

September 25, 2006

Today was our second free day. Also, our last free day. We all took a trip to Corinth. I left early with Kerry and Cynthia to Starbucks so they could get some morning coffee. We couldn’t find it right away and got a little bit turned around. Kerry went into another coffee store and asked them where the Starbucks was. I thought that was pretty courageous… “Uh, excuse me, I know you sell coffee here, but I’d like to go to Starbucks instead… can you tell me where that is?”

If I was that store owner, I’d just point somebody in a random direction, because, if they don’t want my coffee, why should I help them get something “better”? ;) But the guy pointed us in the right place and we find it right away. When they were ordering, they bought me a chocolate muffin for coming along with them. I put it in my pocket to eat later.

We met everyone else at the designated waiting place for our tour guide to come pick us up at 9:15. Our tour guide’s name was Vulla, she was a local Greek Christian woman who we were connected with from someone at Helping Hands. We had paid her to rent us a van so that we would not have to take several bus rides there.

Jean Young and I sat up front since we were the ones who got motion sickness the easiest. That turned out great so I was able to enjoy the ride there. Granted, I fell asleep, but only because I was tired, not because I felt sick. It was about an hour or so ride with traffic, not too bad.

We stopped at a small tourist shop/rest area, used the restrooms, and then went and looked at the great Isthmus of Corinth (or whatever it is called), and took many pictures. Our tour guide explained in great detail about every area at which we stopped. We went around another side of the canal and took more pictures. There was a bridge on this side that lowered into the water when a boat needed to pass (as opposed to a normal draw-bridge which has two sides that raise into the air).

We saw roads of the Acient Diolkos which were used in Corinth “back in the day”, you know, like, before somebody invented asphalt. We saw roads and areas mentioned in the Bible where Paul preached the Word of God to the people of Corinth. We went and got some lunch at this local Greek restaurant that Vulla often visits. I think it was called Marinos but I could be wrong. I suppose it does not matter much if you do not plan on going there. I ordered meatballs with rice, simply so that I couldn’t be claimed as “addicted to gyros” (although I secretly may be). It tasted fantastic. The rest of the team ordered similar meals.

After lunch, we headed over to ancient Corinth to see some of the ruins. We saw many great things, took a lot of pictures, etc. After taking pictures, we took some more pictures while our tour guide explained about the history from a Christian perspective. I got very hot out in the sun and thus became very tired and kind of tuned out the conversation. So, I can’t explain much about the things we saw, but I can show you pictures sometime…

We got to see the original Bema (judging/trial platform) that is believed to be the one where Paul was tried. That was pretty cool. Until our tour guide explained what it was, I always thought a “Bema” was what an English person called a BMW car. ;) (Beamer…)

We also stopped in the archeological museum to look at some of the recovered artifacts found in ancient Corinth. Skip and Kerry took a lot of pictures. We finally left around 5pm to head back. Vulla dropped us off right at our street (Kolinous—say coh low new) and we walked in to the guest house to relax after a tiring day of walking. I started downloading everyone’s pictures. We have nearly 2,000 pictures between all 5 digital cameras…. So that should make for an interesting slide show. I won’t use all of them, of course. Maybe only 1,500… ;)

After sitting for a few minutes, I left with David and Erika back to the ARC to check email while they ordered wedding invitations. I posted some more blog entries which I am sure you have read by now. After about an hour there, we left, closed up, and walked to Goody’s for dinner. The food was pretty good but the service was less than delightful. But, I don’t want to say something bad about Goody’s. We got our food as “takeaway” and brought it back to the guest house to eat.

After dinner, we played many games of “Blokus”, which I believe I described to you earlier. I won 3 times in a row. Jean Andersen has vowed to beat me now in a game We will see… Maybe I will let her win just so I don’t have to worry about it…

Tomorrow is another tea house day. Oh yeah and I just finished that chocolate muffin I put in my pocket earlier. It kind of fell apart throughout the day but surprisingly was still fresh.

This is a pretty short entry. Consider yourself lucky.

-Joe

September 24, 2006

September 24, 2006

Today was Sunday. We went to the International Christian Fellowship church this morning, the same church we went to last Sunday. I almost brought my laptop with me in case they needed my help, but at the last minute, I decided against it. As it turned out, they had it all working anyway, so everything was good.

During the service, I found it very refreshing to see that church “still happens” without all of the high-tech stuff I am used to. All of the words were done in PowerPoint with skipping back and forth, mess-ups, etc., but it didn’t distract from what we were trying to do—Worship God. Ok, yes, I was personally distracted because this is what I do for a living (not get distracted… ;)… but I work with visual stuff). But still, even without a lot of technology, they are still able to do a lot. I am still looking forward to getting back to Southside Fellowship though and running the tech stuff.

Anyway, enough about that. After church, we skipped the fellowship time to go on to other plans. We did not have any work scheduled for today, so with our free time, we made our way to the Acropolis, which turned out to be quite a hike. Especially for me, since I was wearing my nice church clothes and tie all day long. Skip and Jean Andersen did not join us on our trip to the Acropolis today. They had lunch and afternoon plans with some friends in Greece.

So, the rest of us (that would be Kerry, Cynthia, Karen, Jean Y, Erika, David, and me) went on to the Acropolis. We walked a bit of the way up there and stopped at the Agora. We then turned back around to go find a place to eat lunch really quick before making the entire hike. We all bought gyros and ate them while walking. I started singing, “We…went…walking…and…leaping…and…eating gyros….”, but no one else joined in.

When we got up to the Acropolis entrance, a tour guide found us and convinced us to hire her to give us a personal tour. Entrance was free today (normally about 12 euros), and her fee came out to be about 11 euros apiece, so we figured it was cheaper than we had expected (we did not know it was going to be free) so it would be worth it.

She was a local Greek woman who spoke great English, but she spoke very quickly, so it was often hard to understand her. She had an immense amount of knowledge (probably from doing tours her whole life would be my guess) about the entire country and all of the mythology. While she was talking and taking us through different areas, we all took many pictures of the scenery. I might post some of them to the photo album later. That might also be an empty promise. We will see. I wrote a great photo album engine before leaving but did not get a chance to write/program a good method of uploading the photos to the site.

After about an hour, our tour guide left (we had finished the tour). Jean Y, Cynthia, and I rested on a bench outside for a while, and everyone else in our group went inside the historical museum to look at the paintings.

When everyone came back outside, we headed to Mars Hill, just outside of the Acropolis area. This is the famous hill we read about in the Bible that Paul preached at. We all gathered together and Kerry read a passage from Acts 17. It was very interesting to just imagine Paul being there and the people of that time hearing God’s words through Paul.

So, more group photos, lots of pictures of the city, and then we were on our way back to the guest house to relax for a bit before going to the Persian Fellowship at 6pm. When we got back, I got something to drink and then David and I played some more backgammon before everyone got ready to leave for church.

The evening church service went very well. We saw all of our friends from the Men’s Retreat there. They were very happy to see us and even introduced us to some of their friends, so it was neat to see relationships building in that aspect.

Nadir asked our team to share some of our testimonies during the service, so Kerry and Skip shared their stories again. After that, Kerry came back up and shared some passages from Corinthians to all of the men. Then, Nadir gave a brief message. I have no idea what it was about. The entire service was in Farsi, including Skip and Kerry’s testimonies (they were translated). During the closing prayer, Nadir’s wife, Ella, asked me to help in the kitchen, preparing the dinner for everyone right after the service.

I was put on “bowl-holder” duty. Then, I quickly advanced to “bowl-holder” and “bowl-placer” duty. Then “bowl-holder”, “bowl-placer”, and “tray-mover” duty. And then I was moved outside of the kitchen to carry trays around and deliver the bowls of food to the guys. Erika helped me serve from the tray (it’s hard to hold the tray of food and serve at the same time since it takes both hands).

After everyone had food, we served ourselves and sat with some of the guys. David, Kerry, and I sat with Nadir and Shahab and talked about the retreat and just life in general too. After we were done eating, we had to clean up everything, wipe down the tables, sweep and mop the floors, the whole shebang.

When we were done with all of the cleaning, I went in to the office really quickly to update the blog (posted Friday/Saturday’s blog about the retreat), and then checked all of my email and all of that stuff. It has been difficult to keep up with all of the email I have been getting, both personally and with my two jobs, but somehow I have managed. I did not plan to have as much down-time from the computer as I have had on this trip, but that is ok. It gives me more time to spend on actual blog writing which I am sure you bountifully enjoy.

Good night! Tomorrow is another free day, and we are taking a trip to Corinth. Many pictures will no doubt be taken. We serve again on Tuesday. We have these free days because of the way the ministry is set up here and according to the schedule on which they operate. The free time is great for team-building though, and it has been enjoyable to see some sights mentioned in the Bible and it should yield more applicable reading, I think.

-Joe