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

September 21-23

Hello to you all! This is Erika Hufford writing in addition to Joseph Adams. Before I began, I will preface this blog by mentioning that Joseph has amazing attention to detail and can create blogs with a great memory. I will include all I can recall and my perspective at this point.

I first would like to share my perspective at this point of the trip! I am still (Day 8) overwhelmed by the public use of drugs, large diversity of the people here in Athens, and how dirty the city is. We have seen a few of the more authentic areas apart from the bad areas though. We can share most of the first-hand drug use evidence we have seen through our specific experiences. One important thing to note though is that we have not witnessed any violence. People seem to keep to themselves.

The other aspect of this area that breaks my heart is the large number of brothels in the city. For those of you not knowing what this means, they are basically a housing area with a white light out front distinguishing them from typical resident homes. These homes possess women who are prostitutes. There is one not far from us that almost every time we walk by, there is at least one man (or more) walking in or out. From talking with the full-time missionaries here, many of these females have been brought to Greece guaranteed to have other jobs (cleaning, food service, etc.). Once they arrived here, they were then deceived and can have a very difficult time leaving. It is so sad . . .

While working at the Athens Refugee Center (ARC) there are so many opportunities to serve there. There is work in the kitchen (washing dishes, serving tea, preparing food, etc.). There is also a childcare room to serve in. The children are so cute and precious. It can be difficult to communicate with them and the mothers because of the language barrier. It forces us to be creative and have the children write up name tags so we can at least call them by name. My heart’s desire has been to pray for these children and God’s protection of them due to all that they have seen and experienced already at such an impressionable age. There was one little boy named David (ironic huh?) that has really grown on me. He is about 2-3 years old with the biggest brown eyes and eyelashes! He has the cutest little smile. I walked into the childcare room the other day and he was sitting on a little seat with wheels. He had one shoe off on the floor next to him and plump tears falling down his cheeks. I walked up to him and he handed me his shoe to put on. I wiped his tears, patted his head and started pushing him around the little seat. He captured my heart and later ran up to me to pick him up and swing him around.

The guys left Friday morning for their men’s retreat. The women had some spare time that afternoon before preparing for family night began. We split up into 2 different groups. One of the groups headed out to find a place to purchase a birthday cake and gifts for Jean Young’s birthday (Saturday). The other 2 of us went with Jean to get her away while all this went on so she would be surprised. We met back at the house around 3:00 p.m. Friday afternoon for a quick refresh and change of clothes. We then all headed together to the ARC to prepare for family night. Upon arriving, we met Kate, another full-time missionary here that had been gone with her husband Illir on vacation the first part of our trip here.

We began preparing dinner for the family night that evening. We made falafel. It is made from chickpeas. Those pieces were wrapped with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, tsatziki, and then put it in a large pita. We prepared about 60 of them, packed them up, and prepared apples to take also. Around 5:30 p.m. some of the women and children gathered at the ARC and all of us walked to a park together. It was a group totaling approximately 30 people. We had our first social interaction at that time with a man who was affected by drugs. He approached a few people towards the front of the group. As they tried to ignore him, tell him to leave us alone, and go, he continued to persist. We came to an area close by where there were some Greek police standing talking with some young men. One of the women tried to get their attention but the police seemed too distracted to pay any attention. Finally we reached the metro area where there were stairs to take us down to the metro ticketing and loading area. We lost him at that point. I was toward the middle-back of the group and did not interact with him. A few of the women were flustered though as he was unpredictable in his behavior.

After getting everyone on the metro, we went a few stops, got off the metro, and walked a little further to the park. We were there for about 45 minutes to an hour playing with the moms, talking with one another, etc. There were many mothers there that did not speak English, so it made conversing with some of them difficult. Soon before the park closed, we distributed the prepared food, apples, and cups of water to the women and children. There was little time left before we were asked to leave with the park closing. We all headed out together and went our separate ways. Our group of ladies stopped for ice cream on the way back. Upon returning to the guest house we soaked our feet while doing our Bible Study. Four of us are part of the Women’s Bible Study back home at Southside Fellowship. We took some time and discussed that together to stay somewhat connected with missing 2-3 weeks of the group study there.

Saturday morning we got ready, had breakfast, and then headed to the ARC by 9:30 a.m. It was a Tea House day, so we started first off by preparing the food sacks to be distributed. They contained a large piece of pita bread, some olives, banana peppers, a hard-boiled egg, and tomato. We then all gathered shortly before opening the Tea House to pray for the day together. We took assignments for the day. I worked in the kitchen this time serving tea with another young missionary named Sara. She is from Colorado and is here serving for another year. We had 2 phrases to ask in Greek asking the people if they wanted tea with a lot of sugar or little sugar. I served there for 3 hours and had to look up at the sign for about half of the time. I would get into a groove for a short period and then step away to help somewhere for 5 minutes. I would forget the Greek that quickly. My favorite was when I would ask the person in Greek and they would say “huh”…I would then continue by saying “a lot of sugar or a little sugar”…they would then say “ohhhh yes…I will take…”

We wrapped up serving around 2:30 p.m. and cleaned up until 3:00 p.m. Afterwards the women split up into 2 different groups again. Two of the women went back to the guest house and other 3 of us went to the bakery to pick up Jean’s birthday cake. A few of us worked on cleaning out the expired drugs for awhile until the men returned from the retreat. That evening most of us went out for dinner together to debrief what experiences we had during the time apart. We watched a missions video that evening, and then called it a night.

-Erika

September 22-September 23 - Men's Retreat

September 22, 2006 – September 23, 2006 – Friday/Saturday Men’s Retreat

This blog will chronicle our activities on the men’s retreat. I cannot speak for what the ladies did while the men were gone as I have not quite perfected being in two places at once. I think Erika will be writing a blog about what the women did while we were gone… I will post that as soon as I have it…

Friday morning. David and I woke up early to go to the ARC to publish Thursday’s blog before leaving for the retreat. It’s the small sacrifice I give to satisfy your longing for my blog entries… ;)

We got there before 8:30AM but the gate to the garage area was not open yet. We tried to open it but some other guys standing around told us it was computer-controlled (in broken English). So, we waited until it magically opened at its’ predetermined time.

So, we published the blog and waited for all of the other guys to show up for the retreat. We were expecting about 12 refugees to be there. Only 4 showed up, but it was the perfect number! It allowed for closer conversation, relationship building, and bible studying than a larger group would have allowed.

Rashed (I will be spelling all names phonetically here due to my keyboard layout lacking all of the different country characters and my lack of interest to type them) was our translator for the retreat. He showed up, and when everyone else was there, we headed for the bus station.

We got on the bus headed to Port Rafti. I sat down and prepared myself for the motion sickness that would soon come. Something about those larger vehicles… I usually try to sleep it off but it is not always an option. We arrived about 2 hours later in Port Rafti after switches to another bus at one point. The nice thing about the busses is that they were air conditioned and had very comfortable seats. We were not expecting that.

So, we arrived at the retreat center place (the bus did not stop there, we had to walk a bit to get there) around 11:45AM. While walking, we stopped a few times and took several group photos. One of the guys, A* (name removed for refugee), had his own digital camera with him, as did Skip and Kerry. All of the guys loved to have their picture taken. Scott had just pulled up in his van and we helped unload the groceries. He bought so much food for so few people; we had plenty of food to go around the entire weekend.

Once we set down our bags in the dorm-style room (we all slept in the same room, all 10 of us), we participated in the first team-building exercise. Before we left the Athens Refugee Center, we all tried to learn each others’ names in expectation of this exercise. This exercise was called “pop corn”. Basically, everyone stands in a circle, and someone stands in the middle with a stick, and he walks around and then randomly picks a person (this all happens very quickly). He will either say “pop” or “corn”. If he says “pop”, you have one second to say the name of the person to the right of you. If he says “corn”, you have one second to say the name of the person on your left. So, it was a name-learning exercise. If you failed to say the name quickly enough, you were hit (lightly, or not) with the stick, and then you became “it” and had to stand in the middle, picking the next person, etc. So, we all learned each others’ names very quickly.

After this, we played another little “game”, where we each chose cards out of a bag (without knowing what we were choosing), to then expand upon. For example, one said, “Tell a story you heard about one of your grandfathers.” David had this card and he shared a story about how his grandfather stowed away on a boat to come to America. My card said, “Tell about how you and a brother or sister are alike.” What an interesting card for me! I have an identical twin! So, we are alike in many ways. I explained to the guys that I had a twin, what a twin was, and then how we are definitely alike in many ways.

There were ten of us at the retreat altogether this weekend. From our group, Skip, Kerry, David, and myself. From the Athens Refugee Center, we had Scott and Rashed. The four refugees that came along were A* (name removed for refugee), S* (name removed for refugee), R* (name removed for refugee), and J* (name removed for refugee). Over the course of the weekend, we all got to know each other very well, often through non-verbal communication since they did not speak English, and we did not speak Farsi. Rashed would often translate questions and answers for us if it was difficult to express.

So, after the team-building exercises, we had a bit of free time while some of us prepared lunch in the kitchen. I helped cut the bread and tomatoes. I am not really good at cutting tomatoes, in fact, my mom (Hey Mom!) had always done it for me when I lived at home. But, somehow, this weekend, I was granted that special ability. Granted, they looked like I had cut them with safety-scissors on an uneven surface while standing on one foot and looking in another direction, they still somewhat resembled “slices”. Kerry stopped in to help too and he was quite good at it.

After lunch, we cleaned off the table and started our first Bible study. Throughout the entire weekend, we went through Charlie Boyd’s latest book, What God Has Always Wanted, with the guys. Scott would read a few sentences of it and stop, and then Rashed would translate. We would work through one or two pages, and then read some scripture to help support the basic idea that we had just read. All scripture was read aloud in Farsi, not English, so it was neat to hear God’s word in another language. At the end of this session, Skip shared the story of his spiritual journey. If you have never heard him tell it before, you are definitely missing out on an encouraging experience.

After lunch, we had some free time, so we all (minus Skip and Scott) headed down to the beach to swim. The sea was beautiful. I hope I can get some pictures posted for you to see. I will have to do it without the ladies on our team seeing because I think they are still jealous that we got to go to a beach. A few of us went swimming, I stayed and watched and just relaxed. I tried to talk to J* (name removed for refugee), but he doesn’t speak much English. He told me that he has a brother going to college in Chicago. I told him where I was from, and that I live in South Carolina. He told me that his entire family had been killed by the Taliban, right in front of him. Here is a young man (the same age as me, 22) who, through all the terrible things he has had to face, found Christ. In Afghanistan, he was witnessed to by a man who came to know Jesus at the very ministry we are serving at this week! It was amazing to see that God has His hand in everything. Think about it. A man came to this ministry. God lined him up with people here to share Jesus with him. That man then left to share the Good News in Afghanistan. He met J*, J* became a friend of God, and then J* came to Greece, and we were able to study the Bible with him! An interesting circle, indeed.

So, anyway, we got back from swimming around 6pm. We had another Bible Study, and Kerry shared his story. We continued going through Charlie’s book and scripture references. As always, at the end of each session, Scott asked if any of the guys had any questions. Sometimes we had a few, sometimes we had none. Scott left near the end of the session to go get dinner—gyros. Does anyone grow tired of those? I don’t.

So, after dinner, it was basically free time until bedtime. Before we were dismissed for free time, we played a game called “Iotola says”. Basically, it was like “Simon says”. Whatever Scott said to do, prefixed by “Iotola says”, we had to do. If he said something without that prefix, and we did it, we were eliminated. Skip won that time. I was eliminated quickly because he did not clarify if Iotola would ever decree more than one command at a time. So, without a justified pause, I assumed it was a part of the previously prefixed decree.

During free time, David and I made up more songs, this time, about ping pong, since that is what everyone was playing. Shahab and I both have “operatic” voices. He sang a few Iranian songs and I sang a few songs like “Phantom of the Opera”, etc. It was a great time.

I played a lot of ping pong this weekend. I am getting better but I still often miss the ball. I guess it will take practice. I played some tavli (we call it backgammon) with the guys. I lost pretty bad. They play so fast! I like to play slow, but I guess that’s just because I only learned to play about 2 days ago.

Scott brought his laptop with him on the retreat because he heard that I am some kind of computer “wiz”. He had a problem with some language-learning software that he had installed on there. I looked at it and fixed it pretty quickly for him. He is convinced that I have lifted the “McCracken curse” (they always have problems with technology, apparently).

We all went to bed around 11:30pm. I slept on the bottom bunk of one of the beds, below A*. I slept ok but it was kind of a pain because the top bunk was so low to the bottom bunk that I could not lean up more than halfway without hitting my head.

We woke up this morning around 8AM and got ready for breakfast. Scott had brought cereal, bread, juice, milk, cheese, etc. for everyone. There was plenty to go around. We ate breakfast and relaxed as the day was beginning until our first session of the new day at 9:15AM.

We continued going through our study of Charlie’s book and reading more scripture to go along with it. This time, we met outside instead of inside. We read through parts of Romans, Acts, and even Revelation, explaining the basic story of the Bible and what the Kingdom of God really is. It’s not just “something for when we die”. It is here and it is now, if we are followers of Christ.

We played another game of “Iotola says”. I won this time. I used a different strategy than before. I looked away from Scott so that I would not be tempted to do what he did until. I simply listened for that prefix before doing anything. Even when the game was over, I didn’t sit down until he prefixed the command with “Iotola says”.

After our morning session, we had some free time until lunch at 1:30pm. Before being dismissed to free time, we participated in a strange but serious exercise simply known as the “Hooga Booga club”. I can only express and explain this activity in person, so, if you would like for me to explain it, just ask me to the next time you see me. Just know this. I have pictures to help explain.

We went to the beach again and took lots of pictures. The guys really like having their picture taken. They also enjoyed taking pictures. I will try to post some of them later. We had lunch from 1:30 to 2:30pm. After lunch, we had to clean up the place. David, Kerry, and I finished all of the dishes and then did all of the sweeping inside and outside.

David, Kerry, Skip, A*, and I rode back with Scott in his van instead of taking the bus. It was a lot faster, we got onto the metro and were back to Omonia (think “ammonia”) Square very quickly. We got back around 5pm and headed to the ARC. I checked my email, caught up on the blog comments (keep posting comments! It encourages our team to read them to know you are reading…) before we headed back to the guest house.

When we got back to the guest house, we relaxed for a few minutes and then everyone but Skip (who was feeling tired) went to dinner. We went to the same restaurant that we went to on Thursday night. I got spaghetti this time. “It’sa gooda spageddi!” It started raining again on the way back to the guest house. Everyone in Greece says, “it never rains” yet it has rained nearly every day since we have been here. When we got back, we surprised Jean Young with a cake and card for her birthday today. Jean Andersen got her a card in English and a card in Greek, celebrating her first Greek birthday, which we all signed.

After eating some cake, we had another “pill popping” drug party. We are slowly disposing of all of these old expired drugs and pills left at the medical clinic below the guest house. We can’t just throw them out, or people might get them out of the trash. We have to pop every pill out of every sealed package and box, put them in a bowl, and then grind them up and flush them down the toilet.

So, that’s about it for what we did this weekend! Church tomorrow… I might bring my laptop with me. They had computer problems last week and I know that if I had my computer with me, I could help them have words to follow along with the songs.

Tomorrow, after church, we are going to the Acropolis, I think. Should be some good pictures!

Here to serve,

Joe

September 21, 2006 Thursday

September 21, 2006 Thursday

Today was another Tea House day. I went up early to the ARC, just before 9AM, so that she could check her email and I could update our blog. On Tuesday, we prepared and served food for the refugees. Today, we only served tea and bags of uncooked rice.

We all helped carry in bags of rice from Nikos’ car (a Citroen, pretty cool car if you have not seen them). I was quickly assigned to rice sorting duty. Skip, Kerry, David, and I teamed up, removing the pre-bagged rice from the rice sacks, putting two bags into a plastic bag, and putting them into bins. We had a nice assembly line going and finished them all in no time.

The rest of the team prepared the rest of the room, worked in the kitchen, brought in suitcases for the clothing ministry, etc. Before we opened the doors, we all met together and prayed. It is a great thing that we take the time to just heave a big sigh, know that we are doing the Lord’s work today, and just to ask for his hand over everything we do and say before jumping in. I am glad that it is a part of their policy. It can be easy to just leave God out of it because we ARE already doing His work. Stopping to pray reminds us all that it is about Him, not us, not the refugees, but it is about Jesus.

I worked on rice duty all day, handing out bags. It was an interesting experience, because I probably had about 30 conversations with people who didn’t speak English, and I have no idea what they said. So, lots of head nodding and positive facial expressions from me.

One woman asked me in Greek (of course, I had no idea what she was saying), “Can I have a bag of rice?”, and I replied, “I’m sorry? I don’t understand?”, and she said, “Oh! You speak English! May I please have a bag of rice?” I just started laughing. Here we both are, assuming neither can speak English simply because we are accustomed to being around people who do not.

I spoke with another man today, he sat down next to me at the RCADU (Rice Containment and Distribution Unit) I made that up. He sat down next to me and wanted to know where I was from in America. I told him I was from South Carolina. Then, he wanted to know if we use petrol (diesel) or gasoline in our cars. I told him it was a mix, but most people drove cars that used gasoline. And that was all he wanted to know. He asked for a bag of rice and then walked away. Pretty peculiar but at least I was able to help, I guess…

By 1:00, I still had two full bins of rice to distribute. Not a popular thing these days I guess. Nikos relieved me of my assignment, and said that anyone could just freely pick up and take the rest. So, with some free time, David taught me to play chess. That is a game that I would really like to learn to play well. Many people just naturally assume I know how to play, I guess since I seem like a person who would be good. I don’t know. This was my first time ever playing. I hope to get better at it.

We played for a few minutes, and then I left to help out “the Jeans” (Jean Andersen and Jean Young) in the clothing ministry room, sorting out clothes and putting heavy bags on the shelf. After we were done, I stayed to check all of my email and messages and to make sure the blog was up to date and working.

When we were done, David and I went back to the guest house.We all hung out in the living area for a while and then decided to go to dinner. We went to the same place that David, Erika, and I went to on Tuesday night. I got the same thing. The chicken gyro “portion”. I really like how Greek restaurants are run here. They don’t rush on anything. They don’t rush to bring you the menu, they don’t rush to get out so they can fill the table again. Once you are there, it’s practically your table for the rest of the night. They leave you alone, don’t constantly bother you, etc. Now, that in itself can be a bit of an annoyance, if you need something, but you can just go find someone to help you and they are more than happy to help.

Anyway, on the way back home from dinner, we stopped for ice cream again (I think Karen is addicted to ice cream). We decided to eat our ice cream on the way back to the guest house. It started raining, and we got lost on the streets, so we just ended up getting totally soaked again.

When we got home, everyone just relaxed (and posed for a team photo with us all dripping wet and just totally soaked) and talked about the days’ activities a bit. David and I wrote a song about Yahtzee. It was deemed and noted that I have the best male opera style-vibrato voice, AND the best female opera style-vibrato voice. Go figure. I can sing really high and really low.

After finishing our impromptu song about Yahtzee, we actually played some Yahtzee. I lost. Really bad. But that’s ok. Sometimes, it’s not about winning or losing, but about how you sing while playing.

Tomorrow, Skip, Kerry, David, and I will go on a men’s retreat with some of the Helping Hands male staff and a lot of refugees. It will definitely be interesting. Pray that productive conversations take place.

I will update when we get back! I probably won’t be taking my laptop but I seem to have the “gift” of remembering perfect detail… so we will see how that goes.

Joe

September 20, 2006 – Wednesday

September 20, 2006 – Wednesday

Today was our Day of Prayer. David and I got off to an early start and went to the ARC, arriving just before 9AM. I brought my laptop, bag, camera, and related accessories to try to connect my laptop to the big tv in the Athens Refugee Center main room to use during our Prayer Day when we would be singing.

I didn’t plan on connecting my laptop to any remote device, so I didn’t purposefully bring any A/V cables with me on this trip. It just so happened (I say that, but it was Purposeful Planning I am sure) that I had an S/Video cable in my bag. Now, that would be just about all I would need back in the States, but here, the connections are different. The only common connector I have seen is the composite connection (with of course a different output standard – we use NTSC in America, in Europe, it is PAL). It just so happened (again, His Purposeful Planning) that this big screen tv was the only tv that had an s-video connection as well.

So, a quick hook up, and a change of my secondary monitor from NTSC to PAL B (Greece), and we were good to go. So, now I had EasyWorship running on my laptop for songs for the prayer day. This doesn’t feel that much different from my regular job… ;)

After getting that hooked up, we finished setting up the rest of the equipment, and then I went into the office to post some blogs. I have been a couple of days behind in posting… sorry about that. I can probably pick any number of reasons out of a hat.

We scheduled our start time at 10:15AM. We were not sure how many staff members would be present due to pre-existent schedules, so we set out about 15 chairs. We only had 6 staff members present with us most of the day. Scott had said he really wanted the day to be a day of prayer, not a day talking about prayer, or a day preparing to pray, but really just prayer.

We started off the day with an exercise in Listening Prayer, an opportunity to just listen to what the Holy Spirit has to leave on our hearts. I had typed up a page from notes Kerry had given me, to help people follow the exercise and write down any burdens that they wanted to leave with Jesus for the day.

After that exercise, we opened up with some worship time to sing the song “He Reigns”. It is a popular Newsboys song if you have not heard of it. It talks about uniting the nations, praising God, and how His voice cannot be drowned out.

Then, we started out in prayer for the world. All nations. It was interesting to see what nations were brought forward from the Holy Spirit as we all participated in corporate prayer together. Thailand, Sudan, Somolia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and China were just a few. I can’t remember them all; we mentioned so many geographical areas.

We then moved on to local prayer for Greece. Not necessarily the Athens Refugee ministry, but simply just for Greece, its’ government, its’ peoples, and those that are transitioning here.

After this local prayer time, it was time to go to lunch. With just 3 remaining staff members (a few had to leave for another lunch appointment), we decided to split up into sub-groups and just take each missionary out to lunch and listen to them and how things are going for them.

I ended up in a group of all girls, Karen, Jean, Erika, and our missionary was Susan. We went to KFC. I thought it was a lot better and fresher than any KFC I have ever been into in America… but that is beside the point. The purpose of the lunch appointment was to just find out how we can pray for the missionaries specifically, and how they have been encouraged/discouraged recently and overall how things are going for them.

We were scheduled to be back at 1:30pm but ran a bit late. It started to rain, so on the way out, Karen put on her rain coat, Jean and Erika shared an umbrella, and Susan just rain from overhang to overhang. I decided to walk at a normal speed for safety. I had my Superman t-shirt on, so I stuck out my chest and tried to walk in a muscular fashion. I mean hey, might as well enjoy the rain if you’re going to get wet anyway, right? ;)

We got back to the ARC around 2pm. Everyone else had been waiting on us… oops… but it was no big deal. We jumped right in and started with the next section we had planned. Throughout the day, different members of our team read selected passages from The Message, that Kerry had assigned us to read. We opened up with another passage, and then sang a couple more songs.

Our next prayer exercise was to pray specifically for the Athens Refugee Ministry and Helping Hands, we did an exercise that we called a “Prayer Walk”. David read an excerpt from “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster, which talked about praying with imagination. Not just praying that God would do something, but visioning in your mind what that would look like.

We split up into two groups and walked to different areas of the facility, like the kitchen, shower ministry, children’s area, classrooms, office, etc. In each area, we prayed specifically for that area, that God would provide the needs for that area/room, and that many would come to know Jesus as a result of what they see and hear there.

As we neared the last of the sections, David and I slowly backed out of the group and left to go prepare for the next section. We thought it would be really neat to exercise the practice of washing the missionaries’ feet, just as Jesus did with his disciples. Another passage was read out of The Message, and we washed the feet of the 4 remaining team members (Scott, Susan, Ella, and Emma) while praying specifically for them.

After that, I was assigned to read another passage, and then we sang a few more songs. Our final prayer exercise was to pray for the other staff team members who could not be present today. Those who were on furlough, those who were sick, those who were not available today, and even those who God has not yet brought to the ARC.

Overall, everyone really enjoyed the Prayer Day. It was great to see everyone be so Spirit-led in everything. After we officially “closed”, David and I started the cleanup process. When we were done, all of the guys met with Scott to talk about the men’s retreat that we are going on this weekend with some of the refugees.

The retreat should be an interesting experience. It will largely be time to talk with the men, to connect with them and build relationships. It will be a struggle for me since I am not one to break into conversation with someone I don’t know, but I am praying and expecting for the Lord to intervene on my behalf, to speak through me in ways I cannot even comprehend.

After our mini-meeting was over, I checked some of my email (trying to stay in touch with my former life) ;). Then, David and I left and headed back to the Guest House. When we got back, I learned to play backgammon. A lot of the Greek people at the ARC play that game here, so it is another way for us to connect with them.

While we were playing backgammon, Skip and Jean were in the room talking too. Skip sat down in this black metal chair with a fabric covering, the kind of chair that is suspended in the back so that you can “rock” back and forth. These chairs are prone to bending if too much weight is supplied. As Skip was rocking, the chair bent all the way back to the floor. Everyone laughed, “Oh Skip, you broke the chair!”. What everyone didn’t know is that I had broken it last night and then fixed it by bending it back, thus making it more susceptible to bending again. ;) It was really funny from my perspective. I might tell them later that is was me. Or, you can, if you want to.

So, after a while, we went to dinner. Jean and Skip went to dinner with Scott McCracken and his wife, Vicki, so the rest of us (minus Cynthia) went on a search for a restaurant. We walked around for a while and finally found a place that we all liked. During dinner, there was a guy there playing a keyboard and singing songs. Once he realized we were American, he started playing all sorts of American songs for us, so that was kind of fun. We went for ice cream afterwards at “Gelato Mania”. They have many ice cream shops here.

When we got back from dinner, we played a game called Blokus… it’s a tetris-block kind of game, really weird but fun. Then I learned to play Yahtzee. I tried so hard to get an actual Yahtzee, but was unsuccessful.

Tomorrow is another Tea House day. It should be an interesting experience.

Joe

September 19, 2006 – Tuesday

September 19, 2006 – Tuesday

Today was our first day serving at the Refugee Center. We got off to an early start, arriving at the ARC at 9AM. We met Scott for an orientation meeting. He went over some basics of the ministry and some guidelines for working there.

We jumped right in to working at 9:30AM. Several of us piled into the kitchen and helped the staff prepare food for the refugees. I started out on “bag opening” duty, at the beginning of the line, and swiftly progressed to “bigger bag opening” duty in the middle of the line. One day, I hope to be promoted to “bag closer”. We will see.

We prepared olives, peppers, pita bread, feta cheese, and tomatoes into bags. After we ran out of food and everything was prepared, we all sat down at the table to just relax before they opened the doors. No one was sure how many people would be there today to receive food. All of the full-time staff were so happy we were there, they said if we had not been there today, that they would have had to close down and not serve food because of a lack of people there to help serve. So, that felt really good to really feel “needed” on our first day. The Lord has already begun to show us that He has a true purpose for our short time here.

Before letting everyone in, we took some time for prayer, asking God to bless our time there today. After prayer, several members of our team did some quick tasks and let the people in. I was assigned to fixing the DVD/TV’s so that we could get the Jesus video playing as the refugees came in.

Several tasks were assigned for the day, such as kitchen work, helping with children, etc. I was a “floater”, to go around and talk to guys. I was not very good at this… I tried to talk to a few guys and received about the same treatment I do in the US… shifty eyes, they kind of stare out at a distance, not really engaging in conversation, I ask “So, where you from?”, I get a short answer, and then eventually they would get up and excuse themselves. Ah well, at least it is good to know that I am perceived the same across all cultures. ;)

After a while, a little Iranian boy asked me to play ping pong with him. We played for about 45 minutes, not really keeping score, but if we had been, he would have beaten me about 3 times. I have no depth perception. But it was interesting to have interaction through the language of Ping Pong, and it gave me a purpose—keeping him entertained while his parents enjoyed fellowship. After a while, other older men wanted to play ping pong with me, so I had to bow out and let Skip play (he is really good).

So, for the rest of the afternoon, we stayed, serving the food until all was gone, cleaning up in the kitchen, fellowshipping with the men, and just being available to help where needed. All of the refugees were asked to leave around 3pm and we started cleaning up the main room (wiping down tables and mopping). Clean up didn’t take too long.

After we were done cleaning, we went to a late lunch. Susan took us to this place that really only serves pork chops, and you buy it in kilo servings. So, we kind of all did a “community” lunch, ordered 3 kilos (or 3 servings), and split it across the table. The owner of the restaurant was so thrilled with us being there (I think he had an existing relationship with the ARC staff), that he gave us some wine, on the house. I felt kind of bad, but we had to turn it down. We signed a group policy before going on this trip that we would not have any alcohol while on this trip. I am glad that we stuck to our agreement though.

After lunch, David and I split up from the group and went back to the ARC so that we could check some email and stuff. Then, we grabbed the ARC guitar so David could tune it later to play tomorrow, and we left to go back to the guest house.

When we got back, David, Kerry, and I planned the prayer day tomorrow. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, it’s going to be pretty cool to listen to what the Holy Spirit has to tell us, and to pray for the team members and encourage them.

After we were done planning, David, Erika, and I decided to go to dinner. We walked around for a bit and finally sat down in this nice restaurant. The tables were already set, but the owner invited us to sit down. I guess we were just a couple of minutes ahead of a bigger group that had called ahead, because as soon as we sat down, about 40 people came through the doors and sat down at the rest of the tables. Once we realized we were in someone’s seat, and figured out we wouldn’t be able to eat there in a timely fashion, we left to find another place to eat.

We ended up going to another café/restaurant. At first, we sat down at the round tables, which are only for coffee. They don’t serve food there. But, if you move one table down, to a square table, they will. Weird… But anyway, we ordered some food, tried to eat it there, but had to get the rest to go and rush back out and return to the guest house for our team debriefing at 9pm.

We got there about a minute late, but that was ok. We debriefed as a team and talked about highlights of the day, encouragements, discouragements, and relationships that were made.

After that, I finished the rest of my dinner from the takeaway box (We know it as “to go”, but here in Greece, they call it “takeaway”). Then, I sat in the living room with David and Erika and sang some worship songs to help David practice them on the guitar.

More tomorrow!

Joe

September 18, 2006 Monday

September 18, 2006 Monday

Today was our “day off”. The Helping Hands team scheduled in this day for us to help us get acclimated to the new time zone, and to enjoy the city and get accustomed to the culture before jumping in to our ministry.

We got up early and headed to the bus station in town at 9AM. We rode the bus out to one of the ports and bought tickets to a ferry to take us out to the Idras island. The ferry, named “The Flying Dolphin”, which was a hydrafoil, left at 11:30am and it was about a 2 hour ride. I slept most of the way to the island, which was great because I tend to get very motion-sickness.

We arrived at the island around 1:30pm. We decided to split into sub-groups, rather than all 9 of us walking around together. David, Erika, and I were in a group, Jean A and Skip were in a group, Jean Y and Karen were together, and Kerry and Cynthia were together.

The three of us walked around for a while, took some pictures, and just relaxed. We ate at an outside café/restaurant. I ordered a cheeseburger but it was nothing like I was expecting. I still enjoyed it. While we were walking around, we must have gone into like 20 jewelry stores. Looking at all of the different styles of Greek jewelry was pretty neat. A lot of it was really cheap, and a lot of it was really expensive. We also just looked at the different trinkets and souvenirs that the different stores had. I thought about buying something for my parents but ended up not purchasing anything. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to get them something before going home.

We left the island around 5:40pm. This time, we got on a larger boat called the “Flying Cat 2”, which was a catamaran style boat. It was a lot bigger and nicer than the Flying Dolphin. I slept most of the way back on this boat too. I haven’t been sleeping well these past few days, so any chance to catch a little bit of extra sleep has been nice.

When we got back to the port, it was raining really hard. I put my camera inside my shirt to keep it from getting soaked. Our whole group was so wet, we looked like we had been singing and dancing in the rain. Erika fell in a pothole and hit her knee but she is fine, just a slight bruise.

When we got back to the metro station, we took some group photos from our rain escapade, and upon arriving back at Omonia square (near where we are staying), we decided to go get some dinner. We ate at a really nice restaurant and planned out what our Wednesday prayer day will look like, and then we headed home. Basically, we decided that Kerry, David, and I will plan the prayer day, since a smaller group could probably make quicker decisions.

Kerry, Cyntha, David, and Erika split up and left early. The rest of us stopped to get some ice cream before going back to the guest house. I got some of the green apple sherbet ice cream again. So good! The way they display the ice creams here is fantastic. It’s not just in a flat cooler like at the Marble Slab (which is really good by the way), they build it up into a nice display at the ice cream stores here, and your mouth just waters looking at it. Mmm…. Describing it makes me want to get some more…

Well, time to go to bed I guess. We start our ministry work with the HH team tomorrow morning! I guess my entries are getting shorter… this one is only a page and a half…

Joe

September 17, 2006: Sunday

September 17, 2006: Sunday

What an eventful day! We all got up early in the morning and went to church. One of the Helping Hands workers, Susan (our short-team coordinator), attends a local English-speaking church, called the International Christian Fellowship, and she invited us to join her on Sunday.

The church was very unique and different than what we were used to with Southside Fellowship. It is on the seventh floor of a building. As soon as we entered the worship area and sat down, I was called upon for my computer assistance. They were having some trouble getting the computer to read the jump drive to load up the songs, and Susan spotted me from across the room and knew that I could help. I looked at the problem but was unfortunately unable to help since we lacked the proper drivers to install it. Not much I could do. I think I am going to bring my laptop next week though just in case. I have EasyWorship installed on it and it would make it a lot easier for them to use. We will see.

The service was great. The pastor spoke about the church’s core purpose and values, which our team found interesting simply because Southside Fellowship just finished a series on its’ core values. The overlying message was that God has a purpose and a plan for everything, which will always prevail over our own personal plans.

After the service, we were introduced to several local members during a fellowship time in another classroom. Everyone had drinks and cookies, and we just went around and met several people. The church really lives up to its’ name, International Christian Fellowship. We met many people from countries like Iran, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Slovakia, and even America. It was very interesting.

After church, we decided to tour the city a bit since we didn’t have anything scheduled until the evening. I didn’t have my camera with me, and we had already decided to stay out and not return to the guest house, so I missed the opportunity to take pictures. Skip and Jean brought a camera, Dave brought a camera, Kerry brought a camera, and Karen brought a camera, so we were bountifully suited with digital cameras to capture our escapades. Jean said that it would simply be “my day to have my picture taken” since I will be taking pictures the rest of the trip.

We ate lunch at an open café. I think they are called traverno’s or something like that. It was pretty good food. We all sat out and enjoyed the weather while eating our food. After lunch, we jumped on the tour bus to see some of the city. The bus would periodically stop and announce over the PA system what we were looking at, it would stay there about 30 seconds, and move on. It was a quick way to see a lot of the city. After riding around for a bit, we got off and went to the tourist police (yes, they are called the tourist police… doesn’t sound like a friendly name but they are) office to see about a possible island tour on our off-day tomorrow.

After arming ourselves with some information with which to make a decision, we got back on the bus, and rode to Omonia square. We got some ice cream at Ice Cream Mania (local Greek ice cream store). I got the “Green Apple Shorbet”… very tasty. After ice cream, we went back to the guest house to get ready for the Persian Christian Fellowship which meets Sunday nights at the Athens Refugee Center.

The fellowship service was very interesting. The entire service was spoken in Farsi, so we couldn’t understand hardly any of it. Cynthia and Kerry used to live in Cyprus, so they were somewhat familiar with the language, but the rest of us were not. It was very interesting though, to see us all participate in the worship time with clapping. Dave and I learned the chorus’s and tried to hum along as best as we could. Nadir gave a message out of John 4 about the woman at the well. Again, our group tried to follow along as best as we could, and it was very interesting to hear that story told in another language.

After the service, dinner was provided to those that attended. We served them their food and then we were invited to eat with them. I didn’t say much, but Dave and I talked with a few guys who could speak a little English. It was very frustrating for me, because (1) I’m not good with “small talk” and (2) Much less with people who don’t speak English.

Afterwards, we wiped down the tables, mopped the floors, cleaned up the children’s play area, mopped the floors, put up the dishes, and mopped the floors again. I mentioned the mopping so much because I watched several of us mop the same areas multiple times. I even mopped the areas I had already mopped previously after watching someone else mop them in between. That’s a lot of mopping.

After all was done, we went home. A very tiring day altogether, mainly from all of the walking. We debriefed as a team and shared some of the things we saw God do during the day.

Looking forward to tomorrow! It is our day off with nothing scheduled, so we might go visit one of the islands.

Joe

Photos

Hey everyone, we will try to post some pictures later... it's very slow here the way I have to transfer them to get them online. So, hang tight!

-Joe

Greetings from Athens!

We made it here! It is 6:30pm our time, 11:30AM your time as we write this. All 9 of us made it here safely and have been touring the city a bit and getting accustomed to some of the culture. A more detailed post (and pictures!) will be available soon, but we just wanted to write a quick note to all of you who will be watching this blog that we are here and we are ready to serve! It was a long flight, we are all a bit weary and fatigued, but looking forward to the work the Lord has for us here.

-Joe

The Athens Team
Joe Adams, Skip & Jean Andersen, Karen Boyd, Kerry & Cynthia Buttram, David Koepper, Erika Hufford, Jean Young

From Here to There in 16 hours

We have traveled a long way. Here is a recap of how our journey began.

We assembled on Friday morning at 10:15AM. By 10:30AM, we had all of the luggage loaded up onto the small bus, and a good size of friends and church staff had assembled to see us off. Charlie Boyd led us in prayer for safety in our travels before we left. Group photos were taken, final goodbyes said, and we were on our way to Atlanta!

The drive from Greenville to Atlanta was not as bad as I thought it would be. True, we were all crammed into a bus that had more luggage than people, but we were determined. After driving out of South Carolina and hitting Georgia, we stopped at the QT truck stop for a quick break, stretch of legs, 8 cell phone calls, 5 purchases of drinks and snacks, and we were back on the road.

So now we still had a dilemma, how do you pass the time on a 2 hour drive to Atlanta when you are stuck in traffic and you don’t know what to do? You sing songs! First we started off with Kerry singing on his own. I chimed in with my “old man gospel voice”, and before we knew it, we were all singing praise and worship songs. We tried to represent the church well and sing some of Matt Rexford’s songs but we just couldn’t remember all of the words. I should probably know them all by now since I have had to type them up about 100 times but hey, sometimes it is what you do remember instead of what you do not remember. And I don’t really have a good excuse other than that.

So, we made it to the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta right on time, around 2:00pm. As soon as we arrived, we found the departure gate, and started unloading the massive amount of luggage that we had assigned for this venture. One of the SkyCo employees brought out a cart to us and loaded everything up. While this was going on, we brought our “carry-on” bags in to the airport and set them all in a corner, where Karen and Jean Young dutifully watched them while we brought the rest of the luggage inside. The SkyCo guy brought our luggage straight up to the front desk so that we wouldn’t have to “lug” the luggage around. I guess that’s why they call it luggage, because that is exactly what we would have been doing. He unloaded everything, we tipped him, and he even sincerely told us, “God bless you and your trip.” We hadn’t even told him that we were specifically going on a mission trip, but it became aware that even at this trivial stage, God could use our attitudes and our “stuff” as a way to remind others of His plans.

So, we got in line, to check in. As we started to get called up to the front desk to receive our boarding passes, the clerk realized we were all in the same party, and was able to immediately check us all in at the same time. What a timesaver! All of the bags (minus the carry-ons) were checked in, with no problems, and we were on our way.

So, by this time, it was about 2:45pm. I would say it was 2:49pm EST. One thing I will go ahead and clarify for you, certain parts of this blog will span different time periods. We passed over several time zones on our flights. For simplicity, I will only use EST (GMT-5) and Greece T ime (GMT+2).

So, it’s 2:00pm. We had time to go get some lunch, so we headed off to the gates. Our flight to Amsterdam was scheduled at Gate E, but everyone knows Gate A has all the good stuff. Or at least you should know now that I have told you.

In order to get to the Gates, you have to go through airport security first. I always get very nervous going through airport security. I’ve never really had any bad incidences (that I want to talk about), but just something about the fact that no one really talks, they just nonverbally communicate to you where to go, etc., just makes me really nervous.

So, we start getting in line. The Atlanta airport is very efficient so it’s just a few quick minutes and we’re ready to go through the scanner. Having flown before (and having been admonished before), I knew to take my laptop out of its’ bag before sending it through the x-ray machine. I also had to take off my belt, empty my pockets, and everything else under the sun imaginable. Strangely, I kept my NewEgg hat on and they didn’t seem to mind. Nothing beeped, and I went straight through, put my stuff back into its’ bags, and continued on. Everyone else in the team had similar results, a few things checked, nothing major. Some antiseptic fluid had found its’ way into Skip’s bag, so the attendants were very frustrated (as was Skip, I imagine) upon finding it, but it was eventually cleared up (pun perhaps? It is antiseptic fluid…), they confiscated it, and we were on our way to the gates.

We all ate from different vendors at the food court from Gate A. I personally chose Manchu Wok oriental food. I purchased Dave’s food from there also, as he was the designated bag-watcher while we were in lines. Our flight to Amsterdam left at 5:00pm, so we started boarding around 4:30pm. Even though we were all booked on the same reservation ticket, our seats were all over the plane. I was all the way in the back, on the aisle, surrounded by no one in our group. A few other team members ended up next to each other, but overall, we were pretty spread out across the plane.

This was a very very long flight. It was about 8 hours long. The plus side of this flight was that they served dinner and breakfast. That’s how long it was. The food was pretty good, but that’s just my opinion. It looked and tasted like hospital cafeteria food, which just happens to be one of my favorite food genres. Don’t judge me. I enjoyed a tray of steamed chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, salad, and a brownie.

After they served dinner, they put on a movie. X-Men III. I saw it in the theaters back when it first came out. I am a sucker for comic book movies… but that’s enough about me. It was neat to see it again but honestly I thought they could have picked something more generalized that the entire plane might have wanted to watch. I didn’t see a whole lot of other people watching.

After that movie was over, I tried to make a very hard effort to get some sleep. Art Ringger told me, “If there’s one thing you remember, remember this: Sleep on the flight on the way over.” So, I remembered it. Applying it, however, was an entirely different story. Sitting in an aisle seat right next to one of the lavatories on the plane does not set you up for success. I was constantly getting bumped by people walking back and forth every few minutes. So, sleep did not happen.

So, we arrived in Amsterdam at 7:10AM local time. They served breakfast just before arrival. When we got off the plane, we headed on down to Gate C, where our flight to Greece was scheduled. In order to get through that gate, we had to go through security again. This included a check through customs. They stamped my passport, looked me over, and let me through. Everyone came through without any problems. At one point, one of the officers stopped me and asked where I was from. I politely told her “the United States”, she nodded, and went on her way. I wonder if that means I don’t look American… ;)

So, after going through security, we headed to our gate. Random pictures, waiting in line, talking with each other, and before you knew it, we were on another plane heading to Athens, Greece! This flight was not as long (only 3 hours). I was originally assigned another random seat, but Erika switched seats with me so that I could sit next to David. And then, Jean Young was assigned to the seat on the other side of David, so she switched with Erika. So, the three of us ended up in the same aisle.

I tried to sleep on the trip, as did many others. I was unable to sleep on this flight due to the turbulence and my inability to ignore and zone out the motion sickness. So, we landed in Athens, Greece at 1:30pm local time (and here on out, will be considered current time).

On the entire flight over from Amsterdam to Greece, I had been praying for a swift and easy run through customs. This was the one stop in customs where we would definitely get questions of “Why are you here?” (“Visiting friends…”) and “Why do you have 500 boxes of crayons in your bag?” (“I am addicted to those Barney and Kids coloring books…”). Here’s what actually happened.

Getting all of the luggage proved to be a bigger feat than going through customs. We waited and waited, and finally got every bag off of the belt and loaded them up onto carts. Then, we split up into “teams” to go through customs in a certain order. As we approached, there was only one officer working there. She asked where we were from (obviously realizing we were in a big group). Skip told her where we were from, and, without even a second look, she waved us ALL through and outside! We didn’t have to answer any questions or have anything inspected. I heaved a big sigh of relief knowing I wouldn’t have to answer any barrage of questions.

As we came through the door, we met Scott McCracken, the International Teams/Helping Hands coordinator, and Emma Wilson, another worker at the ARC. We loaded up all of the luggage (minus a few carry-ons that just wouldn’t fit) into his van, and then he and David took off for the guest house that we are staying at.

The rest of us (with Emma as our guide) took off to find an express bus to get a ride to the guest house. While on the bus, several of our team members talked with a local Greek woman about the city, our church, what we were there to do, etc. After we rode on a bus for a while, we skipped over to the metro, and then walked the rest of the way, touring a bit of the city as we went along.

Upon arriving at the guest house, we trudged up the stairs. By this point, everyone was beginning to feel the fatigue and lack of sleep. We were introduced to Susan, our short-team coordinator while we were here. We took some bags upstairs, and then everyone came downstairs for dinner.

To be honest, I don’t really know what we ate. It tasted like chicken. It was really good. I was just so hungry and tired that I didn’t even really care to find out what it was. (Dave says they were “Gyros”, but I’m not sure if I should believe him.) Everyone else had similar feelings and we all enjoyed a group meal together. After dinner, Susan gave everyone a tour of the guest house, and then we left to go out to the grocery store to get breakfast supplies for the morning.

Being submerged in a culture with different primary language other than English is very fascinating. All of the ads, all of the boxes, signs, labels, all were in Greek. Ok, I guess the numbers weren’t. ;) So, we shopped for some supplies. Before going in to the store, Karen had stopped at the ATM to get some local currency (euros) so that we could actually buy stuff and not look like dorks for having American dollars. The downside was that the ATM’s only give out in 50 euro bills and we needed smaller bills for other purchases later. So, after shopping, we split up our purchase into several orders and in several different lines. Both armed with 50-euro-dollar-bills (making that up, I don’t know what they’re called), David and I jumped into a line to pay for what we had been assigned to pay for.

Now here’s the tricky part. I don’t speak a word of Greek. I had no idea if they spoke any English at all. Yet somehow I managed to make a successful purchase. The cashier asked me, from what I could gather, if I had change so I wouldn’t have to break another dollar. I just kind of looked at her, fumbled my pockets, said no, and she continued to just make change from what I had given her. My first successful counter-culture contact!

After we were all done at the store, Susan took us around some other parts of town, and then we headed back to the guest house. On the way back, we stopped in at the ARC to look for some items that had been dropped off there by mistake. I took the opportunity to check some emails and post that first blog post that I am sure you have read over and over many times by now. I also wrote some emails to other team members’ families per their request to give them the blog address to use to keep themselves up to date on our trip.

After that, we headed back to the guest house. Susan gave a full orientation of what we were to be doing in the next couple of weeks, complete with “do’s” and “don’t’s” (or more accurately, “do nots” as contractions can be hard for a Greek person to understand when trying to learn English), and a schedule of activities.

We finished up with that around 8:30pm. As I am writing this blog, it is 10:13pm local time. 3:13pm your time (EST). We are all excited to see how God will use each of us on this trip.

It is bedtime now. We are all tired and I think I am the last one still up. Staying up for two days at a time is not a totally foreign concept to me, but regardless, I am turning in now too.

Hopefully future blogs will have as much detail but maybe not ramble as long as I just did. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. Look forward to future posts as we have time to write them (perhaps from other team members too!)

Joe