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
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
posted by Joe at 11:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home