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
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
posted by Joe at 11:38 PM
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