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
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
posted by Joe at 11:41 PM
1 Comments:
I would like to thank Southside Fellowship for sending such a quality group of servants to this ministry in Athens. Their hard work, good attitudes, generosity, sensitivity, initiative, and various skills and personalities made a worthy investment in us (the missionaries) and in the refugees that I am sure will reap eternal benefits.
Grateful,
Scott McCracken and the Athens Refugee Ministry Team
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