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
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
posted by Joe at 11:59 PM
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