Ministry Update: March 10, 2008

Greetings from the stinky city of Athens.  We are on about day 7 of a 10 day general strike announcing that just about everyone is unhappy with the government’s plan for pension reform.  This means no trash pick up (hence the not so pleasant smell), rotating electrical blackouts (electric company on strike), buses, taxis, trains, banks, ….you never really know what will be working and when.  I sat in the almost dark on Saturday evening blessing Kim Baker for sending me candles for thanksgiving and blessing God for the short term team that brought peanut butter so that I could have a really good sandwich in the dark instead of the spaghetti dinner I had planned to cook on my electric stove.  Sahar called me on my cell phone and we talked for a long while as we both sat in the dark.  Arno, her husband was in Holland, as she is my neighbor, she gets blacked out the same times I do and Kenn was still in the city finishing up showers with refugees after Tea House.   Arno has actually hooked up a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) to their refrigerator after the last general strike.   My refrig is new and seems to handle the fluctuations in power OK.  I haven’t lost food yet.  I’ve been think a lot lately about what Isaiah says about “treasures in darkness”.   

God has been really good to us over these last months without our stuff.  Our container should arrive on March 17th.   Every day it seems we learn that we don’t really need something else (like electricity this week).   God continues to supply all of our needs and we are doing fine.  

I would appreciate your prayers tomorrow.  My refugee friend, Maryam has invited me to her house.  Her birthday was last week, so I am bringing her a Farsi/English New Testament as a gift for her birthday.   We had a brief conversation about how good God was to provide a job for her and for her husband, even it if was part time and not a lot of money.  Many refugees do not have work.   I’m going by myself and don’t really know where I am going, so Kenn is not overly comfortable with it, but it is day time and she’ll walk me from the Metro.

Also tomorrow, we have a leadership team meeting.   As we make plans for the spring and summer our team of 16 looks like it might dwindle to as low as 6 or 8 over the summer, which means we need to rethink what services we can continue to offer.   We are looking to God to lead regarding how He would have us spend our time.  We will be discussing this further as a team in a few weeks.    Please pray that God would give us wisdom and unity in purpose.

Today is a holiday here in Greece called “Clean Monday”.   It is celebrated by going on a picnic and flying a kite to “fly your troubles” away.   The whole “clean” celebration in the midst of a garbage strike is a little humorous.   Easter is not this week for us, orthodox Easter isn’t until later in the spring. 

For those of you praying about my health, I actually worked on Thursday and did not get sick on Sunday.  This is the first time I’ve broken that cycle of germs in about 2 months.   It’s not like I’ve been sick with the same thing twice, it just has seemed to be an endless supply of new things to catch.  I know I spent time with at least 1 boy with a fever on Thursday and yet, I’m still well.  Thanks for praying.