Today is a Friday....
- I gave a T-shirt to a 6 year old boy who only owned a sweatshirt. It was 95 degrees and not getting any cooler. His mother is in Germany. His father is a good dad, but a bit overwhelmed.
- I gave a bandaid to an 11 year old girl whose only pair of shoes were rubbing a hole in her foot. I didn't have shoes to give.
- I gave family pictures that Lauren took to lots and lots of families. One woman was going to send the picture to her mom in Afghanistan.
- I gave a map I printed from the internet to a 12 year girl refugee who wanted to know where she was, where Afghanistan was and where Germany was (her friend left last week to Germany).
- I gave kisses to a 4 month old baby.
- I gave Skype time on our home computer to a refugee who hadn't seen his mother or other family members for 3 years.
- I gave 2 DVDs to Donna that Lauren and Nicole carried from America. There are of the new CCCI film, Mary Magdalene in the languages of the middle east.
- I gave the good-bye book for the McCrackens to Ilir to give to the McCrackens when he takes them to the airport on Monday. It seems unbelievable that they are really leaving Greece and moving back to the US after nearly 20 years.
- I gave Cheerios and raisins to a 1 year old refugee boy who was hungry and crabby from getting his shots that morning...and to everyone else in my room who wanted to share his snack.
- We gave fruit that a church in northern Greece donated to families...plum, apricots and cherries.
Most days, I say "no, we only have tea". It was fun to say "yes" today.
It was a stormy Thursday morning when we drove up to the northern suburb of Greece (Kiffisia) to the Bethel Retreat Center. I had not been there before and did not know what to expect. We came in through the gate to see a delightful playground in the yard submerged in deep puddles from the rain and steps up to a double door. Inside the first floor was a small lobby area, with an auditorium that seats about 50, a library with a conference table, an office, a medium sized commercial kitchen, and a dining room that seats around 60 and...best of all they were running the heat! My house hovers about 58 degrees F. The Athens Refugee Center rarely gets above 60 degrees and this building was a balmy 78 degrees on a rainy day and soon to be a stormy hail filled night.
This was going to be fun. The upper 2 floors had large rooms with bunk beds and bathrooms with showers. The top floor was kid of like a loft with skylights and a slanted ceiling. It also had a large room with a fireplace.
We invited 7 dads from Afghanistan who have wives that are in other countries. Each dad has kids for which they are responsible. The youngest was almost 2 years old. The oldest was 13 years old. For 24 hours, these dads didn't have to worry about what to feed their kids or how to entertain them or keep them warm and dry; but they were free to have fun and to learn about Jesus and about how to be better dads.
While the dads were downstairs in the library learning about Jesus, we were upstairs in the loft, learning about Jesus too. My friend in the hat told the Bible story in Farsi, then we sang for bit. We also had lots of time just to play. When the sun came out, we went outside onto the basketball court and the dads had the opportunity to play ball with their kids. It never did dry out enough to use the playground out front.
We played family games. I played musical chairs with a 4 year old girl in my arms! After demonstrating this method, other dads scooped up their kids and we had even the small ones playing competitively. There was a relay race where the kids dressed their dads in hats, gloves, socks, aprons, etc. The funniest game was an animal game where everyone was an animal and you called them by their noise and if they didn't answer they were out. Lots of laughter. Later in the evening we watched a movie in Farsi together.
In the morning, while the dads were learning about how to be good parents downstairs, we were asked to try and get one small boy into the shower. He was terrified and hadn't showered for more than a month, because his dad just couldn't get him to do it. It took two of us, but eventually we got him clean. Donna did most of the work, and I sang to him and held him down while she scrubbed. With clean clothes and a clean body, he finally stopped itching for a while and felt so much better. Eventually, I think Donna scrubbed most of the small children and we gave away all the new clothes that Mattel had donated.
It was a delightful time to serve such grateful people. It was fun to see them laugh. Most of these children are traumatized by the absence of their moms and rarely leave their dad's side. This was a time for them to make new friends who have the same issues they do and to learn to trust us and to be OK being 2 floors away from their dads. I do not know what will come of the spiritual seeds that were planted, but these men especially need Jesus. Their lives are difficult as refugees without the added complication of being single dads for this season of their life as well. I was sad to see them go home on the bus even though it had only been a little more than 24 hours together. Pray for them.
