Ministry Update: April 21, 2008

Hello,

I keep waiting, thinking that any day I will have something amazing to report about our container, but instead I’m here to report that we have had a lot of phone calls, but not a lot of action.   Right now, both the shipper and our broker are working to have customs move the container (while it is still in customs) from the other port to the port near us.   This will cut our daily storage rate in half.   There is no way now for anything to happen before we leave on Thursday for the Philippines.

We closed Tea House for the first 2 weeks in April.  Week 1 we spent in prayer and listening to God.   For me personally, it was probably the first time in my life, I felt free to sit and study my Bible and pray for 5 days in row without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else.   I had a great time in the book of John and in the book of Zechariah.   I’d like to teach on the book of John some day soon.  I came away feeling refreshed and rested.

Week 2 we met together each day to pray, worship and plan.   That week for me was exhausting.  I was the facilitator without planning ahead for enough time between days to prepare for the next day ahead (I had accepted evening activities, like preparing the going away gift for a teammate, attending a baby shower, and eventually the going away party).   Next time I will be wiser.   Each one of us had come away from our week alone with the concept that God wanted our team to invest more in relationships with refugees and to become less task focused.  Many different scripture passages were read and remembered, but each had the same theme.  

To put that into action, we decided to only open Tea House 2 days a week (instead of 3) and to only serve tea.  Giving away food would have been an impossibility at some point because of furloughs and medical leaves happening over the summer, but we decided to begin now and continue through the end of summer.  Occasionally when we have teams come to help, we will serve food.   We also moved the starting time to be 1 hour later in the day.  On Thursdays,  when we would usually serve food, we are now open all day (6 hours for men, 3 hours for women) for showers.  This allows for more people to shower, a real need on the warm spring and summer days.   On Fridays, we will host a different ticketed event each week.  This week we gave away bags of food (sugar, salt, oil, pasta, rice, tomato sauce, canned milk, laundry soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and soap) to 50 families.  We are still doing language classes and seekers classes on the days we are open for tea.   Wednesdays are still our team days for team meetings, and one on one meetings with the team leaders (us).

It was an incredibly different week on the new program.   We had time to sit and talk with refugees (without the craziness of trying to serve nearly 900 meals).   We weren’t rushed to close at the end of the day and clean so showers could begin, because showers were on Thursday.  On the shower day, Gary showed the movie, “the Passion” and sat around and answered questions about the movie, while the men waited for showers.  The refugees loved the grocery bags.   We have ideas for movie nights and clothing give aways and evenings at the park/playground.   The staff is excited about the freedom to do something different and about giving themselves permission to pursue relationships which they love.    Even just the change to start 1 hour later allows staff to visit in refugee homes for dinner and to stay late and still get to work on time the next day. 

The most precious day of the planning week, was the last day, Saturday.   After the worship time, Gary interrupted the agenda to speak on behalf of the staff to officially welcome us as team leaders and to pray for us for an extended period of time.  It was a very unifying time for the team . 

This is getting long, but let me tell 1 more story.   On Sunday the 6^th, our refugee friend “F” from Afghanistan asked our friend Kallie if she could speak with her privately.  She wanted her to know that she had secretly prayed in the name of Jesus.  She had asked Jesus if he would either help her and her family get to Germany where her elderly mother lives, or make them happy living here in Greece.   The day after she prayed this, her mother called and offered to send them money for plane tickets and gave them permission to leave Islam and learn more about Jesus.  This was unbelievable to her.  Her mother had been so against her attending church here and making friends with Christians and she had not even told her she had prayed.   The following Sunday, the 13^th, again she asked to speak with Kallie privately, so Jim and Kallie took their family to dinner.  At dinner, in the restaurant she asks Kallie how she can ask Jesus into her heart.  She insists, just tell me how in English and I will pray in Farsi.  I want to do it right now, so they did.   They will leave soon for Germany, but continue to pray for “F” and her family.  Carolyn and Susan on our team have been helping her 8 year old with his Greek homework each week.   They gave him a Bible which he reads avidly.  God is working here.   Pray for the husband that this would be something that would draw them together and not drive them apart.    

Also pray for a new Somali family.  The husband’s name is Jamal.  The mother, Fatima, is ill and cannot hardly hold the baby boy born at Christmas time.  They have almost nothing (except a digital camera—I know this makes no sense) and are new to Greece.   I was washing tea cups and saw him taking their picture, so I went out so that he could be in the picture and the next thing I knew, I was in the pictures and hearing their story and holding the baby for the next few hours.  I have no idea who finished washing the cups, it certainly wasn’t me.

Thanks for being on my prayer team.

Blessings,

Lisa and Kenn

Ministry Update: April 14, 2008

Hello,

Just a quick note and I’ll write later about what has been happening the last 2 weeks as we took time to pray and plan with our team.  We got a call today saying that our container has been taken off the ship at a port 500 kilometers from our house and they want to charge us storage from April 9^th.   This is a little confusing since 2 weeks ago they told us the port authority was on strike and they didn’t know when it would come and last week they thought it might come on May 9^th.

We paid to have shipped to port to port, so I would like to think the shipping company bears the expense of getting it to the port we paid to have it shipped to, before we would start owing for storage, however this is Greece and this matter requires much prayer.   It is kind of cool, in that on Saturday our team spontaneously prayed specifically that our container would come this week even though we knew it wasn’t coming until May 9^th.  This seems like an answer to prayer and God doesn’t give us half-way answers to prayer (He wouldn’t be off by 500 kilometers!), so I have peace about this, but would like to involve you in the process.  

Kenn will be calling the company in the US in a few hours and really we only have 9 days left before we leave for the Philippines, so we need to straighten this out right away.

Thank you.

Blessings,

Lisa and Kenn

Ministry Update: March 24, 2008

Happy {western} Easter!

We won’t celebrate Easter here in Greece until Greek Orthodox Easter on April 27^th.  We are happy to report the strikes are over.  Our trash is picked up.  The trains and buses are running and the phone company is back at work.  They came this morning (yes on a Sunday, eager to work overtime after being unemployed for 3 weeks during the strike) to repair our internet connection which has not worked since we hung up from Skyping with our church for their mission’s conference.   We are blessed to be connected with family today.

I did get to have my visit with Maryam.  The long version is out on the blog.   We had a great time, with much of it spent just the two of us talking (a marvel in itself when you consider what little common language we have).  I gave her the Bible and she was honored to receive it.  I wrote in it and marked the pages with the gospel message.   I think she will read it because it is the only book she owns right now that is both Farsi and English.   We have given God something to bless.  Please continue to pray that God would use His word to touch her heart.   It made me smile to hear her talk about telling her mother about me and about how we met at “church”, which is how she describes our Tea House.  She sent her mother my picture.  She invited me to come again, this time for dinner just yesterday.  Unfortunately, I was already had plans for dinner that I could not change with 2 hours notice, but we will meet again.

The leadership meeting also went well and we have committed to meet weekly.   Everyone seems committed to making it work.  I was much encouraged.  We will discuss the recommendations with the staff at our Team Meeting this week, so I can’t talk about them here, but they are good ones and reflect a commitment to trust God with our future direction.   Thanks for praying.  

Our container has arrived in the harbor here, but the dock workers have been on strike for so long that they are still unloading ships that arrived in December.  This along with the trash strike has had me pondering Philippians 3:8 and how I feel about not having my stuff. I assure you I have no desire to hold tightly to something God considers rubbish.   Rubbish smells bad.  It really is not something you want to get very close to.  You can see in the picture that it eventually only left a tiny path to our mailbox on the iron fence.  I would encourage you to let go of your rubbish.  It is quite freeing.   We do still hope to see our stuff in a month or 2.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.  Phil.  3:8

Blessings,

Lisa and Kenn

A Visit with Maryam

[Picture: Saraf, Maryam, Vida] Maryam met me at Helping Hands with all 3 of Fatima’s children on Saturday. Fatima was working as she does 6 days a week. It was a crazy busy day with wall to wall children and mothers in the “baby room”. After I closed up, so the room could reopen as Greek class, she and I and toddler, Mohamad Aziz left the ARC. The girls ages 6 and 8 stayed behind to come home later with another family. We walked up to Omonia to catch the train to Attiki. The train was packed full of people. She asked, “Can you do it?” and I nodded my head so we smashed into the last few inches available as the door closed. Poor Mohamad was too short to see out the window, he had to have been very claustrophobic, I know I was and I could see out. When we arrived in Attiki, the door opened on the other side and I was not sure we could get out before it closed, but somehow we managed it.

I had not been to Attiki before. The entire city of Athens looks like a trash dump because of the trash collector’s strike, and Attiki was no exception. Attiki is in an older part of Athens that might have been clean (on a different day)with mature trees shading the parkways. The metro exits near a walled off area where buses are parked. We walked about 2 blocks and turned into a residential building. Her door was immediately to the right once we came in the outside doors, so I didn’t have to walk through the dimly lit stairwells of what our staff affectionately calls the “afghan hotel”.

I immediately recognized the living room furniture from the pictures I had seen of Christmas in the apartment. The living room had a window out at ground level to the street. There was a worn L-shaped couch with an oversized white teddy bear sitting in the corner of the “L”. Across from the couch was an entertainment center with a TV, DVD player and older stereo. Every square inch of the floor was covered in Persian rugs. We removed our shoes and left them in a 4 story cardboard shelf unit by the door. Double doors hid most of the hallway and the rest of the house. I can’t really tell how much more house there is. I can see that someone might be sleeping in the hall on a single bed. I know that Maryam and her husband; and her brother; and Fatima and her husband and her 3 kids all live here. With 5 adults working part-time, they manage to pay the rent on what I think is a 2 bedroom apartment originally intended for Maryam and her husband and her brother. I could hear Maryam putting Mohamad down for a nap and preparing food for me. I am wondering how we will fill the time when we have so little in common language and wondering whether or not I was stupid to not wait to invite someone to come with me (can you invite someone if the hostess doesn’t invite them? So much culture, I don’t understand). I had hoped the girls would be with us to entertain us, but Maryam very much wanted this to be just the 2 of us. Greek “m-TV” is playing on the TV. I’m wondering how refugees afford so much stuff, but then I suppose each time a family moves on, the accumulation gets passed on to those who stay.

Maryam comes back with oranges and apples on a plate and a box of Turkish sweets. As we eat, we talk about family. I ask about her mother. She brings me a picture of her mother as a 23 year old, holding her as a baby. Maryam looks very Asian. Her mother’s hair is brown and not black and very curly. She does not look Asian at all, maybe French? The picture is outdoors at the sea and her head is not covered, which is unusual for someone living in a Muslim country. She is beautiful and happy. She has told her mother about me, and about how she met me at “church”. Church is what she calls Helping Hands. Maryam has 2 brothers and 4 sisters. She is the 6th of 8 children and the first to be married. Her brother that lives with them is the oldest. The youngest is 16 years old. Her mom is pregnant now. She has learned to use Skype at the internet café nearby and is glad to be able to talk to her mom. I’m suddenly reminded of the gift I have for her. Last week was her 20th birthday and I brought a Farsi/English New Testament wrapped in a ribbon. I’ve written inside the cover and marked the scriptures that tell the story of salvation. Maybe we will get to talk about what she reads another day….if she reads. It is in God’s hands and I have “given Him something to bless” (thank you for that thought, my good friend George DeJong).

There are many knocks on the doors as talk. Fatima’s husband comes home and slips quietly to the back of the apartment through the mysterious double doors. Maryam’s husband comes home and does the same. A neighbor brings by a sack of vegetables from the open market. Another neighbor brings a sack of fruit. Eventually Fatima comes home from work. Neighbor children come looking for Vida and Saraf. Eventually the girls come home. Her husband leaves and brings us back Greek take out to eat (just Maryam and I). She sadly explains that she cannot cook, but Fatima is teaching her. Fatima comes in to eat with us. Mohamad wakes from his nap happy to see his mom. Later there is tea and chocolate. We talk about how Americans make tea from tea bags and don’t leave the leaves to fall to the bottom of the cup. This is a marvel to them as to why anyone would want to put tea in a bag. Maryam tells me that when she speaks English everyone can tell she is from Afghanistan, but when I speak Farsi, I sound like I am from Iran. She thinks I have a very good teacher. Too bad, I only know 100 words and most of them are not yet conversationally useful! I am exhausted from the long day and uncomfortable with the thought of trying to find my way back to the train in the dark, so I sadly tell them I need to go fix dinner for my husband, but promise that we can do this again soon. I kissed them all good-bye at the door (left cheek, right cheek, left cheek). I need not have worried, Maryam walked me all the way to the train and made sure I got on the right one before she waved good-bye. I think our friendship is little bit about how much she misses her mom and how much I miss my girls and God has given us the gift of each other.

One week later, she shows up at Helping Hands and wants to kidnap me again, but I already have dinner plans with teammates. Fatima was going to help her make dinner. I’m so sad. I love Iranian food. I guess our first visit must have gone well.

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.

Snow in Athens

We had snow on Sunday February 17th. As a native Californian, I am quite intrigued by snow as I haven't seen a lot of it. Enjoy the pictures.

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Ministry Update: February 13, 2008

Big News:

• Our daughter, Betsy is engaged to Luke Freiler and planning a November wedding.  See www.betsyandluke.com for more information.

• Kenn is retired as of January 17, 2008.  The good news is that starting February we will have a regular income to supplement our donor based income.  The bad news is that we still don’t know how much it will be and we did not get the settlement for the back pay owed to us.  We have to file an appeal (and wait some more). 

• We finally have internet access in our home!  Look for us on Skype.

On the ministry side, we continue to be overwhelmed with new refugees.  We are seeing 20 to 50 new refugees every time we are open.  Many are Afghanis who had settled in Iran and have recently been forced by the government to move on, but when I gave meal tickets this week, I also enrolled many refugees from Gaza (a Palestinian territory), Iraq, Sudan, Algeria and Georgia (a former Soviet state, now a country).   There isn’t enough food, or milk or pampers or clothing or just about anything to meet the needs of these desperate people.  I can now say “no, we don’t have any right now” in several languages.  Yet, somehow in the midst of this chaos, the ones that are truly spiritually hungry are finding their questions answered in Jesus.   You see them intently watching the Jesus film or pilfering literature from the literature rack because they don’t want anyone to see.  Then they begin to ask questions or show up in a Seeker’s class or at Persian Christian Fellowship with an appetite for more than just food.   I watched one lady sit with teammate, Kallie in the office.  Kallie would read words from her Bible in Greek and the lady would read the same passage from her Bible in Farsi and back and forth they would go, without a single word of common language between them.   Saturday, the 23^rd, there will be a baptism after Tea House in the sea for those that want to publically declare their commitment to Christ.  Pray for our ministry here.

I have started taking Farsi lessons from Sahar’s mom (our neighbor), “mama Khamrani” along with Ella (Nader’s wife).  I’m really liking it and am anxious to be able to communicate better with the Afghani women and children with whom I spend most of my time.  I am continuing to learn Greek on my own.  Kenn is taking a government Greek class, 2 nights a week.   Most of our time outside of tea house and language classes and shower ministry is spent developing staff (coaching and encouraging and communicating and planning).   There is so much to learn about how to be an “international” team.   We had a great conversation recently as a team about how to communicate “care”.  In some cultures, saying “thank you” in the typical American way can be offensive and not communicate care in the way it was intended.    Honestly, about 2/3s of us sitting around the circle were shocked to hear that.  We have so much to learn and don’t even really know the right questions to ask sometimes.  Pray that God would give us wisdom.

Thanks for being part of our prayer team (meant…only to those of you who actually appreciate hearing “thank you”….for the rest of you come see me in Greece and I’ll give you a big hug).