Kid's Camp

This camp was unlike any camp I have ever been acquainted with. What sort of camp has some of the children come with just the clothes on their backs? What kind of orientation covers which children have been in prison with their parents and how to deal with children who have issues with grief over the loss of parents, homes and possessions? You will see the smiles in the pictures if you follow the link at the end of the blog to the photo album, but the smiles are the smiles of kids being kids at camp and are not indicative of what is "normal" life for them. If that isn't enough, my 5 girls spoke 3 different languages in their homes and none of those languages were spoken at camp. The common language at camp was Greek (what they speak at school, if they go to school), not Farsi or Arabic or Aramaic (the Christian language of Iraq). And what do I speak? English with a bit of Spanish and Greek.

After 2 days of orientation and preparation we are ready for the children to come. After not sleeping at all the first night, the 2nd night I slept at home. I needed a night of rest before the children came. I've pondered why I didn't sleep that first night. It could have been 15 women in a room, but it was mostly quiet. I was certainly tired enough. It was almost like the darkness in the room on Sunday night was spiritual darkness (some sort of evil) and I was uncomfortable closing my eyes so I spent the night praying for camp. this was my first jump outside my comfort zone.

On Tuesday, I went from home directly to the ARC to meet the kids waiting for the bus. This was our first clue how many would really come. We ended up with 39 kids and I ended up with the older girls and not the group I thought I would have. I didn't know this until the bus reached camp an hour later. They actually decide the camper assignments while we drive to make them fit the rooms and staff we have available. It was a good bus ride with sick tummies but no used "barf bags". These children have rarely ever been in a vehicle and are prone to motion sickness.

We arrive and the kids go to their rooms to discover the backpacks the team has brought them from Canada full of pjs, bathing suits, flip flops, tooth brush, camp shirts and clothes for the week...everything you as a mom would have packed if you were not a refugee and didn't have it to send. Later while they are in the group session, stuffed animals and flashlights will appear on their beds. The campers who has previously been to camp knew this was coming. This was my first camp, so I was surprised and a little clue-less. During the group session, Shamissa became very homesick and started crying. Militsa took her back to the room by herself to talk and I needed to keep the other 4 out of the room. Suddenly they all wanted to go bed. What sort of girls want to go to bed the first night early? Those who know there are gifts sitting on their beds, of course and that we are the only room in the camp who hasn't seen them yet! This made so much more sense when we finally got to our room later in the evening.

Our days were busy with group activities: water games, food crafts (decorating cakes and cookies for snack time), crafts (bracelets, pencil boxes that the Canada team would fill with school supplies), song time and drama. Each group prepared a parable of Jesus to present to the group. We had the "Sower and the Seeds". This led to a great spiritual conversation in our room about what kind of soil their heart was to the message of Jesus. Mariam talked about how her family studies the Koran and how her family wanted her to be Muslim. This might have been awkward until Diana spoke next about her family was Christian and wanted her to be Christian. Militsa led them through a great conversation about how your family doesn't decide for you, you need to make a personal decision about what you will do with the message of Jesus. Maria explained what the message of Jesus was to the others. I prayed.

I read a quote from Charles Stanley recently that commented on Psalms 33:15 "He fashions their hearts individually, He considers all their works." God has a kingdom niche carved out just for you. There are people He wants you to meet, lives He wants you to influence. He is tailoring your personality in such a way that you will hit it off with unsaved men and women who otherwise would never have the opportunity to experience a relationship with a believer. You are the instrument God wants to use to change someone's distorted perception of Christianity. You will be the one God uses to reshape someone's thinking and thereby perpare the way for salvation....

As I think about camp, I think about moments. Playing in the sea every afternoon trying desperately to keep track of my girls in the crowded water (we created our own crowd, by bringing 39 campers). Playing Greek playground games similar to "London Bridges" and some of the clapping hands sorts of games I learned as a child while we waited for the next activity. Dancing in the room late at night (before curfew) to music on Maria's cell phone. Those were times of laughter and silliness that seemed so healthy and healing...hopefully changing their distored perception of Christianity...Christians really can have fun even together with Muslims. The song times were really loved. Their favorite song was "we can know that God loves, we can know that God loves us, because He gave us His son, Jesus. Jesus paid the price for our sins, His great love brings peace within..." One night there was a mutiny and they kept singing at the top of their lungs, acapella, after the musicians stopped playing. Watching Sabina and Adam whom I met 7 years ago on their first day in Athens, who have now spent time in prison with their mother for passport violations grow up. Sabina seems OK. Adams seems fearful when she is out of his sight for more than a few minutes. I think about Shamissa, Mariam and Zahra all who have parents who boycotted camp last year because of the Christian influence it had on their children the year before, but relented and let them come this year because the children were so sad to have missed out. Zahra found a Bible one day during song time and read it in a rebellious moment. She was surprised when I gave it to her. She spend most of map reading it in her spare time--even on the bus on the way home. I have no idea if her mom threw it in the trash when she got home. I pray not.

Camp really ends not when the kids go home on Friday, but at the reunion party, the following Tuesday. The kids perform their skits of the parables for their parents and sing their songs. We give them back the scrapbooks and frames they made at camp, but fill them with pictures taken at camp. At 7 pm, only Maria was there and I was concerned about how we were going to do our skit. At 7:30 I had two girls. By 7:45 when the program started, I had 3. Zahra walked in just as we sat. Mariam came in after the first skit. I had all 5 girls! Zahra was the narrator. She memorized the parable we acted out. She was the only student narrator. All the other narrators were adults. Militsa had gone back to Thessoloniki so I was in trouble if Zahra had not shown up. It was a very fun night and it was good to meet the parents. As I measure my success in kisses, this was a very good night as I had kisses from parents and students. I was sad to see them go. My Afghani's don't come to the ARC because of the Jesus film and Christian message.

I think I like camp. Follow the link and "view slide show" to meet my girls.

http://picasaweb.google.com/LDirrim/KidSCamp2007?authkey=HGda86SEWoE

A Typical Tuesday

After a quick breakfast, we walk to the bus stop. It takes 20 minutes for the bus to come and we ride it 22 stops down the hill and exit near the Ethniki Amyna metro station. Next we take the train about another 6 stops and exit near the plaka. From there we walk for about 15 minutes downtown to the the Athens Refugee Center. The morning temperature is around 80 degrees with a cool breeze blowing. It doesn't get any nicer than this.

Once inside we drop our stuff in the office and head to the kitchen. This morning we had 750 kilos of feta cheese donated that needs to be carried up the stairs, so we are a little late getting started. We need to prepare about 700 lunches. Someone has already cut and bagged enough cheese for the day. We place olives and pepperchinis in a baggie and tie it shut. We add the cheese, some arabic bread, a napkin and tie the lunch bag shut. Later someone will hand out a tomato with the lunch and a cup of hot, very sweet tea. Today, I am tying shut the olive bags. Kenn is moving cheese upstairs.

Next the chairs come off the tables where they were placed so that the floor could be mopped by the last person to use the room, which today was probably Persian Christian Fellowship on Sunday night. The games (mostly backgammon and chess) are placed on the tables and inspected to make sure the game pieces are there. The toys come out in the baby room and the craft supplies in the children's room. We take a break to pray for the day before the caos begins. After prayer we volunteer for roles for the day. Some will greet, some will hand out tomatoes. Others will pour tea or work with the babies or the children. I volunteer for the craft room with the older children, Kenn is in the kitchen pouring tea.

My day in the craft room lasts about 10 minutes until S is asking for me. She is my friend from Somalia. She wasn't there on Saturday, I thought perhaps she had found someone to watch the baby while she worked. There is plenty of help today in the craft room, so I leave for the women's area. The tea is served in an open room, but the Muslim men and women never eat together in public. The women have claimed a side near the baby room as their own and there I find S. She lets me hold the baby, who is wide awake. I had my camera on Saturday when she was gone, but don't have it today. She tells me she has found someone to watch the baby for a week...a friend from Somolia who is pregnant and due this week to deliver. Once her friends baby comes, she will not be able to take care of 2 babies, but hopefully by then she will have money to pay someone else. We talk about many things. Her mother is living in Kenya now. She is the 7th of 12 children ranging from age 9 to age 35. She wishes her mother would come to watch the baby, she has never seen the baby. We finally talk about the way she dresses. She is pentecostal and not Muslim (this explains so many things). I tell her I will pray for her. The baby is sick. She leaves early to take her to the doctor.

The craft room is doing fine, but the baby room is crazy busy. The picture of Saturday above shows a few children playing quietly and smiling for my picture. Today we had 5 nursing mothers with babies, 3 older children playing house under the table, 5 toddler boys throwing toys (happily, not with a mean heart), 1 crawling little girl, and 3 other girls coloring and an older boy with a broken arm trying to make the crawling little girl stop crying... all in a room that is 10 x 15 feet. It was absolutely crazy. I was trying to keep the little boys from letting their toys hit other people, but they were giggling and it is so rare to hear a refugee child really laugh that I just could not bring myself to make them stop. There is no common language between the boys, but it makes no difference they can still play and laugh together.

About 1:45 we cleared out the room for English class. We picked up the toys and I headed to the kitchen to check on Kenn. I helped him wash dishes. Later after everyone was gone, I swept the floor. By the time I was done sweeping the mops were all taken, so I didn't mop today, although some days I do. Sweet tea can make quite the mess on the floor by the end of a day.

By 4:15 we are have walked to the metro, taken the metro, taken the bus and walked up to our apartment. We are tired. We put dinner back in the freezer and order pizza. Pizza comes from Pizza hut on a bike, but they do deliver. It has been a good day.

Dinner with "F" and "J"

Around 4 pm after Tea House we headed in a van with our friends Ilir, Kate and Susie to F's house. F is planning to move soon to Sweden and wanted to fix dinner for us to say "good-bye" and "thank you" to Kenn and Ilir for fixing their computer. You can see them in the picture to the left, standing in the balcony waving to us.

As we exited the car we could smell fish grilling on a roof nearby. We entered the building and hiked up the unlit, dirty, marble stairs several flights to their apartment. The children met us at the door and were delighted to have company. Cartoons (in Farsi ) were playing on the TV on cable from Dubai. We are pleasantly surprised to find they actually have air-conditioning on this warm summer evening. We are also surprised to discover that the fish that smelled so good outside was our dinner cooking!

We sit in the only chairs that are not broken and the Eastern hospitality begins. First we are served water and soda (that we brought as a gift). Then heaps of food begin to appear on the table nearby, some sort of fried rice with cinnamon and raisans, 2 kinds of deep fried ground meat with vegetables, grapeskins filled with lemon and rice and ?, a Greek salad, flat bread and finally 2 giant fish (with head, eyes and tail all intact). I fill my plate once and then again and then "J" takes my plate and heaps it full. Now I am in trouble. There is no way in the world I can eat more than the 2 plates I've already eaten. I do the best I can, but it isn't enough. Then comes the sweet tea with sweets to eat and later the melons. I'm thinking I may never eat again. I am pleased to discover I really like Iraqi cooking or at least when it is cooked by "F".

The boys (3 and 6 years old?) play with us. I read them a book in Greek which made them laugh, for while they can't read much Greek, they have every word memorized and know that I am not reading it properly. We play with boxing G I Joes (or some sort of equivalent). The men are watching the Asia semi-finals for Soccer. Finally we get out the camera and take pictures. I teach the boys to take pictures. This is great fun. We took 61 pictures! Most of them are not framed well, but we had a good time.


It was hard to say "good-bye", although we have been here now for more than 4 hours. The chances of them actually being able to stay in Sweden are slim; most likely they will be sent back to Greece. If they are returned, they will likely lose the apartment, their belongings, their car and his job. It is a big risk. However, if they get to stay, (because someone has compassion on this pregnant woman and her family,) Sweden has great social benefits for refugees. It would be a good place to live and raise a family. "F" is 6 months pregnant. If they stay, we won't get to see the baby born. No spiritual conversation took place that night, although Ilir did try. "J" has a New Testament and has read it some and has clearly heard the gospel message. "F" changes the subject whenever it is brought up; to become a Christian would cut her off from her extended family whom she dearly loves. The cost would be great. In much the same way that they are willing to sacrifice everything they have to make a better life for their children, I know God loves them more than I do, because he was sacrificed His son to make it possible for them to have a personal relationship with Him. I pray now for mercy and compassion and for maybe a dream or a vision that will make it clear that Jesus is more than just another prophet of Mohammad, a compelling reason to consider His claims. Thanks for praying. If they get sent back, "F" has promised me cooking lessons. Maybe we'll get another chance.

Our Birthday in Greece

July 16th was our birthday. My husband Kenn and I are 6 hours apart in age. We had an "american" Greek sort of birthday. We went out to dinner with our friends Kate and Ilir to Fridays (yes the same restaurant as we have at the mall at home). We also went the next afternoon to see Oceans 13 at the theater "europe style". We learned oh...so many things. We learned to check the theater number. Number 5 and 6 are side by side. We assumed the one with the door open would be our movie...surely the movie in progress would have the door closed and the movie about to play would be open. Unfortunately, not so....we were about 3 minutes into a horror movie when we realized we in the wrong place. We got up and so did a group of high school girls who had done the same thing. We also did not realize we had assigned seats. Good thing there were only 10 of is in the entire theater for the 5:30 showing. Most of Greece doesn't wake up until about 9 pm when they have dinner. The seats are much nicer than home and have a convenient table in between each two seats. It was quite nice. The movie was in English with Greek subtitles. We sat in someone elses seats, but they didn't make us move because we had rescued them from the horror movie. If Oceans 13 had been playing the theater "gold" style (and it wasn't) we could have sat in recliners that look like 1st class airline seats and had dinner with the movie.

Birthday greetings came in many forms. I had a real birthday card that was about 1-1/2 inches x 3 inches (a store bought card in its own envelope). I've never had one that small. It was very cute.l I had a card in "my space". I had an e-card. I had voice mail on SKYPE (where Mark/Pat SANG "happy birthday"). I had e-mail and a video call on SKYPE. I'm sure we would have had cards in the mail, if anyone actually knew where we lived. We felt very loved and not so very far from home. Yes...if you have read this far, you deserve to know how old we are.... we are 49 this year.

We are in Greece!

We arrived safely in our new temporary home about 3 am on Thursday, July 5th. All of our luggage arrived with us. It felt odd as we left California with no cars, no keys, no cell phones... only 4 suitcases. The rest of our life was boxed in 60 +/- plastic boxes mostly ready to come later.

Kate (temporary team leader and neighbor) met us in the afternoon after we had slept some and showed us the bus routes and the options for grocery stores and other local shopping. Our other “neighbors” 2 blocks up the hill (also on our team), Brian and Christine had us over to dinner that first night. Kate and Ilir live 2 blocks down the hill. Nothing in Athens is level.

Day 2-Friday, found us still completely tired. We canceled our lunch appointment (so we could sleep in late) and went into the city with Kate and Ilir for a late lunch in the Plaka. We helped prepare dinner for a family night at the park with the refugees and then joined them at the park near Syntagma for a picnic. I spent most of my evening talking with a 13 year old Afghani who spoke some English. She has lived in 11 countries and was most recently in Sweden. When they left Afghanistan they had $14,000 euros and thought it would be enough to start a new life. Now it is gone. Each time they have moved on they have paid money (as much as $2000 euro) for fake papers and for transportation (plane, train, boat). Last time her fake passport said that her mom was German and her dad was Egyptian. That made her laugh out loud. The life of a refugee is not easy. I’m hoping M. will get to come to camp next month and hear more clearly in her own language about Jesus.

Saturday, we got up early and worked in the tea house. I worked in the baby room after packing hundreds of lunches of hard boiled eggs, flat bread, pepperchinis and olives. It was unusually busy. We had as many as 20 moms/babies in a 10 x 15 room. My first real kiss here (other than from Kenn) came from a 5 year old Pakistani girl who played with me most of the afternoon. She had long dark hair, big brown eyes and was very thin. She was different ethnically from just about everyone else coming and going; and neither of us understood most of the language around us..we were "outsiders". She was very sweet.

There are so many things I don't know how to say when I want to say them. I need to learn how to say “don’t spit” in Arabic. One little boy was very rude to the other children every time his mom turned her back. Later after the baby room closed, I chatted with a refugee woman from Algeria who was teaching me the Arabic alphabet and telling me about how persecuted Christians are where she lived growing up. She lived for a while in England, so her English was pretty good. I ran into her again on Sunday at church, which was quite a surprise to see a familiar face.

Sunday we went to church with Kate and Ilir. After church I came home and observed the day of rest in the most literal form of compliance. I sat on the couch and napped and/or read a book all day. Kenn went with some of the rest of the team to Kalamos to swim in the sea and see the facility where we will have kid’s camp August 14-17. Around dinner time, I decided to just throw some cheese pies in the oven. Then I figured out that it would be nice if I knew at what temperature or for how long. The directions, of course, were in Greek and the oven was in centigrade so it wasn’t even like I could guess a good temperature to try! Cooking was not a subject we had discussed in my Greek class at home. I guessed the temperature to be the only number that wasn’t in minutes and looked up the word for minutes in my Greek textbook. I must have done something right because dinner turned out OK. It was a good thing Kenn was in Kalamos; he might have starved to death while I figured it all out.

The weather has been very warm, but oddly enough when you compare it to Israel and/or Jordan it is quite comfortable most of the time. We were prepared well by the “boot camp” that was our “vacation” in Israel for the weather and the walking required to get around here in Athens. I think I might have been in shock if I had come straight from my air-conditioned office at ECCU to here, but we seem to be adapting fine. Although I confess that today is the first day I have even remotely been awake and not sleep-walking through my day. I think it was exhaustion from travel, hiking and moving as much or more so than just jet-lag. God has provided everything we needed. Even today as we encountered our first real need for a translator (when we didn’t already have one) at the pharmacy, in walks Kate completely unplanned and not exactly even close to where either of us live. God is good. THANKS for praying.

God's Calendar

We had an e-mail this morning from Kenn's attorney saying that he doesn't think he'll have the paperwork filed in time to make a May hearing. Immediately my mind is full of all of the implications that come from that simple statement. A distrust of the attorney who said it was ready to file a month ago. Wondering if we ought to not rent our house until July. Wondering if we ought to just go for it and leave on a tourist visa in June anyway. Wondering if I should work a while longer. Disappointment. Anger. Frustration. Confusion.

Then the still small voice kicks in loud enough to be heard. "I am still God. I am still on the throne. Do you really think an overworked and underpaid attorney is going to direct the timing of MY plan? He is like channels of water in My hand."

We (OK...well mostly Kenn) have been teaching Sunday School this month about God's calendar. Did you know the day that Jesus road into Jerusalem on "Palm Sunday", was lamb selection day? The very day the lambs were picked for slaughter for the Passover feast. He died at exactly 3 pm on Friday...the precise time the shofar blew and the lamb in the temple was sacrificed for the sins of the people. He was placed in the ground on the day of the feast of unleavened bread as all of Israel prayed that God would bring bread out of the earth (perhaps unknowingly, praying for the one who called himself the Bread of Life?). He arose on the feast of First Fruits. The apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15 that he was "indeed resurrected, the first fruit of all who have fallen asleep (died)." The first fruit was given in trust that God would give the harvest. Our God has an incredible sense of timing. He is never late.

We would appreciate your prayers that God would bring us His peace in place of our anger and His joy in place of our frustration and His wisdom in place of our confusion.

Missionary Training is Over....

My Korean Skit was over on Thursday. The picture above shows a portion of the taxi that we "took from the airport to the Seoul Hilton Hotel". I remembered my lines. Our "judge" was able to understand what we said. After 6 hours with a Language Helper (LH), we could barely repeat 3 and 1/2 minutes of dialogue in Korean. The point was not to learn Korean, but to learn how to plan sessions with a LH when you do not share a common language as a base. We tried different techniques over the 6 sessions and quickly learned what worked and what did not.

After the skit was over and debriefed, we ate a brief lunch and took the afternoon off. We had been very busy every afternoon and evening since the Second Language Acquistion classes had started and felt like we deserved a break. 5 of us took off for the Oriental Antiquities Museum in "the city" (what the locals call downtown Chicago).

The museum had an exhibit with antiquities from Iraq. My favorite part was this giant relief of Sennacherib. It also had a small sand prism that told the story of his battle with King Hezekiah. On each side of the prism it told a different version of the battle. On one side from the annals of King Sennacherib, it told of his victory over the children of Judah. On another side it told the Biblical story of how the Angel of the Lord slew all of Sennacherib's soldiers. Still another side told a story of how field mice had eaten the weapons while the soldiers slept over night and how they mysteriously died. I love the clarity of the relief. You could see the laces on the King's sandals, his jewelry, and even his fingernails. The prism from thousands of years ago confirms the biblical account.

That evening we had Giordano's pizza with our class. This was our only authentic Chicago pizza experience while in Illinois and our last night to be all together. After dinner we went back to our rooms to finish studying for our final quizzes on Friday. I sent my Portfolio project to my instructor (a 22 page word document on what my plan will be in Greece for language acquistion including reference material I acquired throughout the course in an Appendix).

Our quizes went well. I only missed 3 points on my production quiz (how well I can pronounce the sounds from the written phenomes). This was my best grade of the course and usually the part that gives me the most grief. I had a hard time with the transcription quiz (taking the sounds given orally and writing them on paper using the international phonetic alphabet), but it is over and my other transcription quizes had really good grades. Thank you so much for praying me through this class.

The classes were over around noon. We said our "good-byes" and went back to clean the apartment and move out. We got on the road about 1:30 pm. It looked like we were ahead of the 2-sided storm due to arrive later that night. 2-sided storms generally produce heavy rain and tornados. We arrived in St. Charles, Missouri about 7 pm and spent the night with friends. We arrived well before the storm and with only a minor detour .

Saturday morning we awoke to rain and were back in the car by 8:30 am headed towards Plano, Texas to see my brother and his family on our way back to California. We drove through heavy rain as we headed south. The rain later turned to wind and it blew a path of sunshine for us to drive in, with each side of the 2-sided storm divided by our patch of sunshine. Later in the day we drove through a dust storm that reminded me of what the dust bowl in the 1930's must have looked like. In the end, we made good time and arrived safe but dusty in Plano around 7 pm.

Today we rested. We went to church at Prestonwood Baptist. My brother, Craig BBQed a roast for dinner. Courtney, my niece is building a bridge out of notebook paper for her physics project, so the house sounds like saws buzzing and smells like glue. If it will hold 11 pounds of weight without breaking, she will get a good grade. It has all sorts of rules about how much it can weigh and how many supporting pieces it can have. Kayla, my other neice was home for a while from the University to see her boyfriend who is home from Iraq. Both were home for lunch. It has been a good day.

Monday we will drive 1o to 12 hours to Albuquerque and on Tuesday we will drive another 10 to 12 hours and should be back home in California. We have developed a rhythm to entertain ourselves as we drive. We listen to music "shuffled" on my ipod for a while. Then we listen to podcasts on Kenn's ipod. Then I read to Kenn for a while. We are reading Charles Martin books. He writes Christian fiction sets in South Carolina. He is a masterful storyteller as he makes us laugh and cry. I found the last book of his that I didn't own at the bookstore in church this morning. I could have danced. My favorite book thus far is "Wrapped in Rain". Then we start all over again with music. That's life on the road.