Pictures from Refugee Family Camp June 2014

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What did I give today?

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.

Seeker's Retreat with Dads & Kids

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.

Tea House

On Saturdays we serve tea. It is very sweet, black, hot tea.  It doesn't matter if it is 106 degrees out or nearly ready to snow, our refugee friends love their tea.   Our doors are open on Saturdays from 12 to 4 pm and any refugee may come...no tickets required.  It is a great time to meet new people and no better place to meet new people than the kitchen window where the tea is served, which is typically where Kenn hangs out.  He gets to see everyone who comes.

An Afghan young man (maybe 20ish years old) comes looking for Kenn.  A week ago Kenn gave this man a Bible to read and told him to come back and ask his questions.  So Kenn comes out of the kitchen to sit with him in the big room to chat with him for a few minutes.  He is surprised that the man has no questions.  No questions?  How can this be?  Finally, Kenn realizes that there is no way this young man is going to say anything in a big room full of people he does not know, so Kenn pulls him back in the kitchen.  No questions?  "No questions, I just want to know how to follow Jesus."   Aziz, our teammate from Afghanistan joins them to translate and the young man enters the kingdom.   I came by the kitchen a bit later to eat my lunch and this man's sisters are in the kitchen talking with Ebi and Carolyn about what it means to follow Jesus.  They are a bit more confused and don't pray that day, but do stay for the Seekers class after Tea House at 4 pm.  I get to play with the 4 year old boy for an hour and a half, while all 3 of the adults learn more about Jesus.  Kenn is continuing to meet with the brother to disciple him and soon we will make a plan to meet all together with the sisters too.

Meanwhile, back at Tea House, Aziz is approached by an Afghan father of 3 teenagers who has had a dream that he does not understand.  He asks Aziz to ask Jesus to tell him what it means.  In the dream he is in a mosque praying.  A man in white, he thinks maybe it is the Pope, pulls him from the mosque and offers to reveal truth to him.  He does not want to go and fights with the Pope.  Finally he relents and the Pope takes him to a Christian church and when he opens the door, his daughter is already sitting there.  They have been reading the Bible in their home with his wife and 3 teenagers trying to understand what this can mean.  Aziz explains that it is probably not the Pope, but Jesus, who is the truth who is bringing them out of the mosque and that perhaps the daughter will be the first one to follow Jesus.  He directs them to keep reading their Bible and invites them to the Seekers class.  

Fast forward to Tuesday.  Tuesday is a ticketed meal for Farsi speakers with a gospel presentation.  During the gospel presentation, there is a children's program similar to a VBS program in the states.  The husband does not come this day, but the wife is there with the teenagers.  They can't find Aziz, so they find his wife Donna is the children's room.  With 40 kids in the room, she can't leave and go chat with them.  She encourages them to go find Aziz.  As they leave the kids room, they get separated.  The daughter finds Michaelis, who finds Ebi and Carolyn and they take this teenage gal into the clothing room and explain to her how she can follow Jesus because the office is full of other private conversations.  She prays and is so excited to become a follower of Jesus.  At the same time, Aziz is praying with the son in another quiet place.   Not great staff communication on our team...we are just too busy some days.  Not until the next day when we are sitting together praying for refugee friends do we discover that two members of one family on the same day prayed with different staff people!  

God is doing something here in Athens.  We are so blessed to be here and to be able to see first hand what God is doing.

Our "Stay-Cation" (aka Vacation at home)

We decided this year to stay home for the week our ministry is closed in August.  (We close for a Greek holiday...most of the Greeks are gone for the month, not just the week.)  Anyway, we decided we would rather spend our money going to England in September than to try and go someplace in August.  It turned out to be a good decision, because I caught a summer cold and was miserable the first half of the week.

Wednesday was the first day I felt good enough to be bored, so we decided to head to the "pay beach" near us.  We have rarely ever been to a pay beach, because, of course, you have to pay and the free beaches are good enough; but this is our vacation so we decided to see how the other half lives!

I did not have my camera, but South Beach looks a lot like this picture.  What you get when you pay is: a parking lot, showers, dressing rooms, restrooms, restaurants, loud music, a lounge chair, a beach umbrella and soft sand (that someone probably brought from Australia!).  For more money you can rent a paddleboat that comes complete with a waterslide.   The crystal clear, 80 degree water you can get anywhere in Greece this time of year.  If you come after 7 pm, you get all of this for free, but if you come earlier you pay 4.50 euros to enter and another 2 for the chair.   At some pay beaches you don't pay to enter, you just have to order from the restaurant to use their chairs.  The sun doesn't set here this time of year until almost 9 pm.  While this sounds expensive, think about what you paid to park at Balboa beach, plus gasoline (this is minutes from our house) and you had to hike your own stuff and you didn't have a shower or a dressing room or risk getting run over by teenagers jumping off a paddle boat.

The complete antithesis of a pay beach is Kenn's favorite beach, which he prefers to go at 7 am in the morning. Really it can be 80+ degrees most summer days at that time of the day, with the water almost the same temperature, it is not as insane as it sounds.  Here you get parking that looks like this:

You get no music, in fact no noise at all.  You bring your own chair.  There is no shower or dressing room or restaurant but, all this quiet is free, aside from the 45 minute drive to get there.

The other place we spend a lot of time, is just a small cove near our house with no beach at all and lots of deep water to swim in.    I need to snap a picture, because it is smooth rock and deep water and a small island to swim around.  It looks completely different.  After a hot day, you can dive in, swim for an hour or two and go home, with nothing more to carry with you than your towel; or maybe your towel and something to float on when you get tired.  We spend most of our time there.

Finally, there are the ministry beach days.  This requires a beach that is easily accessible by bus, and lots of shallow water because most refugees can't swim well.  This beach is free.  We bring our own umbrellas and lunch.  You park on the gravel or take the bus.  No restrooms.  No showers.  No dressing rooms.  I laughed out loud when I saw it on an airplane magazine advertised as the Greek Riviera!   I have lots of great memories here.

So...if you were Greek, you would count the number of times you have been to the sea this summer.  Do you know?   I think I am at 15 or 16. 

Really? Almost a year?

I knew it had been a while.   So what has been happening in the last 11 months?   Well....

• We went on furlough ("home service assignment") from October 28, 2011 through May 22, 2012.  We were in California most of the time.  We spoke in churches and small groups; visited friends and family.
• We have 2 new grandsons.  Welcome Kalix and Kamden born in November 2011.
• We are back in Greece and this is home.  Greece is in a recession, something akin to the Great Depression in America in the 1930's.  Life is very difficult for our Greek friends and neighbors.

Last Friday was a personal ministry day.  It was blazing hot, triple digit weather.  The men have a meal downtown and a gospel presentation, so Kenn was downtown.  The women are smarter!   We invited our refugee friends to swim in the sea.  

The refugees, the short term team from Nebraska, and a few of our staff rode the bus.   I got picked up in the car because so much of the community beach stuff gets stored in my basement.  So with our 3 beach umbrellas, bag of toys, bag of towels, water thermos, chairs, bag of bathing suits and our foam "noodles", we piled in a very small car and drove to the beach.

It was very windy when we got there.  So we tied our umbrellas down with clothes' line and grocery bags of sand to keep them from blowing away.  About the time we got set up, the bus arrived with all our friends.  

The most interesting thing I saw that day (besides us swimming in our t-shirts and shorts, while the rest of the beach is in bikinis and European swim attire,) was a group of high school boys who buried an exercise ball in the sand so that only half of it was uncovered.  In honor of the Olympics starting the next day, these wanna-be gymnasts were doing back flips off the exercise ball.

Our refugee women were fearless!  Off came the Muslim head covering.  Gone was the Ramadan fasting.  These women were here to learn to swim!   We had 5 kids with us.   Not one kid napped.  Everyone was in the water.  The water was very warm and clear and kind of choppy from the winds, but we don't get real waves here.  Perfect for learning to swim.  The only time people were out of the water was when we came up for a lunch of Arabic bread filled with feta cheese, cucumbers (we eat them whole), peaches and chips.   

These are the kind of days where new friendships are born.   With new friendships comes the trust that builds opportunities later to share your faith.   Tough job?   I think I love it.  It did take some doing to go back and fix dinner and clean up the house to host a Bible study in our home at 8 pm when all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and close my eyes.

Road Trip: Day 13-15

It is now Monday, our last day in Italy. After a lovely breakfast at the hotel, we took the girls with us back to Venice. We toured the Doge Palace, the Fedrer church and ate gelato (italian ice cream) in the San Marcos piazza. Venice is a bit overwhelming with its elaborate architecture and crowds of people. What I like best about Venice is sitting in a cafe and eating a meal listening to the live music. It is a great place to people watch and I love Italian food.

The next day we packed our bags and drove the 5 hours south the Ancona to catch the overnight ferry back to Patra and then we drove from Patra another 3 hours back to our home. It was a great trip.