Greece!

Hi everyone! Long time, no blog! I am alive and well. For the past couple of months, I’ve felt a bit like the writer of John in chapter 21 verse 25 when he says, “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.“ (NLT) God has been showing up and doing marvelous things daily after we left Albania.  We spent 2 weeks in Greece, 5 weeks in Turkey, and now we’ve finished our first week in Nepal. At times, it’s overwhelming to decide what’s most important to share through blogs without writing a whole novel. It makes me extra excited to catch up with everyone in person in just a few months when more testimonies can be shared in greater detail!

In this blog, I’ll share a bit about our time in Greece.

After praying for weeks in Albania about where God was leading us, He directed us to Thessaloniki, Greece for two weeks of ATL which stands for “Ask The Lord.” So we did just that: every morning we would start our day with a listening prayer asking the Lord and interceding for Greece and then practicing obeying the guidance and direction He gave us before and throughout every step of our day. This led to a lot of different daily experiences. We started off our time reading through the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians written by Paul to the very region we were living in. We had the opportunity to draw prophetic art and notes for people on the streets that we translated into Greek. Writing letters in Greek to the Thessalonian people gave a completely new perspective to Paul and God’s heart to guide the lost people in Thessaloniki back to being found by their loving heavenly Father.

For the first week, we fasted one meal every day as a team and used the budgeted money from that meal to bless people on the streets. We did this mostly by buying food and making hygiene care packages for the homeless with prophetic art and notes. We also bought flowers and wrote our Bible verses to hand out as well. We were able to connect with many people on the streets, bless them, and pray for them. We also got to serve at a refugee center and hear the stories of individuals and families who have had to leave everything and make a new home in Greece. It was heavy and heartbreaking to learn about many of their traumatizing experiences but incredible to see their strength and hope through it all. I’m so thankful we have a God who makes a way where there seems to be none, can make any place a home in his arms, and provides a new family & refuge for us even when we’ve lost our earthly ones.

Later in the week, we set up a foot washing station on the street that started a multiple hour conversation with a man who’s been questioning his family’s Muslim faith, Christianity, and life in general. He was kind, open, asked many questions and just so happened to be from the specific city of Pogradec, Albania where we served before Greece. He opened up about some mental health struggles that we could relate to, and we got the chance to pray for him to be healed and freed.

We connected with a local YWAM (Youth With a Mission) base in Thessaloniki and were able to build relationships, worship, and serve alongside their community during our time as well. YWAM connected us to a lot of ministry opportunities. We made a new friend during a worship night who was traveling the world on his own just going wherever God leads him for 6 months and he jumped in to serve alongside and hang with us for a few days straight. One day, he joined us as we served with a local family looking for help to finish building their Christian camp and family retreat center. It was fun to get dirty with some heavy lifting and manual labor for a day before finishing off with some amazing authentic Greek food—gyros and tzatziki sauce that truly blessed our tastebuds.

We also connected with multiple local shop owners in Greece and one of our favorites was a cafe owner named Sophia. From the first day we hit it off as we came into her shop and sang along as she wished a customer “happy birthday.” She showered us with love and blessings every visit after that. She introduced us to her daughter and husband, brought out free drinks, food, sparklers and would turn up American music and pull us out of our seats for a dance party each time we came in! We got to build a sweet relationship with Sophia and her family and mutually encourage one another as we shared fun, truth, Bible verses and flowers with her.

Video Clip – Dancing in Sophia’s Cafe

Video Clip – Singing & sparklers at Sophia’s shop

An interesting testimony of our time in Greece included *not* getting kidnapped. We often walked on a crowded boardwalk where there were men who would try to sell bracelets by tying them on your wrist “for good luck” then requiring you to pay for it. A local warned us about this and the first day we encountered them, I heard one man distinctly say the words “Holy Spirit” in English. To that I replied, “Ooh! I know that guy—I’d love to pray for you!” He refused and proceeded to try to put a bracelet on me, but I insisted again, “Nah, I don’t want a bracelet, I want to bless you! Please let me pray for you!” and this man RAN AWAY. I don’t want to assume something sus was going on but anyways…a couple days later, we met more of these guys and being the trusting (maybe sometimes gullible) social butterflies a couple of my teammates and I are, we got to talking about God and this man told us he was a prophet and wanted to meet up to talk more about God the next day. In hindsight, during this interaction, the men asked quite a few personal questions, touched us more than needed and one of their friends said repeatedly, “You’re beautiful. I want to take you to Africa!” When the time came to meet with these men for coffee the next day, we decided to do a listening prayer as a team because multiple members felt uneasy about meeting with these men in a foreign country where they had a lot of info and upperhand on the situation. We prayed and initially, half of us felt at peace with going and the other half did not. One of my teammates said the Lord was actually yelling, “DO NOT GO” to her as we prayed. We decided to pray again. It was important to me and the rest of our team that fear did not make our decision, but Jesus’ leading did. A teammate opened up the space with a prayer that the Holy Spirit would sanctify our minds. Shortly after, I had visions of us being shoved into a van and vivid scenes from a movie called Sound Of Freedom shining light on human trafficking. I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination or God, but it turned out that one of my teammates got the exact same visions. Another teammate got the verses Psalm 140:5-6,8 which describe the enemy setting a trap before us. We continued to pray and found peace in staying home that day and praying that the Lord would either give us another opportunity or send someone else to share the gospel with these men in a safer, public environment.

Another unexpected testimony would be resting in God’s will during rejection. When handing out care packages and starting up conversations with people on the street, some rejection is to be expected. One time, my teammate and I came across a guy who we prayed for and felt led to give a package and note to. During our first interaction, he shook his head “no” and walked away seemingly due to the language barrier and misunderstanding that it was a free gift. We prayed and caught up to him again – this time with a note typed out explaining ourselves on Google translate. This time, he ran away from us as we stood there a little shocked. This could have felt discouraging, but my teammate and I instead saw it as an opportunity to praise God that He wouldn’t allow us to give anything to the wrong person.

Something I learned during our time in Greece is that it’s really not very hard to take time and effort in our day to show love to people. When we begin our days filled with God’s presence and love, all we have to do is remain available, interruptible, and obedient to wherever and whoever He leads us to. I had a long and vulnerable confession session our last night in Greece. This consisted of asking the Holy Spirit to reveal lies I’d been believing that led me into sin and a false view of God and confessing it to Jesus with a few team members praying with me. At the end, we asked the Lord what truth He would like to speak over me and He repeatedly said to me, “Daughters don’t need to earn love.” How kind and true is that! I am no longer a slave to this world or people’s approval, I am a child of God and He loves me the same at my very worst and best. I don’t have to do or earn anything—He is already well pleased with me. It’s that simple. Yet, there are so many believers and nonbelievers who don’t know the height and depth of how loved, known, and valuable they are.

”But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.“
Galatians 4:4-7 NLT