Slap in the Face...

That's what I felt like I got at least in class today. I am taking a class on Ezekiel right now with a teacher that flew in from Wheaton College in Illinois. It is very interesting and tough! A little background first...I am a "words of affirmation" person...I think it's one of my love langauges! :) Sometimes though, I don't like having it because I have to be careful not to depend on people's words, comments, compliments, etc. to feel good about myself. I have to remember that God tells me who I am and that I am always precious and delighted by Him. I am really ashamed to admit though that sometimes I am so selfish that I sit and think, "Oh I need some kind of compliment or else I won't have that great of a day...Maybe I need to look in the Bible!" But my teacher made a really good point in class today and I kind of wanted to hang my head in shame for a bit and it was a reminder of the selfish people that we are. He said that we often look to the Bible to make ourselves feel better and wonderful and what we can get out of it WHEN really we should look to it to see how wonderful God is and to help YOU! Because there must be something wonderful about God in order for Him to love me! We are so caught up though in exalting ourselves that we forget about exalting others and God. It's not about "I."

13 days and NOT counting...

So I am obviously not wanting to leave Greece and I believe I have about 13 more days here...The rest of my time here is going to fly by! I have never wanted to freeze a part of my life so much...The more I try to slow it down, the faster it goes! It will be bittersweet...I obviously am excited to see my friends and family again but I am very sad to leave the ministries and friends that I have here. It has been an amazing journey that the Lord has put me on that I can barley put into words. When I leave, I will write a huge blog and sum up my time here...I think I could write a book! :)
Just pray that the Lord would use me in my last few days here and that we can go out with a bang!

mama mia.

I came back to Athens last Tuesday night from Larissa...I took the train back myself. That was an adventure in itself...got a couple marriage proposals, got to witness to this guy, became best friends with a 13 yr. old girl who tried to teach me more Greek, etc...It was fun though! You definitely meet interesting people on trains! That night, I went straight to my ministry with the refugee kids because I missed them so much! I can honestly say that I love those kids and I think Tuesdays might be my favorite day of the week because of them. I start crying when I even start to think about leaving them! The next few days, I got to spend at a beach house with my friend and his family! It was absolutely beautiful. It was a quick walk to the sea, which was surrounded by mountains. We went up to visit a nunnery one day...It was seriously the most peaceful and quiet place I had ever been to! Then the next day, we climbed up this one hill and when we got to the top, we could see everything....I screamed and jumped up and down that I felt like I was on the Mama Mia movie set. After climbing and hiking around for a bit, my friend and I jumped in the sea and swam for a while...Let's just say, it's warm out but the water felt like I had jumped into a tub full of ice cubes! Bbbuuuuurrrrr!!!! It was a fun couple of days though and now my spring break is over! :(


The nunnery!


I saw this on the side of the road...It was just this huge rock in the water!


Aaahhhhh...Dont hurt me! hahah...Funny thing is that the beaches in Greece are all rocky instead of sandy...


Frolicking and rolling down the hill...My friend made me take this picture...haha..but the scenery behind me is beautiful!


Here are the friends that I went with!


Gorgeous!

Ministry in Larissa...

My time up in Larissa was fabulous and the family we stayed with was more than hospitable, they were great! Larissa is a happening little town, kind of a college town. It was quite clean and a change of pace from Athens. We also were able to do some really cool ministry the first couple days we were there. The first night I got there, a couple girls and I went to a popular square and laid out a table with free bibles and Jesus DVDs...All of the Bibles got taken! Praise the Lord! It is is Easter season, so that definitely helped! The next day, the group of friends I was with and some people from the church we were staying with went to clinics and sang worship songs. These clinics are for mentally disabled people and the elderly. The clinics let the church we were staying with come and sing twice a year for Christmas and Easter. It was more than awesome! We sang all the songs in Greek and the patients were trying to sing with us and were really happy to see us; we also passed out cake to them afterward. The first clinic we went to was in great condition-very clean, patients taken care of and cared for, etc. The second clinic was another sight to behold. It was in sickening condition. I felt like I had walked into one of those horror movies about mental institutions...The building was dirty, the room was so smoky that you could barely breathe. The patients were not cared for at all, they were dirty, etc. It pretty much made me cry and want to scream at the nurses and want to do something. I literally tried to walk to every single room to give each patient cake and say a few words in Greek to them. After the experience, it made me miss my own grandpa a ton, who is in a nursing home back in Chicago, and I decided that when I get back to Chicago, I would love to get a group of friends going to a nursing home once a month and talk and pray with the patients. If you think about, say a quick prayer for the patients at these clinics we visited because a lot of people would say there is no point in going to these people and telling them about Jesus, but they need him as much as we do. Also, I was able at the second clinic, to get in front of everyone and give a 2 minute version of my testimony so I thanked the Lord that I got that opportunity because I was able to just encourage these patients with the promise from God that though people in our lives may leave and forsake us, God will NEVER leave or forsake us and we can always count on him because He is always there for us.

Xristos Anesti!

Think: My Big Fat Greek Wedding...That was a bit of my Easter experience :)

The night before Easter, my friends and I actually went to an Orthodox church to see the traditional candle lighting ceremony at midnight. It was super crowded and every single Greek comes out because it's "tradition." It was a total cultural experience! Unfortunately, it was sad to see that the meaning behind this ceremony is really great but it does not mean anything to the Greeks because it is something they just go to because they are supposed to. It starts off with one candle being lit and then the light being passed on until everyone's candle is lit...It's supposed to show that Christ's Resurrection should be shared with everyone and should lead us to tell people about what Christ has done. Just like the movie, everyone says, "Xristos Anesti!" Which means, "Christ is Risen!" Then, you say back, "Alithos, Anesti!" Which means, "Indeed, He is Risen!" Watch the movie and you'll see this being said! On Easter, we went to church and I actually got to share my testimony with the small congregation so that was really cool! Afterwards, the whole church had our HUGE meal together and of course we had lamb...typical Greek food on Easter! It was really great and a blessing to be able to spend Easter with a family since my friends and I were away from our own. I would encourage you to not let Easter just become another holiday you celebrate but to let Christ's resurrection live in your hearts and remember the sacrifice that Christ paid for us and without Him being raised from the dead, we would not be able to spend eternity with God. So share Christ's resurrection with others because He has done a great thing!


Some of my friends holding their candles!


Here is Julie and I holding our candles!


Becky and I on Easter morning!

Meteora

One word and that is: indescribable! That is how I would try to describe Meteora. It was one of the places that before I even got to Greece, that I said I had to visit before I left so I was extremely happy that I got to go! After I left the Children's Camp, I went down to Central Greece to a town called, Larissa. I stayed with a friend's family while I was there and the one day a bunch of us got up and took an early train to go and see Meteora. Meteora is this area of amazing cliffs with monasteries and nunneries built on the top of them and visitors are able to go up and visit them. You are able to drive up the monasteries but you can also rough it and hike up through the forests and get up to these cliffs, which of course my friends wanted to be adventurous and hike! Might I say, that it was the most intense thing I think I have ever done...I think we hiked for like 3 hours...I was sweating, my legs were hurting...haha...but I was trying not to complain...Let's just say, it was my workout for the month! :) It was totally worth it once we got up there because the view was amazing and the monasteries were beautiful. The girls had to put on skirts before we went in, and there were some little museums inside the monasteries that we got to go into. The whole trip was amazing (look up pictures online, because mine won't do it justice!)...and it really made me look at how awesome God's creation is! He created all of this by the touch of His fingers and by the words from His mouth. You feel so small when you are up on these cliffs but all of a sudden I felt this overwhelming sense of God's love for His children. We are so small, minuscule, etc...but He cares and knows each one of us by name. He knows the hairs on our head...What an awesome God we have...Be encouraged, He loves you so much and knows all your cares, problems, and concerns...He has it all in control!


Here is most of the group that went!


One of the monasteries!


Some more cool scenery!


Boys are too difficult...I'm joining a nunnery..hahaha!

children's camp...

After the sports tournament, I went up to Filirou (a town near Thessaloniki) and helped out with Child Evangelism Fellowship (a very famous organization that works with children). They had a camp for kids from 8 to about 14 years old. I was blessed to have a cabin of mostly english speaking girls. One girl was from a missionary family so she was fluent in Greek and English, 3 other girls spoke english pretty well, and then 2 girls did not know english but we just translated to them. It was a fun couple of days with the girls and I got to have some really good talks with them about their faith and got to tell them a little bit about my own story. A lot of the other kids thought it was really fun to go around and teach me greek vocabulary so I learned a bunch of new words!


Here is my cabin of wonderful girls!


One of the girls and I!




I climbed the rock wall and made it to the top! Wahoo!



Here is a video of the cheer that my cabin came up with...If you listen, you will even hear me speak Greek....Amazing! :)

Leptokaria

At the start of my spring break, I spent the weekend up at Leptokaria, which is a town up north towards Thessaloniki. There is an annual Christian sports tournament that everyone comes out to play and watch. I played volleyball in it...It was definitely a fun experience playing and then having Greek being yelled out onto the court. My team unfortunately lost all but one of our games but we did play quite well if I may say so myself. A lot of people were there from the ministry that I help out with...So it was great to see them and having then cheer, "Bravo Asli!" on the side of the court. The camp was beautiful...It was on the sea and then on the other side of the camp was Mt. Olympus (the tallest mountain in Greece)...Definitely a breath-taking view!


Here's my volleyball team!


Becky and I playing pothosforos (a.k.a. soccer in Greek) right next to Mt. Olympus!

peace.

it does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, trouble
or hard work. it means to be in
the midst of those things and still
BE CALM IN YOUR HEART.
(unknown)

"Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

kala pasca-happy easter!

I am in Larissa, Greece staying with a few friends at one of our Greek friend's houses for our Spring break and Easter...We celebrate Easter this Sunday in Greece. I have lots to update you on(sports tournament, children's camp, Meteora, and just what the Lord's been teaching me)so I'll try to get on again soon...so stay posted! Love you all! The Lord's doing some awesome stuff around the world-keep praying!

to kosovo and back.

Last Wednesday, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Kosovo with my school for a long weekend. Our teachers prepared us for the worst...Expect war torn towns, no toilet paper, no electricity, really cold weather, etc...So we prepared ourselves for battle! To our surprise, it was nothing like that. Kosovo was absolutely beautiful, it has become a really developed little country since the war, the electricity does shut off during the day but it's not that big of a deal, there is running water, the food was really good, and the weather was not that bad...Overall, I would totally go to Kosovo again. There were some funny things I learned about Kosovo though while I was there...
1. The country is technically called Kosova.
2. People that come from Kosova are called Kosovars.
3. They love love love Americans.
4. They love Americans so much that they have streets named after Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, etc.
5. The country is 97% Muslim and 3% Catholic.

We were there for really only one full day but that day was jam-packed with ministry. In the morning, I got to help out with a Christian daycare that takes in kids a couple days a week. The parents of these kids don't really care about their kids and considering the conditions that some of these kids are living in, if they were in any other country, they would probably be taken away from their parents. So we played with the kids and just loved on them. In the afternoon, we went to a poor village to work with the kids. I had the awesome opportunity to talk to them for a few minutes and share a bible story. Most of the kids from the village had never known their father because they had probably been killed by the Serbians when they were trying to take over the country. It was very sad. It will be a memory I have forever. I also got a few marriage proposals from the 12 year old boys...haha! After Kosovo, we went back down to Thessaloniki for a day and sang at some churches to raise money for our school. The weekend was awesome and such a blessing!


We found snow at one of our pit-stops and tried to make a mini snowman!


In Kosovo, there were horses just walking around right next to us!


The kids playing at the daycare.


Say Cheese!


One of the little girls from the village we went to.


Here I am teaching the story to the kids in the village.


Here is a picture I took while on the bus...It's rubble left over from a church that got bombed or burned down in the war.


We had to drive through Macedonia to get in and out of Kosovo...Funny story: We actually left one of the students accidentally while they were in the bathroom and they had to catch a ride with a truck driver and get to the border while we were waiting.


The whole gang that went on the trip!

aLbAnIa AnD cOrFu

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before that, I had to leave the country with the rest of my class for a Visa exit. Since I attend the Greek Bible Institute and we are in an Orthodox country, our school is kind of not recognized by the government so I am not really able to get a Student visa...Because of that, we have to leave the country every 90 days, which is what we did! There were about 12 of us that went with a couple of our teachers. We had a 7 hour drive to Igoumenitsa, which is where we were going to catch a ferry to Corfu, a beautiful island off of mainland Greece. After a beautiful and very long drive, we found out that we would have to stay at a motel for the night because the weather was too bad for the ferries to leave. So we decided to get some dinner and get a good night sleep. When we woke up in the morning, we found out that we were not going to be able to get to Corfu because the weather was going to be bad over the next few days and we would get stuck on the island...Not a bad idea if you ask me...Getting stuck on an island?!? But my teachers did not think that was such a great idea so they decided to change up the plans. Instead of going to Corfu and then Albania, we were just going to drive to another closer city in Albania, get our passports stamped, and then drive all the way back to Athens. To say the least it was an adventure, we got lost like 10 times, when we finally got to the Albanian border, only a couple of us were able to make it all the way, including me. So we stopped at this lonely looking gas station to go to the bathroom where there was no toilet paper...Thank God, we were carrying some napkins...After we went to the bathroom, we decided to buy some coffee from the guy who owned the gas station since we just used his bathroom and were like the only people around for a few miles. The owner was so sweet and he got really excited when I said hello to him in Albanian but then neither of us knew any more of the others language so we just smiled! :)
We left Albania after a little bit trying not to look suspicious since we had only been there for a little bit but we got out fine and got our passports stamped. On our way back to Athens, we stopped in Ioannina, which is another popular city in Greece, and went to some caves and ate lunch. After that, we drove the long drive back to Athens, listening to the Gaither Vocal Band and trying to keep my 78 year old teacher who was driving awake....It was one adventure!


We made a pit stop at McDonalds...Sarah and I also gave "Ronald" a kiss on the cheek...haha


This is a picture of us and the gas station owner in Albania...He was really excited to take a picture with us!


The beautiful view on the way up there!


We stopped at one point on the road to take a picture!


This was after we got out of the cave!


Here's a fun video of us getting lost!


Welcome to Albania!

I am alive...believe it or not!

So some people thought that I wiped off the face of the earth but good news...I have not! I am alive and well...Just been having some amazing European adventures! The problem has been that I haven't had a lot of internet access. So where do I start?!? I might do a couple posts just to keep it from getting too long on one.

A couple of weekends ago, I had the chance to go up on the MorningStar boat. This is a boat that is owned by Hellenic Ministries, here in Greece. This boat is used most of the time in the summer. They have a crew and then they sail around to the Greek islands and go to each house evangelizing and giving Bibles. During the non-summer months, they try to have youth groups from the churches on the a boat for a weekend get-away. The boat is kept up at Porto Astro, which is the summer camp owned by the same ministry. It's about an hour and a half away from Athens. The land around the camp is absolutely beautiful and breath-taking and to go sailing around it is even better! We went up there Friday night and came back Saturday night...It was a quick trip but it was an awesome time to get away from the busyness of Athens and be in God's creation for a little bit. I also got to learn how to sail a bit, tie some knots, got to cook, and we saw dolphins!


Here is Sarah, my roommate, and I!


Old Glory...a little tattered but still as good as new!


Some scenery that was around us on the boat


These pictures are not showing the beauty of this place but at least you can get an idea!!



Here is a video of the dolphins...look really close and you can see them!

give it all away...

Lyrics from a song reminded me of this often forgotten concept...Am I willing to give it all away? Anything and everything? Often times, I think it's easy to say that we would be but are we REALLY??? Imagine, someone on the street randomly walks up to you and asks for a dollar; are you willing to give them the jacket right off your back even if they didn't ask for it? Let's take me for example! If you know me, then you know I love to shop and I love my clothes...Well, the Lord has slowly been working in me and changing me. I have actually been convicted when I go to buy something...How many clothes can a person really own! None of these things really matter in life. Matthew 6:20-21 says, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I don't want my treasure to be here on earth because I cannot take that with me when I leave this earth...It is so much more important for my cares and concerns to be on eternal things. Am I willing to give all my things away and everything I have for my Lord Jesus? He gave himself up COMPLETELY for me! He came to this earth and died for mine and your sins as a perfect, spotless, and sacrificial lamb and then was resurrected so that we could spend eternity with him. I pray that you and I are ready at the drop of a hat to give up everything we have if we are serving and following Jesus because He did not think twice about giving everything up for us.

Θεσσαλονικη...

Not this past weekend but the weekend before that I got to take a trip up to Northern Greece to Thessaloniki (which is what the title of this blog says in Greek). Thessaloniki is the second biggest city in Greece and it's the town Paul wrote a letter to in the Bible (1 and 2 Thessalonians). I went with 3 of my Greek friends and we took a long weekend since it was a holiday here in Greece. It was a 6 hr. train ride up there and the scenery on the ride up was beautiful! We saw everything...Green hills, snow-capped mountains, sheep, caves, small villages...I felt like I was in a movie! We had a very relaxing time up there; we didn't do anything too crazy and exciting! We saw the ruins and famous churches that are famous up there, we went to the zoo...I touched a baby snake...So scary! We went to my friend's village, which is like a small town...Which I was mistaken because when I hear the word village, I think: people coming out of huts and sitting around a bonfire...haha...but it was nothing like that...They just call their really small towns here villages. We went to a couple churches on Sunday and just walked along the harbor. I had amazing homemade Greek food as usual and just got to have a good time spending time with my friends. Thessaloniki is an amazing city...maybe even a little better than Athens...It's cleaner, has some really cool stores to shop at, some great little coffee shops to sit at, etc...Definitely a place everyone should visit and I would love to go up there again!


All of us that went to Thessaloniki...Fevronia, Fivos, Stathis, and me!


The White Tower...It was a Byzantine tower, then a prison, and now a museum.


Yummy...Eating delicious greek food...Maybe I'll be able to cook some when I get home!


The very famous...Arch of Galerius, who was an Emperor


This picture is crap...but it was seriously the most beautiful view I have ever seen...We were looking out and walking along the seacoast and there just cascades of mountains that were snow-covered...Breath-taking!


Being goofy in the door of the train station :)


Here is a video from the weekend! Enjoy!

ReCaP 2...

Here is the recap continued...

I got to babysit these two sweet kids one Saturday night. Their parents are missionaries from the States and they are working here in Greece. They were seriously the most well-behaved kids I have ever watched! Before we went to bed, we got to say prayers, read books, and the cutest of all was they sang some Christian songs...Oh and they call me Miss Ashley and it is so adorable!


Here is Fivos and I getting stuff ready for the Sunday school class that we teach...We look so serious..haha...It was really encouraging that Sunday because Fivos and I had procrastinated a bit with getting our lesson ready and we were going back and forth with how we wanted to teach them...but it ended up turning out really well and the kids were opening up their bibles and finding the answers on their own so it was really great!


Here we are doing ministry at Omonia Square on Thursday nights...handing out croissants, tea, flyers, and trying to share Christ with the people living out on the streets...


A couple of friends and I went to a cafeteria (a.k.a. a coffee shop) one night. They are everywhere here in Greece! If you can believe it I am actually starting to like cappuccino...ahhh! I never thought I would say that!


Ok, awesome story with this picture so I will tell it...Ignore the fact that I look a little freaky in the picture...haha...So last week, I took an Open Air Evangelism class. I was not too excited about this class when I heard about it because it is not really my thing...Going out on the street corner and painting pictures while evangelizing to people but my opinion did change a bit after the class. All we really did in class was paint, which was awesome, and learned how to tell stories. So one of the requirements for the class was we had to go out that week and evangelize but I asked my teacher if I could do it with the Muslim refugee kids that I work with and he said that would be fine. It was not the easiest task since if your remember these kids don't speak English or Greek so I had to paint a picture without words on the board and still keep it simple for them and my Farsi translator. I prayed about this all day before I had to tell it because I was nervous and did not know how it was going to go over with the kids. I knew something was probably going to go wrong...Well, when we got there...There was barely any kids, maybe 10 or so (there are usually 40 or more) and they were all young, which was bad because my story was for kids a little older...So I started to freak out a bit and tried to think of a Plan B but then I just realized all I could do was pray that these kids would still understand the story...We found out there weren't that many people because it was cold out, it was only like 40 degrees but that's cold to them here! Well, I started to paint my story out and when I looked back, every kid's eyes were glued on me. I had all their attention, which I have never had! They were totally interested in what I was painting and by this time a dew more older kids had come in. Well, I told the bible story about forgiveness and how we need to forgive people because Jesus was sent to us hear on earth to forgive us for our sins so that we could spend eternal life with him. Usually, the translation does not go over very well and I have to repeat myself while I am talking but this time it was awesome and I never had to repeat myself! At the end of the story, I told the kids that if any of them were interested in knowing more about Jesus and why He died on the cross for them them they could come up to me afterwards. Well, what do ya know?! A little ten year old Muslim boy came up and started to ask us all these questions about Jesus and why He died for us and we tried to explain it to him more. It was amazing...I have never had the kids attention and interest that much. It was such an answer to prayer so I will definitely be using this method to teach them again and you can be praying for it!


This is my lovely, wonderful, amazing roommate, Sarah!