ReCaP...

So you may be asking...what's been happening in Greece? Well, here's a quick recap...


All of the girls made a special Valentine's Day Dinner for the guys...Here is a picture of our class all dressed up for it!


This was the decorated table...It was really pretty!


Tsiknopemti...It's a Greek holiday where everyone barbecues the day before Lent starts. So we barbecued and went to play football (a.k.a. soccer) and some other sports...It was a ton of fun!


Here's Jesse and I on the teeter-totter while waiting for the food to cook! We were acting like 2 big kids!

sacrifice.

This is one thing the Lord has been teaching me since I have been here. I realized that sometimes we need to sacrifice things in our lives that may seem like the best in order to get what is best from the Lord because He knows you and me and knows what we need. "God will never leave you empty. If something is taken away, He will replace it with something better. If He denies your request in a certain area, it is because He wishes to give you what is best. If He asks you to put something down, it is so you can pick up something greater" (Roy Lessin). Is there anything in your life that you are holding on to that you need to lay at the altar and give up to the Lord? Think about it! Isaiah 58:11 says, "The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs...You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."

So let me update you...Last Thursday night, I went out to Omonia Square and before we went out, I seriously prayed that I would encounter an english-speaking person so that I could talk. Well, what do ya know? I found someone...by accident! I tried speaking Greek to this man and he asked me if I was from Spain because he said my accent sounded Spanish...oops, that has been my problem with me speaking Greek-I speak it with a Spanish accent, which you don't want! I then told him that I was from America and then he started to speaking to me in English...Praise the Lord! His name was Leftherios and he just started telling me about his life...He said he had been on drugs for a while and that he had been wanting to come to the ministry and check it out. I got to evangelize a bit to him and the cool thing was that he said that as I was talking to him, he felt like we had been friends since childhood...Which is really cool because when I am talking to people, I want them to feel comfortable and open to talk. Then on Saturday night, we went to the ministry and guess who I saw there? Leftherios! I was sooo excited that he came...I got to talk to him more and he said he wanted to come again next week which is awesome! So pray for him to keep coming back! On Sunday, I taught the little Greek Sunday school class about David and Goliath and then afterwards, my friend and I went to this really sweet little old couple's house for lunch. The Greek people are very warm and hospitable! Last night, I got to tell the parable of the lost sheep to the refugee kids which went pretty well but it's still very hard when it has to be translated! One funny thing was that one cute little boy sitting in the back winked at me every two seconds while I was telling the story, I was trying not to laugh so hard! It was really cute though! Otherwise, it has been a little chilly here...February is actually the coldest month, I just took a mid-term for my theology class and I think it went pretty well!

A verse to leave you with, which is one of my favorites, is Isaiah 26:3-4..."You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." I pray that my mind can stay focused on the Lord and all the great things He is doing because I trust in Him and know that He is control of it all!

Am I Placing My Eyes on GOD?

Oswald Chambers said that, "Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God...God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own chracter. Paul was not concious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose-to proclaim the gospel of God." I love this quote that read in "My Utmost for His Highest!" Sometimes, we (myself included) get so caught up in our own desire to be holy and more like Jesus that we start losing focus and are only caring about ourselves and our own growth. We say things like, "I want to be more humble, I want to be more generous, I want to have more patience, etc..." Which those thngs are great, don't get me wrong! BUT, it's us trying too hard...I think if we align ourselves with the Lord and continue to seek after him and desire to walk in His footsteps then those things will come naturally into our lives and we can stop trying...Humilty, generosity, patience, etc. will flow from every area of our lives when we are running to the cross! So I need to make sure that I am placing my eyes on God because if they are not then nothing else is going to matter because if I don't have Him as my focus then that means I am just depending on myself!

So this past Tuesday was really exciting...I went to my normal ministry at Mercy Center to work with the refugee kids. My friend told me a couple of hours before that I was going to have to give a 5 minute bible story to these children. I was super excited but then I got freaked out for a second because I did not know what story to teach them, I only had a couple of hours to prepare something, most of these kids are Muslim, there is a huge age range, and the story was going to be translated into Arabic...So I had to keep this story simple and to the point! I just prayed that God would show me what story to tell them! I bgean to feel so privledged and honored to be able to have 5 minutes to speak some truth into these kids lives! So I ended up picking the story of when Jesus feeds the 5,000 people with only 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. The kids were actually pretty good at listening and during the story, some of them realized that they had heard it before, so they got really excited. It was amazing because afterwards, this little 10 year old girl came up to me and the guy that had translated it into Arabic and asked us again how many people Jesus had fed and she was amazed...The guy spoke a little bit more to her and then she said she wanted a bible! Praise the Lord! Who knows, maybe this little girl will go home and tell her parents, etc...It's a dominoe effect! One of the Muslim parents even came up to me afterwards and said thank you...which is huge because talking about Jesus to these people, especially thier kids is not really allowed! So now , I am going to be sharing a story with the kids every Tuesday night...Super exciting...So be praying for that! Otherwise, the weather is beautiful here, it's in the 60's, I got to go to Port Rafina yesterday and to Kalamaki beach on Sunay which was absolutely gorgeous...Picture a rocky beach with beautiful blue waters and mountains/hills in the background! Amazing!

No One's Aware

To update you a bit...I'm taking a theology class right now and then next week, I'll be starting a Hermenuetics class. On Monday night, I helped out with Love Meals and I was able to speak english with some refugee guys so that was cool and a lot of them are starting to recognize me because they come out on Thursday night when I help out in Omonia Square with the drug addicts. If they can at least start to recognize me and see that all of us are there pouring out love and serving them then that would make all the difference and hopefully bring them one step closer to the Lord. On Tuesday, I helped out at Mercy Center and played with all the little kids. There were soooo many kids and we had them all in this little room and there were not very many of us leaders so they probably could have easily taken us down...haha! It was really sweet though...This one young girl was trying to speak the few words she knew in english to me...So she comes up to me and says, "I love you!" It was the sweetest little thing and I told her that I loved her, too. It's really awesome, we just get to play and love on these kids! After the refugee families left, they bring in the homeless men and drug addicts and have a service for them. I sat in the seats next to some guys and tried to talk to them. It's definietly a sight to see...Here are all these people usally high, drunk, smelly, etc but we try to show them that they are loved and cared about and that most of all the Lord loves them! It was really crazy, when I was sitting with these guys back there and they were doing some worship, I could literally feel the oppresion and heaviness in the room...Then, one of my guy friends, who is blessed with being able to lead worship, got up and sang, and it was like this peace and quiteness came over the room. It almost brought me to tears because I could feel the difference in the room right away! The Lord works in crazy and mysterious ways and He can change the hardest of hearts and He is fully capable of bringing these men and women that are in bondage to Him...and I pray that He does!

On a lighter note, last night all of us girls all went out to this really cute restaurant and had hot chocolate...and then, another girl and I went to Mercy Center to help ot with drug addict ministry and I was pretty proud of myself because I remembered how to get there all by myself on the train and stuff! I also ate at McDonalds last night, which if you know me then you know that it is a rarity for me to eat there, but I was desperate and really hungry and it's what I saw. Well, might I just say that it was the best darn chicken sandwich I had ever eaten in my life...I don't know if I was just hungry or it was a taste of American home but I thought it was really funny! :) Alright, I'll keep you guys posted!

Fun Facts You Probably Did Not Know About Greece!

1) Most of the time you can't put the toilet paper in the toilet! You have to put it in the garbage can next to the toilet.
2) They serve Greek Salads at McDonalds
3) Lunch is at 2pm and Dinner is around 8pm
4) Nap time is from 3-5pm...It's great!
5) There is grafitti everywhere.
6) There is very little processed food at the grocery store. Just about everything is made fresh.
7) It's 50 degrees here and they think that's cold!
8) You can't drive until you're 18 here but you can drink at 16.
9) They have an abundant amount of chocolate croissants here...My fave!
10) Gyros are only eaten with chicken or pork on them not lamb.
11) There are 5 million people in Athens.
12) When you see people, you give them a kiss on both cheeks.
13) There are ancient ruins everywhere and they are always finding new stuff.
14) There are little kiosks which sell food, drinks, and your bus tickets
15) The train is called "The Metro"
16) Things are either really cheap or really expensive...Take for example, a small bottle of maple syrup..It costs like 10 euro!
17) There are a lot of little "orange" trees but you can only use them to cook not eat.
18) Greeks wake up early and go to bed really really late.
19) You can usally tell where a Greek person is originally from by their last name.
20) It's an amazingly beautiful country that is rich in culture and tradition...So you should probably come here once in your life!

It's not all about me!

Did you ever think you would hear that come from my mouth?!? This seems to be something that the Lord and others are trying to teach me...Which I am quite glad about but at the same time it is not the easiest thing to learn especially for someone that chokes on their pride. Here's bits and pieces of how I am learning to realize that, "It's not all about me!"

1. Just being in another country period. America is not the best place in the world and we don't know it all. Not mentioning how America does something everytime a Greek person shows or tells me something about their country.
2. Going to the house of a missionary family and seeing how they have to raise money for them and their kids to live on and hearing that the girl has only had hand-me-down clothes.
3. Seeing the old men and young kids walk up to you asking for money as you sit at a nice street corner cafe.
All these things clicked and hit me at one moment on Thursday night when I was out at Omonia Square doing the drug addict minitsry and getting a bit of a bad attitude. I got kind of mad because I was a girl! I know, I am weird! But, some of the guys from the organization made me and another girl stay by the table where the food was being served to be on the safe side but I got really mad because I wanted to go out and talk to people and it wasn't fair in my eyes that because I was a girl, they were making me stay back a bit. Then, I got more frustrated because I felt like I couldn't even speak the language and talk to these refugess out there. I could literally feel myself getting a really bad attitude and upset. They ended up letting me out from behind the table, which was good but by that point I had already let myself get worked up about this whole thing.
Later that night, I realized how selfish I had been and that it's not all about me! I just rambled on in my head and complained while being very blessed and having no reason at all to complain while others around me are sitting here very troubled and lost with no jobs, money, family, etc. Who cares if I am a girl and they don't let me because of safety reasons come out from behind the table of food?!? Who cares if I can't speak the language with only being here for two weeks...at least I am trying! Who cares if I get new clothes?!? Who cares that I come from America?!?

What matters in life is that I have a relationship and that I find my identity with someone that is far greater than anything in this world whether that be material things, other people, or anything else that we cling to and there are people dying in this world that don't know Him. I pray that I can get over myself and my problems and that God would open my eyes to the things that He sees. As the lovely singer Brooke Fraser sings: "Lead me to the cross, where your love poured out/ Bring me to my knees, Lord, I lay me down/ Rid me of myself, I belong to you/ Lead me to the cross."

I am sure this journey of "It's not all about me!" is not over and it probably will be a life-long one but I am ready to take it on! I enjoy being open and honest with people(some people could be turned off by what I wrote..who knows?!?) but I want them to know that no one is perfect including me and that it's ok to share our thoughts, feelings, and struggles with each other because that's what we are here for! Anyways, it's late and I need sleep so until I write again...καληνύχτα (good night)!