Greece Adventures

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Greece Adventures

 

When you say yes to God, expect to have your mind blown.

As I sit here in front of my laptop, I can’t help but to think about how amazing is my God.  He continues to blow my mind, even when I think, “oh it can’t get any better than this.”  I’m even more amazed at how quickly He responds to my needs, even when I don’t even realize that I am a need of something.

This morning, during my quiet time, I chose to watch/listen to a recent message from Pastor Ralph, the associate pastor from my home church, (City Gate Church in Burlington, NC [shout out to my church!]),  titled “What Does This Have To Do With Me?“.  Something that he said that I have found to be so true in my life lately was, “God will often show up and challenge our comfort to push us into our calling.” It goes back to my decision to leave the comfort of the classroom, to go into the world to become a missionary.  These past couple of months as a student in this DTS has not been the most comfortable thing, but God has shown up with every moment of discomfort.

On the subject of being uncomfortable, I found myself in many situations from which I would have loved to run.  One of those situations being times of street evangelism.

As disciples, we are called to go and share the gospel with the lost, right?  However, I do not believe this is something that we, as Christians, do enough.  One of the reasons I love my team, is because they push for to evangelize.

Our first day in Greece, we went out to get to know the city of Thessaloniki a bit.  As we went out, we discovered that there was a gay pride parade/party going on – this is when one of our team members decided it would be a fun time for street evangelism.  This was optional, for those who wanted to stay in the streets, were going to go evangelize while the others headed back to our apartment.

I did not want to do street evangelism, but I also didn’t want to miss an opportunity that God could have for me, so I stayed in the streets.

Ale and I teamed up with Ben, one of our staff leaders.  Ben is Mr. Evangelism; He has never showed to be afraid to go and talk to anyone about Jesus – I’ve always admired him for that (at least since I’ve met him back in March).  Secretly, I was glad that he was with us because I was like, great Ben will do all the talking while Ale and I jump in where necessary.  It did NOT go as I planned at all!

Ben pushed both Ale and me to go, and I appreciate him for that.  We probably walked around, contemplated, and hesitated for at least 10-15 minutes before we finally stopped with the excuses.  Honestly, what hit me was when he asked us, “why don’t you want to do it?”  I didn’t answer him, mainly because my response (in my head) was that I was afraid.  But afraid of what?  Fear is not of the Lord, AT ALL!  I knew as I said it, that the enemy wanted me to be afraid to talk, he wouldn’t want me to change someone’s eternity.  It was then that I said, OKAY!  I told myself that I HAD to do it; I couldn’t let the enemy beat me in this!

As soon as I mentally made that decision to go, he points out a girl that was sitting alone behind where we were sitting.  Ale and I looked at her, looked at her, and we both decided that she was the one.  We walk up to her and saw that she was crying.  The moment I opened my mouth to speak to her, everything in me changed.  It all just flowed, reminded me of a time when I was reading a book Daddy had me to read, and it talked about how at times, we just need to just initiate, then God will do the rest.  By me sitting down, saying no, coming up with excuses, I was just giving

the enemy opportunities to stop me from doing what God wanted.  However, the best part is that even in my hesitation, Daddy used it to teach me and to bring us to Sta.

Sta was able to go from tears to smiles, laughter, and from saying that she’s an atheist who doesn’t believe in there being a God, to saying that she believes that God is a good person, and allowing us to pray for her.  We left our time with Sta after many hugs, and she left with a smile still on her face.  In your prayer time, I ask that you pray for our friend Sta.  Pray that God will continue to place Christians in her life, that will love on her, and that she too will decide to give her life to Christ.

As the week went on, we were presented with more opportunities to do street evangelism, and the more we did it, the more comfortable I became with it.  The last day of street evangelism, Ale and I were teamed up again, and we literally just went for it – NO HESITATIONS, NO EXCUSES!

Last year, God gave me #MeetNoStrangers.  I thought I understood what that meant, but God continues to reveal to me what He intended for this movement.  To meet no strangers is evangelism, and I see why the enemy has wanted to place this fear of evangelism inside of me.  Daddy has called me to GO and share His love with the lost.  Sharing His love doesn’t always have to look the same.

We were presented with many opportunities to love on the people of Greece.

  • Food Bank: being able to bless the ladies, who give of their time to be a blessing to
  • the homeless Greeks and Refugees that come, by teaming up to help them.  These ladies cook meals and package them (being mindful to separate any meals with pork from the meals without pork, as many of the refugees are Muslim and don’t eat pork), provide bags of bread (donated from a local bakeries), and pastries.
  • RefugeeCenter: we partnered with the staff at the center to pass out a cheese sandwich, coffee, tea and/or water, washed clothes, played with the children (painting faces), talked with the refugees and listened to their story, and just helped wherever there was a need.  Think about this friends:  You are living in a nice home with your family (or maybe you’re still single), and you have a nice job (doctor, teacher, mechanic, etc), and then one day things turn for the worse in your country, and you have to flee with the clothes on your back.  Maybe you had time to grab a bag of clothes and other items, maybe you didn’t.  Now you’re in a new country, where they don’t speak your language.  How do you feel?
  • Greek Churches:  we were able to lead worship at one church the first Sunday in Greece.  Friday, we put together a program for the refugee families that come out to this church just to get together to see each other.  Here, we were even able to tell them about Jesus!  The second Sunday, we teamed up with the worship leader at another church to lead worship, and also put together some activities for the children.

    Origami – Corner store near the apartment, and my daily stop for coffee with ice cream.

Ice Cream was our favorite “past time”

Parking in Greece was rather…interesting.

I continue to be ever grateful for your partnership in this adventure, whether it be through prayer (please read the “get involved” page), finances, text messages, social media posts, or letters (if you need my address, PLEASE message me). Thank you for supporting me as God is growing me as a disciple of His.  

If you would like to financially support me in Outreach Update:any way, please click the button found on the Home page, or send me an email.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

Outreach Update:

Spain:  Tomorrow, July 6th, we head down south to Andalusia, to host a kids camp!  yay!!

 

Lesson I have learned:  Evangelism is just like having a conversation with someone, and within the time of conversing with that someone, you also allow Daddy God to talk.  For me, I like to get to know the person a little; take some time to hear their story, and allow their story to help me to make a connection of how God has shown up in my life.  That way, the conversation turns from being all about them, to being about God :).  That is how I’ve learned that I like to “evangelize”.
My encouragement to you:  Say yes.  If you find yourself backing out of something, ask yourself, “Why?”.  If it’s out of fear, DO IT!  The enemy wants you to be afraid to do something God has placed on your heart to do.  Obedience leads to blessings!

After a week of working hard, God blessed us with a trip to the beach.

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