If you clicked here looking for every single detail about my trip to Greece, you’ll leave disappointed. I presented Sunday evening November 10 at our church which gave me a good opportunity to process all God did leading up to and during (and since…) the trip. I don’t like to over-hype anything, but this series of events truly qualifies as “amazing” in my view. I hope reading this encourages you. I’ve included quite a bit to give you the idea of how God worked through our team and in my life.
It still truly feels like God just barged into this trip, the whole season of my life, and brought His purposes to bear!
Before the Trip…
- Prayer, consideration, looking at family schedule.
- Commitment to trip late July.
- Fundraising, passport renewal, documents, etc.
- 3-4 ninety minute conference calls
- IMPORTANT: In September and October, I went through a very difficult season. I sensed a lot of frustration in ministry and life in general. Some of it resembled other general seasons of difficulty, blah, and stress. Some of it resembled things I hadn’t seen or experienced before.
- I felt tired, sluggish, frustrated, depressed, and at some points pretty confused.
- While I’m sure many factors played into this season, the clearest thing I could identify was a simple desire to do more evangelism, more disciple making. I could put my finger on some dissatisfaction with some of the mundane things that fill my life and a desire to try to share the Gospel more.
- I’ll leave out specific details otherwise (they’re really not needed) but I can say I believe God led me through this time to make Himself known in specific ways.
The First Three Days and a Parable I’ll Never Forget
- I boarded a plane in Cleveland, knowing I’d be in Greece in less than 24 hours. Part of me just wanted to survive the trip.
- Travel went smoothly overall and I arrived in Greece Friday afternoon local time.
- Friday night and Saturday gave good opportunity for learning about the refugee crisis. Friday we traveled to a “squat” and Saturday we went to Malakasa refugee camp. The squat was an abandoned building containing people from different cultures. On seven floors over 120 people lived there. The camp Saturday brought a very sobering experience. We participated in a birthday party for a 12 year old (whose family lived) in tents and also then talked to a couple stuck due to gov’t bureaucracy. They hadn’t seen some of their children in years and had medical needs. We also met people who didn’t make us feel totally welcome.
- Saturday morning I woke early and began to enjoy some special time with God. On the plane, my regularly scheduled devotions were Luke 7-16, and during that time I began to focus on the parable in Luke 15 and specifically the character of the older brother. Connecting to my season of stress, I felt like I was trying really, really hard with little result. The sermon I listened to Saturday morning really helped speak to the worth God sees in us and I sensed the shell of difficulty starting to crack.
- Sunday I arose and went to breakfast followed by a church service with the three ladies leading our team. The rest of the team would arrive Sunday night. I traveled early so as not to miss two full Sundays for this trip. I would soon find out why. At church that morning a visiting preacher had the duty of challenging a young man who would take over the ministry at the church we visited. About 50-60 people attended. Any idea what passage he preached that morning? You guessed it. As he brought out the details of the story of the Prodigal Son, he turned his attention to the older brother. He said that sometimes even pastors try too hard in ministry.
- At this point I knew God wanted to communicate His very heart to me. In the parable, we see God running toward the younger son who wasted his inheritance he demanded early. We also see Him promise the self-reliant older brother that the Father has always made the best available to him. As the tears streamed down my face, I could only thank God for the burdens He lifted and the healing He provided that very moment!
Team Ministry
- Our typical day looked like this: breakfast and devotions, sorting materials needed for ministry, “second shift” ministry (anywhere from late morning to early evening), then dinner and free time.
- I won’t describe every day, but let me tell you about Tuesday. Tuesday we went to minister at the same local church we attended Sunday. We hosted a reading glass clinic, helped with children’s ministry, and supported the church’s effort with a regular meal they do for refugees. On the way to the church Tuesday, a man approached and expressed his desire to know more about Jesus. Josh, one of our teammates, spent the entire time of the clinic (about three hours) walking this man through the Bible to explain God’s word and show the man Jesus. The hotel pool hosted the baptism of this particular man a few days later!
- This long Bible study also led to the unavailability of a translator. I told one of our teammates we’d have to wait to see how God might provide, as we clearly needed another translator. Within 15 minutes in walked another teammate saying he had met a guy on the street who … you guessed it … could speak a couple languages. He was hired to translate and got to hear about Jesus through our conversations.
- Also during this ministry time, the meal coordinator approached me to preach a message prior to dinner. He said I had 15-30 minutes to prepare. After prayer and consultation with a teammate I got to share a Gospel message with a group of refugees prior to their meal.
- This experience on Tuesday mirrored the type of ministry and experience our team did at several places. We always had to prayerfully prepare for whatever God might do, even shifting plans on the fly as situations developed. Our team ministered in parks, churches, and ministry centers, sharing the Gospel using lots of ways to bridge the gap.
A Few Highlights
- I participated with a team of 32 people plus translators. Interstate Battery employed most of the team. Most (not all) of the Interstate team came from the Dallas, TX area. This team (others came from California and Iowa) blessed me bigtime! To see employees share Jesus’ love as part of a trip connected to their workplace made me a huge fan of Interstate Battery. I spent part of the week lobbying to get on payroll (with no success LOL).
- I could write a whole post just about our translators. Mostly from late teens to early 30’s, our translators had stories to tell. Most of them had refugee stories of their own. Most also had conversion to Jesus stories to tell as well. Their joy for Jesus despite the incredible pain several of them had endured leaving family and their homes truly inspired me!
- I also really enjoyed meeting a few of the long term missionaries who represent e3 partners in Greece. Their passion for the Gospel and for discipleship showed a lot of courage and refreshed me greatly!
God Wasn’t Done
- Thursday night I had the chance to attend a meeting describing some of the discipleship strategy in Athens. Circumstances led to an opening, so when I got an invite I went anxious to hear some of the nuts and bolts in the ministry approach. Two hours and a great fellowship dinner later, I had even more energy about making disciples back home and wondered if I might even help lead a team back to Greece. Things to think and pray over…
- Friday provided a lot of memories. The main thrust of ministry involved our refugee picnic. Many of the refugees we connected with during the week attended a time of food, fellowship, and connections. Teammates shared the Gospel, enjoyed fellowship, and we enjoyed an epic game of kickball spanning at least three languages, a muddy playing field, and varying levels of knowledge of the rules of kickball.
- Saturday early morning meant time had come to leave for the airport. Having said goodbye to teammates the night before (most of whom had probably had enough of me for the week), my roommate and I left for the airport. At the airport I made a brief connection with a group from Atlanta who had participated in a tour tracing some of the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. After flying to Frankfurt, I needed to hurry as the schedule didn’t allow a lot of time.
- God had one more encounter in place for me in the customs line at the airport in Frankfurt. A stranger next to me asked if I had done missions work in Greece. I said yes. He said he belonged to the group from Atlanta. He asked me if I planned to return to Greece, saying if so he would like to come with me. I told him God had really broken my heart for the refugees and how exciting I found the work of disciple-making. I also briefly described the excitement I had to focus on discipleship back home. He then told me that he helps lead men’s discipleship efforts for his church and began to send me some materials to my phone right there in the customs line.
- Through tears I thanked him and told him how God had directed our encounter. He assured me God was at work. I think I already knew that…
One last thing…
If you’ve read this far, congratulations. I figured most won’t. I found one more thing out on this trip, but you’ll have to contact me about how that surprise connected to everything else. I’m glad to tell you more if you have interest. Let me know and we’ll get some coffee. God really is good and His purposes will endure. I’m so glad He decided to barge into 2019 the way He did!