Back to work

After a six week hiatus in the States, in which we met three new granddaughters, we arrived back in Greece just one week before Christmas. While the rest of the world was busy shopping for gifts and baking Christmas cookies, we were busy getting settled back into life in Greece.

The transition has gone smoothly. We had money to collect downtown, bills to pay, government offices to visit and finances to be done at the HM office. Mike has a construction project to finish out at the property for an Albanian family who will be living out there beginning mid January. Peggy continues to work at the HM office handling the overseas finances. We will both begin language school again mid January so we are trying to get caught up with all the other things to get done before the school work sets in again. It feels great to be back to work.

Another blessing: on Monday we finally got our official residence visa after waiting almost one year! We are so thankful since this saves us having to leave Greece every three months for a visa exit,which is both costly, nerve-wracking and exhausting. Thank you Lord.

We have not been disturbed by any of the rioting here except for one day that they had the downtown area roped off due to a demonstration. Some of the results of the violence are still obvious; broken windows, burned up ATM machines, bank lobbies that have been destroyed. It is very sad. There appears to be a spirit of anarchy amongst some of the youth in this country that is alarming. Although as our pastor mentioned at church today, without a thought for God or Jesus, it is as if God does not exist or that He is not interested in our problems. Thus the young people are filling this gap with other things. In fact, in one nativity scene, baby Jesus was replaced with a TV. Please pray for God to use this unrest to bring many to the saving knowledge of Jesus, who gave His life for them.

Praying you all have know the peace of Christ this season.

Hannah days

I (Peggy) have had the privilege to spend this week at home with 5 yr old Hannah and Paul while Missy has been in Guatemala picking up their newest daughter, Amelia, 18 months.

We have had a great week spending lots of time playing outside, cooking, dancing and coloring together. We spent most of today getting ready for the big homecoming tomorrow afternoon when Mom and Amelia come home. We are so excited and have made lots of posters and welcome home decorations.

What a testament to God's perfect timing that Mike and I are here to meet three new granddaughters this month. We feel incredibly blessed!

Amelia is coming home Friday-Praise the Lord!!!!

An excerpt from our daughter Missy's blog this morning:

GOOOOOOOOOOOD NEWS!!

God truly answers prayers... specific ones... and I experienced that this morning!!! GOD IS GOOD!!

We (Missy and Amelia) went to the embassy this morning for our visa appointment, and the first embassy lady (submitting documents) said that since Paul wasn't there, and since we didn't have a specific power of attorney form and his passport, that we'd have to come back the following week and have Paul fed-ex those documents... of course, this was the news I most feared, and I even started crying with that fear. Our adoption agency representative told me to expect the worst.

Then I went into the official interview and the lady was an amazing girl from the States, who's Dad lives in Colorado, and she just amazingly approved us, regardless!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was AMAZING!!! I don't know if I've ever taken that big a sigh of complete relief!!!

When I got out of the interview, our adoption agency rep said that God must like me, because that NEVER happens!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOD IS SOOOO BIG! I love that it was such a true blessing!!

Anyway, we are pooped emotionally, but SOOO thrilled to be done! We pick up our visa tomorrow at 3:30 and get to come home on our flight on Friday morning!!! USA... HERE AMELIA COMES!! :)

Thank you for the prayers... they truly made a difference!!!
~Missy

We are so excited to be here in the States and waiting for Amelia's arrival!

Missy and Paul's blog address is:
http://coloradobennetts.aboutmybaby.com password: bennett

Enjoying Family Times

Hopefully these pictures will tell a thousand words!!

We are loving God's goodness to us in allowing us this precious time with our children and new grandchildren. Treasuring the moments together before heading back to Greece shortly!

Baby Mia is born!

We are so excited to announce the birth of another granddaughter. Mia Elizabeth Weinland was born Tuesday morning, November 18th at 5:50 am. She was 7 lbs, 6 ozs and 20.5 in long. Mom and Dad and baby are doing well and are settling into their new home. I (Peggy)was so privileged to be there at her birth. What an incredible miracle it is, each new life that God gives.

We are loving spending time getting to know her as well as our new 5 yr. old granddaughter Hannah. It has been a real joy to spend time with her at the park and playing games, singing and talking. Hannah is infatuated with her new cousin too and is anxiously waiting for the arrival of her new sister, Amelia, from Guatemala due home by Christmas, hopefully.

The rest of the family, Michael, Nisha, Jackson and Griffin are heading out here to CO for Thanksgiving and we are excited to all be together again.

What incredible blessings!! How great is our God!

Home for MisssionsFest

How exciting it was for us to be home in Wheaton for Missionsfest (Nov 2-8th)at Wheaton Bible Church. Once a year, the church makes global missions and missionaries their main focus for the whole week. We were only able to there for the last half of the week but what an encouraging time for us. The church did an incredible job of providing opportunities for us to be refreshed and challenged and networked with others who can partner with us in ministry. We feel so privileged to be sent from this church to reach others with the gospel. For more info see wheatonbible.org

Lunch with Mehlbergs

If life was always so easy!

We had an incredible day Sunday spending time with Bob and Jeanne Mehlberg, a couple from our home church. It was such a taste of home and an excuse to spend the day taking a long Sunday drive and eating lunch by the sea. The weather was marvelous and so was the company and the view!

If you are ever in Athens, don't hesitate to give us a ring. We would love the company.

Oxi Day 28th October 2008

So we became a part of the Greek culture this week as we celebrated the national holiday "Oxi Day" with Mike's tutor and her family. We visited with them at their house and heard stories of Greek history. We watched Irini cook some traditional Greek dishes and then we rushed to the center of their town for the local parade. All of the school children march through town and it is a big deal. The parade route was lined with people four or five back waiting to see their favorite kids march by. It was a new adventure for us that we were excited to be part of. Thanks to Irini and Efthemis, Dafni, Giorgos and Anna for letting us join their family today.

Residence visa granted

Last week we sat before a committee of six Greek officials and were finally granted approval for our residence visa. We had begun this process almost a year ago at the Greek embassy in Chicago. We reapplied upon arrival here in Greece and have been waiting since March for news. The visa should be ready in about 20 day and then it expires January 1, 2009. So as soon as we get the visa, we will need to reapply for another annual visa!

We are thanking the Lord for this. Because we have been granted this visa, we do not have to leave the country every three months,as most of our fellow missionaries do, for a visa exit. As you can imagine this saves a lot of time and money and stress. We are the first HMers to ever receive such a visa and we are thrilled. Just another affirmation that this is where God wants us to be.

Thank you so much for all your prayers with us for this. Another mark of God's faithfulness to us.

A new granddaughter

We are so excited to share with you all the news that this week Mis and Paul were granted custody of Hannah and she will come to live with them beginning this Sunday, October 26th!! She is five years old and these pictures are from when she came to spend a weekend with them a couple of weeks ago. It has been a very long process but she will come home soon!

We are all so excited and can hardly believe it all! If you want to know more details you can check out their blog at http:/coloradobennetts.aboutmybaby.com.

They are still anticipating the arrival of their other daughter, Amelia Faith, 17 months old, from Guatemala one of these days hopefully before the end of the year.

We are all so thankful to God for His hand in growing their family. They have been waiting for almost five years now to bring a child home and we have all learned and grown in our faith as we have watched God directing His plan for their family. Please continue to pray for all of them as their are many transitions to come in the days ahead.

Crew on the Morning Star

We had an interesting time this week. Peggy and I were asked to work as crew on a trip with the Morning Star, which is the HM sail boat. At first we thought we would decline because we had just started back to school but then we figured why not. We had never been out sailing on the boat and thought it might be a nice get away. We changed days with our teachers and off we went on the boat to a town called Limni on the island of Evia.

As we got to the town, Alex told us how he has been to this town many times but had seen no response in sharing the gospel here. We got off the boat and headed into town looking for a bakery for some bread. Along the way, we stopped and talked to two men that were sitting at a table drinking coffee. As he was talking I noticed that the man had a necklace. Now since I don't yet speak Greek, I just told him in English what a nice necklace it was. He responded back to me in English and asked where I was from. It turned out he had lived in the states for 30 years and had come back to Greece 5 years ago. As we talked he asked what we were doing here and with whom. So I told him we were working with a mission organization reaching out to Greeks. He didn’t say much else and so off Alex and I went to get bread.

Latter in the day, Peggy and I went out for a walk. We had just begun our walk and ran right into this same man. We said hello and the next thing you knew this man was telling us his whole life’s story. Next he told us how here in Greece the Greeks don't want to know anything personal they just want to give their opinions. And that if you say anything out of the ordinary, they won’t listen. At this time we shared our faith with him and what we know as the truth and he thanked us and we both went our separate ways.
As we were walking I told Peggy that we should give him a Bible or at least see if he would like one. When we got back, I went to see if I could find him but no luck.

The next day was our last day and so I carried the Bible with me thinking that if I saw him I would give it to him. I went walking through the town, but it soon became apparent that he was no where to be found. As I went back to the boat I began to pray for this man and others like him. When I reached the boat, they sent me out for ice so I put the Bible away and went on my errand. And sure enough, what do I see on my way back but this man. Now he calls for me to come over to talk and sit down with him, as I realize that I needed to get the ice back to the boat. So I asked if he would wait for me because I had some things to share with him. When I got back to him, he and I started to talk like we were close friends and I shared my faith and my passion for the older people in Greece. I explained to him that I did not want him to be left out of heaven and how important it is to have Christ in his life. As I walked away from him, he told me he would read the New Testament and watch the Jesus DVD that I gave him. As I left I prayed that he would come to know the Lord in the same way I do.

Alex commented on what a God thing this encounter was as this was the first time in the 15 years of him visiting the island that we ran into American Greeks! Please pray for this man, for God to work through His Word to make an eternal difference in his life!

We're back!

We've arrived back in Greece after a very busy two weeks in the States. We very briefly got to see only a few of you but were so grateful to be in town when our new grandson, Griffin Michael, was born and to be able to see all our kids and other families. It was a great but hectic time and we are glad to be getting back to "normal life" here in Greece. I never would have dreamt this would be "normal" living for us but after almost 11 months here, I think we are finally feeling at home.

I, Peggy, have started back at language school. I am re-taking Level 2 Greek, which I took in the Spring but spent most of the class trying not to cry because it was so intense. This time around, there are no other students in the class, just me and the teacher. Not sure yet what I think about this. It makes it easier since I don't have to worry about feeling so stupid in front of others, but harder in the sense that it is only me and her. No time for distractions or learning from listening to the others answer the questions. Oh well, just trusting that God knows best and trying to keep my head above water. It is nice to not be so new to the material and to realize that I did actually learn a little last time!

Meanwhile Mike has been busy working with the HM team out at Porto Astro as we are preparing for the visit of a very special HM donor. We are likening it to when the kids got married and suddenly we needed everything done at the house that we had put off for years. Needless to say, he has been quite busy, doing maintenance, building windows, rolling out astroturf for the soccer field, repairing things etc. He will be staying out at the property this whole week and then will begin studying Greek full time again with his tutor next week, we hope.

The pace of things here continues to swirl as more and more people are visiting and considering ministering with us here in Greece. We have lots of planning to do for the year and years ahead. Just two weeks ago another couple joined our HM team from the States, Matt and Nikki Gulley and their six month old daughter. We are looking forward to getting to know them more and to helping them get settled here. We have laughed as we recalled our own first days and are glad not to be the newest kids on the block anymore! Please pray for them, settling here is difficult!!

One other really exciting thing going on here is that we are planning for a "Hope Center." A building was donated to HM that we are hoping to use for a pregnancy care center and perhaps as a refuge for young girls to escape the sex trafficking life. We are very early in the development stages, but I am going out to see the building on Tuesday and can't wait to see what God has in mind for this ministry.


OK, off to finish homework and get ready for the week ahead. Mike is already at a meeting to get the week's agenda. Blessings to you all. Thank you so much for partnering with us. We are privileged to be the hands and feet of Christ here in Greece through your love and support.

Officially homeless!

We finally sold our house in Wheaton and are now officially homeless! It feels great! After 14 months in a depressed real estate market and three sales contracts, we closed on our family home of 22 years this week on Wednesday while we were back in Wheaton. Praise the Lord!!

This means we return to Greece without the burden of mortgage and utility payments and without the concerns of trying to manage a vacant property.

We are overwhelmed with RELIEF and GRATITUDE and a touch of sadness as we remember the happiness of the days spent in that house raising our family. Tears and joy mixed together. We find that common these days!

Thank you to all of you who have prayed so faithfully with us about this. God has been faithful to answer our prayers. We have learned to continue to trust Him and His perfect timing, even when we don't understand it.

Finally, thank you to all of you who have helped us so much while we weren't here to take care of the house. Thanks Michael and Nisha for managing it and troubleshooting for us. Thanks Sheryl and Rebecca for the great job you did marketing the house and for the agonies you shared with us! Thanks Don for negotiating the legalities of three contracts. Thanks Mom and Dad Bollweg for the multiple clean up jobs you did. Thanks Mom and Dad Lowe for your vigilance in checking up on the place daily. Thanks Don and Bob for your help with inspection issues. Thanks Espo for shoveling and mowing. Thanks dear neighbors for your help, bible study friends and sisters for the clean up job and the list goes on and on.

While at times it felt like we were alone in this, God provided for our every need. Thank you dear friends. Thank you Heavenly Father for your love and care for us. We are blessed!

Griffin Michael Lowe is born!

Our second grandson, Griffin Michael was born on Saturday August 30, at 5:02 pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well and are settled at home already. Mike and I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to be here in Wheaton to meet him at his birth. We are enjoying time with family and will be heading back to Greece in a few days. Thanks for all your prayers, what a precious gift from God!

Final Summer Days at Porto Astro

The summer is winding down and we are only just a skeletal crew here at Porto Astro. All the campers are gone, the short term summer helpers, the clean up crew and other staff friends. We can really tell that summer is coming to an end. Mike and I are spending our last week here at the property. Mike is busy with lots of construction jobs to do and I spend my day in the office trying to balance all the finances from the summer. Many of our HM team, along with some Greek friends and others from around the world are in China now serving with missionaries there. Please be praying for them.

We leave at the end of next week for our first trip home to the States. We can only imagine how it's changed/we've changed in the last 9 months since we have been gone. We are looking forward to being there, God willing, when our grandson, Griffin arrives. He is expected Aug 30th. We can't wait.

That's all for now. Thank you so much for all your love and support that keeps us going over here.

For God's glory alone, Mike and Peggy

Operation Joshua

Pre Operation Joshua Days

Another day here in Greece, another camp site! Wow, I never thought we would grow up to be such campers. In fact, the younger people here tell us this is something that we should have started when we were young and by now we should have graduated to a RV or something!

We are in the Peleponese, the western land mass of Greece where there was a lot of fire damage last summer and also earthquake damage this Spring, to begin the first year of Operation Joshua. This is HM's attempt to take the land of Greece with the Word of God. In five years, we are hoping to pass out New Testaments to every house in every village of the mainland of Greece.

We have a skeletal crew here on site and the excitement is building as we anticipate what God will do through the distribution of His Word. Already we have shared a New Testament with the owner of the camp ground and she says that this is the first time that she has ever read it.

Our plan is to pass out 40,000 New Testaments in this part of the Peleponese, Ilia from the 23rd to the 29th of July. We are anticipating about 80 people to help us get this job done. For now, we are under a big tent that friends from Thessaloniki generously lent us and we are packing up the bibles into bags. Assembly line work does get quite monotonous day after day and I am glad I never had a factory job!!

Camp days at Porto Astro

Camp days are busy and sometimes it reminds me a lot of the movie “Groundhog Day!” Same thing, just another day, if it were not for the neat interactions with people each day it would be hard to tell one day from the next. The days are full and fulfilling. We have breakfast, a time of prayer and daily quiet time with God and then we are off to start the day. Some are helping with the campers, presently we have about 70 at the camp, some are directing work teams about 40 people, many are preparing the delicious meals we have each day, and then there are the other chores such as cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes, taking care of the finances, the arrivals and departures, boats, waterfront activities etc. As you can tell there is much to do here and we are enjoying serving here at Porto Astro. The weather is hot and the water sparse so we bathe and cool off in the sea. Here are just a few glimpses of life here at camp.

Refugee camp was awesome!

We hosted for the first time a refugee family camp here at Porto Astro June 15th to the 18th. Being a pilot program, we had no real idea of what to expect but God knew exactly what He had in mind for this time and it went really well. We hosted ten families, almost 40 people, about 30 kids!! The pictures really tell the story best but is was a great time. The families were able to spend time together away from the city in a restful place together and we were able to love and serve them with the love of Christ. They were all Muslim families so it was a unique opportunity to minister to them. We ran programs for the children, ladies and men where we clearly presented the reason for our hope in Jesus as the Messiah. We did crafts, made bracelets, did rock climbing, swimming, had a magic show, ate and laughed and talked together a lot. They were some long discussions and one family has even been to church the last couple of weeks. Our new friends were sad to leave and said this was the best time ever for them. They had trouble putting into words the gratitude they felt for this incredible fun family time here at Porto Astro. Thank you all so much for your prayers and financial support that made this camp possible. We were all so blessed to be a part of this.

Refugee camp, prayer vigil, camp prep and more…

The speed has picked up for us here in Greece and summer and a very busy workload is here.

Mike has been spending most of the weeks at the property trying to get it ready for the summer. He has been building screens, cutting bunk beds to fit the cabins, installing shelves, boat repairs etc. The list is endless and he is busily working away there. It is good to have real work to do after so much time in language school but challenging as there is not a FE Wheaton or Home Depot nearby (in all of Greece!)

Next week he begins the process of rebuilding the 21 ’ x 24’ barge that we use to transport all big items across the bay to the camp. It will require new stainless steel corners (delayed already at the shop), foam blocks and treated 2” x 14” wood planks across the top. This will be especially challenging because we will need the barge to bring all the cooking pots and pans, dishes etc from the downtown hall to use at camp this summer. There is never a dull moment around here!

This weekend is full, heading up to help another Christian organization open their camp Saturday morning, going to a wedding in Athens at 5:30 and then to a HM all night prayer vigil Saturday night. Sunday evening we have our last worship event of the year down at the hall.

Peggy is working on summer finances as well as organizing a first ever camp for refugee families out at the property. We were hoping for about 40 people and 120 signed up!! They are all fairly new to Greece, Farsi speaking Muslims from Afghanistan. We are dealing with everything new with this camp and the challenges are countless, from being able to leave their government sponsored hotel, to Muslim women who don’t swim or wear bathing suits, to having 50 refugee children at a sea-side camp with parents who are not diligent in watching them!! Although there are many unanswered questions, we see God at work in big ways such as providing 6 former Muslim Christians who speak Farsi and will help us at the camp. One of these men, who doesn’t live in a house because he can’t afford the rent, is taking three days off work just to be there to love these people with the love of Christ.

Please keep us all in your prayers, big plans ahead, lots to do, but mostly we need to keep our eyes on Jesus!

Pre-summer in Greece!

The daily temperatures have increased and so have our schedules. Our formal language learning is over for the summer (we start again in the Fall) and now we have both begun summer responsibilities with HM.

Mike spent three days this week out at the property, Porto Astro, HM’s seaside camp. This is a very rustic camp that you get to by boat and which runs without running water or electricity. He spent his time this week installing bunk beds and making screen windows for the 10 cabins we have there. One of the Albanians who lives on the property cooks for the workers so he is well fed there!

I spent this week reacquainting myself with the refugee community that we serve. I am helping run our first International Family Camp June 15^th to the 18^th. This is an opportunity for refugee families to get away from the city and to enjoy relaxed time together. It also gives them a chance to be surrounded and served by Christians. We planned for about 40 people and already have 120 people signed up!! We explained to the people that this was a very rustic place, not kid friendly-especially for little kids-of which we have 15 children aged 8months to 5 yrs. registered. The people were not discouraged. They said they had come from conditions much worse and they are looking forward to this respite. Needless to say, we have a lot of work to do! We are overwhelmed but are trusting God that He will provide all we need.

We also had the privilege of attending the wedding of Anthi and Haris last night. Anthi is one of the Greek girls who has worked with HM for at least 15 yrs. It was a beautiful God honoring ceremony that started at 8:30 last night and we arrived back home at 4am this morning. One more piece of cultural adaption for us!

HM has many programs planned for this summer including distributing 40,000 Bibles to Greek villages, hosting 5 different sports camps at the property, and sending teams of Greeks to China in August. If any of you would like to partner specifically with us towards one of these projects, you can make a donation through the HM US office, PO Box 726, Wheaton, IL 60189. 1.800.469.8972. info@hmnet.org.gr

Please pray for us and for the entire HM team as we begin the busy summer schedule. Pray for us to be people of spiritual integrity most of all. That we will love the Lord and serve Him in all we do in ways that bring glory to His name. Thank you.

Mothers Day and Babies on the Way!

As we celebrated Mother's Day yesterday in Greece, both Mike and I realized what a blessing both of our mothers have been in our lives. We are grateful. Thank you and we love you.

Because we are talking about mothers, we thought this was a great time to announce new mothers-to-be in our own family.

Michael and Nisha are expecting their second child, a baby boy, Griffin, August 30th. Older brother Jackson will be 4 just in time to meet his new brother. He is excited that it's a boy!

Missy and Paul are expecting possibly two babies this year. One sixteen year old birthmom, Gwen, has chosen them to be the parents of the child she is carrying that is due September 6th and they are still waiting for the homecoming of their Guatemalan daughter, Amelia Faith, who turns 1 this Wednesday, sometime before the end of 2008.

Michele and Jeremy are also expecting their first baby November 15th. She has had a good first trimester and is feeling great!

All the Moms (and Dads) are doing well and we are overjoyed at all these gifts from the Lord. These new lives are especially precious to us as our family has been dealing with infertility for almost 5 years now. We have many grandchildren that we will meet for the first time in heaven and another that is still living with his birthmom. It is humbling to sit back and see the hand of God blessing our family. We are awed!!

Please join us in praying for the health and safety of all the moms and babies involved.

Kalo Pasxa! Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter here in Greece on April 27th. Mike and I enjoyed an overnight with our HM friends out at Porto Astro (the mission's seaside property). We were joined by about 30 others from our HM team and some other Greek friends as well. As you can see, we roasted lambs as is the tradition here in Greece. The weather was cool and damp, the food was excellent (even though I was too chicken to try any lamb) and we had a great time as we rejoiced together over the Risen Lamb of God who is now seated at the right hand of God interceding for us. What other God would sacrifice so much, His perfect Son, for sinful people like us? We are amazed at His love for us and long to share this love with others!

Akbar's family reunion

It was a special privilege for us to be part of a welcoming team that met at the airport in the very early morning hours Saturday to welcome to Greece Akbar's wife Lela and his almost 7 yr old daughter, Bita. Akbar is a refugee friend of ours from HM who fled from Iran almost 5 yrs ago. He had not seen his wife or his daughter since that time. As long as we have known him, he has been working to get them here with him. He has tried various means, including hiring smugglers and locking himself in at the UN building, to get them here but until now he had not been successful. Lela and Bita were even arrested and imprisoned in Turkey recently. Akbar is a very strong, intelligent, prideful man who is not used to not being able to provide for his family. The challenge of securing his family's safe arrival here has humbled and consumed him. With the help of the HM team, largely Bruce and Johnathan, and a multitude of praying friends, Akbar has been able to obtain the paperwork necessary to reunite his family. It was a hugely rewarding experience for us to be there with him as his daughter ran into his loving arms. There were lots of hugs and tears and love flowing that night as we clapped and praised God for this answer to prayer. The really neat part of the story is how God used this whole process to draw Lela and Akbar both into a loving relationship with Him and their surrender to Him.

Mike's birthday

I played a little surprise on Mike for his 51st birthday this past Saturday. I got him up at 7am and whisked him off to the port where we took a two hour ferry boat ride to the island of Andros. We spent the day site seeing around the island and then spent a very peaceful afternoon and evening at a great little villa that overlooked a bay. We had a nice dinner with phone calls from family back home and then watched a beautiful full moon and a sky full of stars together. On Sunday we spent more time driving around the island and then coming back home in the late afternoon. It was a very quiet but restful time together and I think Mike really enjoyed the surprise!

Spring is here and so are visitors!

The Wilson Family

Jennifer Fichera

The Caperwray Girls

One part of our assignment here in Greece is to manage the “HM Guest House” which is the apartment that is downstairs from us. Since we moved in in December one family, the Wilsons, occupied it. Sad to say, the Wilson’s left Greece after working here with HM for four months and are continuing their travels to visit a few other missionary families on this side of the globe before returning home to Seattle in a few weeks. Since then we have already had two sets of visitors through our doors. Three young girls on Spring break from Caperwray Bible School in England stayed with us one weekend and then the Bougas’s from South Africa were here for a few days last week. Needless to say, it has been busy, trying to get the beds made, the towels cleaned and dried and some basic essentials set up for the place. We are excited about this opportunity to meet new people as they come through and we have been blessed already by all those who have stayed here.

Other things about our home life haven’t been as fun. We have been struggling with some of the new appliances that we bought in December. The washing machine just quit, the refrigerator freezes things and the solar panels we had installed on the roof took four visits and 6 weeks time to work properly! It’s quite a challenge to call people and try to get repair men out here when we don’t speak the language. I am thankful that Mike has been handling most of the calls and we are about one third of the way there. I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours and days we have spent trying to get these things done. Waiting at home for someone to come who never shows up etc.!!

Good news though, Mike has been successful in getting us the internet at home now and in getting all our paperwork done and turned in to the local government office to apply for our residence visa. It appears that everything is in order and they have granted us a temporary pass but the bad news is that the licensing agency that handles the paperwork now is on strike for a month!! We also learned that our travel is restricted by the government until the official visa is secured! One step forward, two steps back J

I am still struggling through language school. Level two is much more challenging than level one. I have just 4 classes (I’ve been counting since 16) left and then will hire a tutor for more individualized help-yeah!! I am learning humility in new ways as I find myself praying not to cry in class when I am often overwhelmed. I am in a class of 8 and am the slowest, oldest learner-aka the “dumbest kid” in class. Another uncomfortable thing!

One really neat story I must share. Because of one of the transportation strikes two weeks ago, I spent an extended period of time at a bus stop waiting with a group of people for a non-existent bus. The next day I saw the same young man at my regular bus stop and we got to talking about how we managed to get to our schools the day before. During the course of the one + hour commute, God gave me the opportunity to share with this guy the good news about Jesus Christ. The whole story about how God sent Jesus to rescue the world and our ability to have eternal life by believing in Him. It is interesting that God works in such mysterious ways-would I ever have chosen a strike that caused my trip to school to be 3hours and 25 minutes, absolutely not, but would I ever have known that this is what gave me the opportunity to share with this young guy about Jesus and life in Him!! Surely His ways are beyond our ways and understanding.

Oh well, the days go by and we often find ourselves with mixed feelings between what- in- the- world are we doing here and what an incredible blessing it is to be here! Thank you for your love and prayers for us. Glad to be partnering with you all. Blessings.

Studying Revelation on Patmos!

I recently got the chance to go on a nine day trip to the island of Patmos with the Greek Bible School. Twenty of us went to do an Alpha Course Study (first time offered by HM in cooperation with the Greek Bible Institute) on the books of Daniel and Revelation. I (Mike) first must say thank you to Peggy for letting me go. It was hard being away but the time went fast.

I found it captivating to be on the island where John, who was exiled and about 80 years old, received the revelation about the last days of earth from God. We even visited the cave where scholars think he was when he wrote the book.

I really enjoyed the study of the seven churches in the beginning of Revelation. Things were not so good in them and I realized that we can learn a lot from them. We talked about how the conditions of the churches mentioned relate to the churches today. A few things that really hit me were:

-being lukewarm

-what we are accountable for?

-what is worship?

-how can we be in the world and not of it?

-how can I be on guard against Satan and false teaching?

-how do we not “water down” our faith?

-how can we prepare for suffering?

After looking at the whole study, one of the main things that keeps coming back to me is about prayer and fasting. Not just prayer to ask for something but prayer just to come before God and to thank Him and to find joy in Him. This really made me consider my own prayer life. I realize that I need to be spending more time with Him. I feel so bad for all the times that I haven’t done so well with this. I’m not good at fasting either but now I think I will try to do this more often.

I am back from my trip and life is getting busy again. Here I am writing this and already I am reminded how I need to spend more time before God. Satan sure is a good deceiver and he has ways to pull us into thinking we can put things off until tomorrow or the next day or week. Sometimes, we even think we are doing a good job or being close to God.

This trip to Patmos really made me look at my relationship with God. I realized that this is something I need to examine and I need to be honest with myself about how I am doing in this relationship. It also made me think that if the end of the world was tomorrow; would I be happy with how I’ve handled this relationship today? God is always there, waiting for us to come to Him. Don’t miss out.

House Guests, Family Conference, Strikes and More School

Practically please pray for us:

To be able to learn the language well.

For the sale of our house. Yesterday we learned that the deal we had to sell our Wheaton house fell through, so it is back for sale again!

Real estate prices are sinking as well as the US dollar against the euro. Financially we are having to trust God more and more with things we cannot understand.

That we will continue to be open to the things God wants to teach us

It’s been busy these days in Greece. At the beginning of the month we hosted our first house guests, Carol Getz and Gary and Christy Bollier, all from our home church. They are also members of the HM board and were in Athens for an annual board meeting. HM combined the board meeting with the annual family conference this year so we all had the opportunity to get to know the board members and likewise for them to know us better.

It was an incredible week of busyness and fellowship. I was in charge of accommodations as the 60+ of us gathered at a hotel in Glyfada for a 5 day retreat. It was with such joy that we welcomed familiar faces from Wheaton and were able to spend time catching up on home. One night, we had an awesome candlelight dinner at our house with 8 of us from WBC. We weren’t intending for it to be lit by candlelight, but we lost power about 15 minutes before they got to our house. (Part of an ongoing strike by the power company. I think our power has been cut off at least 5 times in the last 10 days.) Our guests were gracious and we ate our cold food (it was ready two hours earlier) in a very intimate setting here around the kitchen table.

The family conference was a time to get together and for each of us missionaries to give a report about their life and ministry in 2007. For those of us new people, it was a great chance to learn about all the ministries that HM is involved with. There were long days sitting around the conference room soaking up the reports but we did have a break every afternoon so Mike and I took the opportunity to walk down to the beach and to enjoy the sun. Mike even took a dip in the sea on two occasions. It was quite cold but refreshing? (he said his chest hurt after the dip) for him.

We came back and hit life like crazy again. This time we had two new houseguests, the Bougas’ from South Africa. Mike has had to be Mr. Hospitality since I am in the city for language school three days a week. Mike is working on his Greek using the Rosetta Stone computer program and we are hoping to find him a tutor soon. Level 2 for me is quite difficult, I realize now how easy Level 1 was. It might be hard to imagine just how exhausting, both physically and mentally, language learning can be, but trust me, it requires a lot and we are grateful for the time HM is giving us now to study the language. Sometimes it is frustrating because we are so anxious to become more involved in ministry, but God is telling us “siga, siga, (slowly, slowly), first things first.” And so we wait, what else is new?!

Mike is off on the island of Patmos this week with the Bible school students doing a study of the books of Daniel and Revelation. Patmos is the island where John was exiled when he received the revelation from God (Rev 1:9). The trip was rather spur of the moment for Mike, they had a last minute cancellation and he took advantage of it. We are both so excited that he is having this opportunity to study the Word of God in this way. It does seem much better than the winter commute to Moody that I did!

A fun surprise: I spent the day today with another girl from Wheaton, Jennifer Fichera, who is here for 6 weeks for work. It was so fun to meet her and to spend the day talking of familiar things and people from back home and seeing some of the sights of Athens together.

Anyways, we are reminded again and again of God’s sovereignty as He is directing our lives. No day is predictable here; right now we are in the midst of a one week garbage strike (it’s piling up and it stinks) an ongoing power company strike (frequently losing power), and weekly general strikes where they close everything down including, banks, metro, buses etc. This makes it a little difficult getting around and knowing how and when to get to school and the office etc especially when we can’t understand the news in Greek! There is much we can’t figure out but we are always sure that this is where God wants us. He is doing a lot of uprooting in our lives but at the same time we know He is shaping and forming us anew so that He can use us here.

Big accomplishments this week!

The weeks just keep flying by here. I can’t believe it is March already. We had several big accomplishments this week.

On Wednesday Mike got our clothes dryer hooked up. I know most of you won’t understand this (because in my previous life I didn’t either) but Wednesday night after I got home from school and the office, I was able to do two loads of wash; washed, dried, folded and put away in 2 ½ hrs. This was incredible!! Normally this process would have taken about two days from start to finish. Anyways, we are thrilled with the dryer and received it just in time as we have house guests coming this week and were able to get all the bedding washed and dried in one day!!

On Friday, we had our last day of Level One Greek class. That also meant we had a test that day. As you can see from our certificates, we did pass the class (do they fail anyone when one pays for the class?!). We’ve survived the first level and have had 60 hours of class. It has been one of the roughest things Mike has ever done. I am more used to it since I went back to college in my 40s. Certainly a challenge to feel so inept (stupid) at this age! It is also embarrassing to try to use the language on the street and still be misunderstood. Sometimes we concentrate so much on what we want to ask/say that when the people respond to us in Greek we have no idea what they have said!! Did I mention that Level 2 Greek class begins tomorrow-March 3^rd!!

This week (Thur-Mon) HM is having a family conference at a hotel in Glyfada, Greece which is about 30 minutes from Athens. It is different this year because we have HM Board Members joining us from North America, Australia, South Africa and Greece! We are all excited to have this time together, especially the three new families who have joined HM this past year. The conference will include reports from each team member about their work here in 2007. We can’t wait to hear more and to learn more about how HM works.

Needless to say, we have also been quite busy this week trying to get ready for the conference. Before the conference, we are housing Carol Getz and Gary and Christie Bollier so we've had a lot to do to get our newly furnished house (1 month) ready for guests. Lots of boxes to get through and clean out! We think we are ready which is good since Carol arrives in a couple of hours and the Bolliers tomorrow.

Mike has been helping at the office with some renovation projects and I have been working on accommodations for the conference as well as having four days of school this week and a test!!

The days go by really quickly and we are thankful to have so much to keep us occupied with.

The weather this week has been lovely, most days in upper 50’s and a couple in the upper 60’s. We are enjoying the weather and are sorry for those of you stuck in cold and snow.

Thank you again for your love and support. We are always mindful that none of these accomplishments is done by ourselves. You are part of our busy lives and ministries here everyday as you partner with us to share Jesus here in this country.