Mourning for Kela

As we gathered at the HM office on Saturday for a group office clean up day, our fellow missionary, Lahela Hughes Tagaroulious, shared with us the tragic news that her 22 year old sister Kela had died the day before in a car accident in Seattle. We were/are stunned.

Mike and I got to know Kela from the time we spent here in Greece in 2006. We also spent time with her again this past Thanksgiving. She was here for a couple of weeks visiting Lahela and was the one who prepared Thanksgiving dinner for us since her sister was too ill with morning sickness to do any of the preparations. We marveled that one so young could cook up such a big feast and it was all delicious.

The Hughes family lives in Seattle Washington where their father, David, is the missions pastor at Antioch Church. They have been coming to Greece and sending teams to work with HM for years.

Please join with us in prayers for the grieving Hughes family. Parents David and Holly, siblings Lahela 26 (married to Bobis and 5 months pregnant), and brothers Keoni 20-studying at Moody, Kuni 17ish and Kepa 13ish. While we grieve with the family we do rejoice in the knowledge that Kela is now in heaven. She had made her peace with Jesus and had given her life to Him; accepting the free gift of salvation that He offers to those who believe on His name.

We are still reeling from this sad news and are even more aware than ever that the time is short. Death can come at any minute. Do you know where you will be one minute after you die? Will you live forever in heaven with God or will you be eternally separated from Him in hell? Have you been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus? It is in His name alone that we can enter the presence of God in heaven. It doesn’t matter how good you try to be or if you go to church, but whether or not you have chosen to follow the way Jesus prepared for you by His life, death and resurrection.

The time is now, the choice is yours. It is a free gift, but it must be received and opened by you individually. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.” John 14:6

Snow Days!

You guys in Wheaton aren’t the only ones getting snow. While snow is a common winter occurrence in the Midwest, it’s not so usual here. The Greeks are having a great time playing out in the snow as it only happens like this every few years or so. The cold and snow began Sat. night and ended Monday morning. The buses haven’t been running, the airport closed and the marble streets of Athens so slick that we didn’t even bother trying to get our car out, especially without chains. We’ve been home all weekend; no church yesterday, no school today (hurray!). I’ve been busy cleaning out closets while Mike has been a little under the weather. He is achy all over so has enjoyed the day off school and out of the cold too.

You can see from the pictures we’ve had to be inventive to clear our stairs; we never thought to bring a shovel!
Check out the gorgeous snow covered mountains in the background.
Happy Winter!

The container arrived!

Sorry we have been so remiss on posting to this blog lately but we have been quite busy. Believe it or not, just when we were least expecting it, OUR CONTAINER ARRIVED!! Friday morning, Feb 1^st, we were just parking the car at school when we got a phone call telling us that our container would be at our house in a couple of hours. Mike was quite thrilled for an excuse to leave me at school and to take off for home. He made some frantic phone calls to round up some guys to help unload the 20’ container we shipped with all our household belongings from Wheaton on November 5, 2007. It was a beautiful sunny day and God provided plenty of help for us. The container was emptied in less than one hour!! Everything arrived in pretty good condition; nothing was broken, lost or stolen.

When I arrived home from school at 2pm that afternoon, the truck was gone already left and everything was already in the house. Many of our fellow missionaries and their children helped as well as students from the Bible school down the street from us. Our neighbors downstairs, who are here in Greece with HM for three months, were invaluable to us that day.

We have been enjoying sitting in comfortable familiar chairs, eating at a table and sleeping in our old bed (although it took a little getting used to!). Surprisingly, it was also a little sad to look around at our things because it reminded us of many great family times together. Another rite of passage from our life back home to our new life here in Greece sans children :(

We’ve been shopping again, trying to get settled before we have our first house guests in early March. There are many boxes left to unpack and pictures to hang but we are feeling quite settled and are so enjoying the comforts of home that we took for granted for so long until we were without them.

In the midst of all this chaos, we are still diligently pursuing language school. It is a challenge, but we find the people here respond so differently to us as we stutter to try to speak their language. We also are participating in HM ministries as often as possible, mostly with the refugees right now.

We are learning to watch and wait on God for the most basic things. It is surprising to be thanking God for helping me drive to IKEA by myself without getting lost! Our days are full and we are still amazed every day with God’s provision for us. It is a privilege to be serving here in His name.

Thank you for all your prayers for us. We rejoice with you in thanking God for His goodness to us.