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.