This month has flown by and there are just too many
stories to tell about everything that is going on here in Greece and with The
Hope Center and Hellenic Ministries.
So we’ve included a couple videos for you to watch;
one that will show you what we’ve been up to and the other is the promotional
video we produced to introduce our Hope Center ministries at a missions
conference.
A quick recap:
Camp preparation, Counseling course at the Greek Bible College, First
aid training, ESL classes with a pregnant friend, Family Refugee Camp, mission
conference, developing promotional materials and much more.
Hope you enjoy the videos!
Please pray for us…
-Continuing relationship with a pregnant girl
-Word to spread in Greece about The Hope Center
-The final translation of our policy manual so we
can introduce ourselves at hospitals.
-Operation Joshua bible distribution program in
July, planning on distributing 160,000 bibles, please pray for us to get the
bibles packed, for the needed participants and for finances to pay for the New
Testaments. For God’s word to make a huge impact on the lives of those who will
receive it.
This month has been one of many ups and downs for us.
We rejoiced as we celebrated Christ's resurrection early in the month. Then on Mother's Day we got a call from a pregnant girl who wanted to move into The Hope Center (THC). So we packed things up and moved in, only to be sadly disappointed when she decided to go back to her boyfriend very shortly afterwards. We learned some lessons, cried some tears and are moving on. We still keep in touch with her and are so glad that she is choosing to keep the pregnancy and we will do our best to walk through this journey beside her even if we are not living together.
Following this our dear friends, Donna and Doug Russell arrived from the States and we moved them into THC with us and began working tirelessly to get THC ready for further habitation. We moved in furniture, washed and cleaned it, installed ceiling fans and light fixtures, chose pictures for the walls and bedding for the rooms, rearranged furniture, tiled behind the kitchen sink and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Once most of the work was done, we also had a chance to show them a bit of Greece too which was really fun.
We learned about living in the totally unique culture in which THC is located; surrounded by Roma people who desperately need love. There is lots of the noise and undisciplined children as well as the challenge to reach out in love to those who are so different from us. In short, we have never needed Jesus more, which is exactly where we believe God wants us to be!
We also invited many guests up to THC this month in order to acquaint them with our new facility and the needs of the surrounding neighborhood.
Additionally, we said goodbye to four of our volunteers from The Greek Bible College who have been ministering beside us this year on campus, at the office and at THC. The girls were a tremendous help and encouragement to us all year and we had a fun night of dinner and bowling together to say thank you and goodbye.
As you can tell, there were many highs and lows this month, but we move forward in faith knowing that God is leading us one step at a time and that He will never leave us or forsake us!
Please pray with us
-for wisdom in continuing to develop this pro-life ministry
-for a continuing relationship with our pregnant friend
-for the Roma community surrounding THC and for our relationship within it
Thanks for those of you who have been praying with us. The last two months have been busy and we have been storming the heavens on behalf of LIFE here in Greece. Specifically we have been praying for God to send us girls to live in The Hope Center.
Just yesterday, one girl called us. She had left her home with just her suitcase! Needless to say this was a little surprising for us, but we brought her to our house last night and if all goes well after our HM family conference this weekend, we will all be moving into the Hope Center together next week! Planning, planning and then God surprises us!
Additionally, during the last two months we have been following up on leads with about six different girls. Each time we have pursued each of these opportunities and have been ready to move into The Hope Center asap as the need arose.
Needless to say, it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for us as we wait on the Lord and His timing for everything. Four of the cases did not pan out. In fact, sadly, we know at least one of the girls chose abortion. Currently we have two girls in their early stages of pregnancy who are considering living with us in THC. We have accompanied one of these girls to the doctor and to the microbiologist for blood tests. One of the highlights of this trip was to see her baby moving in the ultrasound and to see the delighted look on her face as she was able to see her baby too (this is the girl who came to our house last night).
We have met with three obstetricians/gynecologists in Athens and have been able to leave stands with our information in them for display in their offices.(See above photo)
We also have been working with a post abortion counseling class. This has proven to be a very intimate time of sharing wounds and opening up to surrendering secrets and receiving the Lord's healing in lives.
We have two manuals and one post abortion book in translation now and we are looking forward to getting these materials back so they can be used with Greeks.
We believe we are just on the cusp of this ministry opening wide open!
Please pray with us:
-For the two girls who are considering staying at THC.
-For our language skills as both these girls speak Greek, not English.
-For Mike and I as our team leader will be gone for three weeks.
-For continued wisdom, unity and financial support for this ministry.
-Praise the Lord for His faithfulness to us!
The GWOM (Greek Word of the Month) for February is Προετοιμασία-Preparing.
Who
would have ever guessed that there was so much work involved in starting this
new ministry? Certainly not me!!
We have
almost completed our 55 page Policy & Procedure Manual and our 16 page
Resident Manual. It's amazing how much time and energy goes into these things. We
have almost been tempted to lose heart, but God keeps giving us little
encouragements along the way.
Here are
some of the ways God has encouraged us this month:
Four girls from the Greek Bible College have been helping us
make video collages of THC, developing a correspondence format for us,
translating one manual for us, plus accompanying us on campus to speak to the
Greeks about this ministry.
Marina Karava, who partners with us and who runs Hope for Life,
a pregnancy care center, was invited to speak to the youth and parents in
Thessaloniki about sanctity of human life issues.
We've made contact with two local gynecologists and hope to meet
with them in person soon to speak to them about what we hope to do.
We are beginning a post abortion recovery education class next
week to help women deal with abortion losses.
Please
pray with us:
-For perseverance and diligence with the manuals.
-For us
to find just the right translators for all our materials and that the
translation can be done quickly. We can't present our ministry until this is
done.
-For
finances to complete the building, translation etc.
HELLENIC
MINISTRIES IS ALSO PREPARING FOR OPERATION JOSHUA 6.
If you have followed us for long, you can tell that this month's word is not an original Greek word, especially since it is so easy to pronounce and it is so short! Nonetheless it was super important to us this month.
A week ago, we had an appointment with our local municipality regarding our visa. We are here with an annual residence permit and we need to submit a lot of translated paperwork every January to reapply for the next years' visa.
It is with much prayer, fear and trepidation that we approach these meetings, as we are never really sure what the outcome will be.
This year particularly, we were a little more guarded as we know many missionaries, including three co-workers, who have been denied visas, even with all the proper paperwork and qualifications.
We were ecstatic and so thankful to walk out of the office, with visa stickers in our passports! A minor detail is that the stickers were only good for two days, but we were able to file our papers for 2013 and received a certificate that allows us to live here legally while they process our papers again. Thank you Lord!
Please pray for this visa situation between the US and Greece. We know more full supported missionaries ready to come serve who are being denied visas. Please ask God to change this so we can grow our team and live legally here.
Please pray with us: -Αs we continue to work on promotional materials and policy manuals for The Hope Center. -For patience for us as we wait on the Lord for the funding necessary to get heat in the building so we can move in. -For wisdom for our team in making decisions regarding the girls who will live there.
December was a month of celebrations, the most important one being: Rejoicing in the remembrance of the birth of Christ our Savior! Unto us a child is born… Immanuel-God with us!
Other noteworthy celebrations for us in December:
The Greens. We said goodbye to Josiah and Jamie-Lee who served as THC interns from July-December. They are an amazing couple that impacted so many in their short time here. They showed Christ’s love in amazingly practical ways all over Greece but most especially throughout the gypsy neighborhood of THC. We wish them well as they begin seminary in St. Louis.
Christmas Love Meals. Three different opportunities to serve refugees and the homeless of Athens. The following is a link to a short video of the festivities. http://youtu.be/seL0Z7LKgdU
Christmas and New Years. The quiet of the season away from home and family allowed us more time to marvel anew at God's amazing gift to us in Jesus. And also to remind us what a special privilege it is to be here serving in His name. Thank you so much each and every one of you who equip and enable us to be here. Looking forward to the journey ahead in 2013!
Please pray with us:
-For wisdom as we prepare policy and procedure manuals for THC.
-For Mike and I as we contemplate moving to THC as the first houseparents.
-For the completion of the construction, furnishing & funding of THC.
-For sensitive promotion of this maternity home and for God to bring us just the pregnant girls who need help.
-Praise for our connection with a Greek midwife who is spreading the word for us.
We returned to Greece Nov 4th after a 6 month home assignment in the US. What a
whirlwind of activity! We are still adjusting to our new home again! We’ve hit
the ground running-ok, not Peggy. Unfortunately she returned a little slower
and with crutches due to an accident trying to get a motorcycle license! The
crutches are now gone and her knee is almost back to normal. Mike, on the other
hand, returned better than when we left due to another hip replacement surgery
in August to match his other titanium hip replaced in Dec 2011.
We are very excited about the
progress of The Hope Center (THC). While we were in the States, Josiah and
Jamie-Lee Green have been living at THC and making friends with our gypsy
neighbors. They hosted a kids club in September and due to its popularity, they
began an “Alphabet Club” three mornings a week in THC driveway. Their
goal was to reach out in love and in practical ways by teaching the Greek
alphabet as well as other fundamentals for education, such as forming a line,
how to correctly hold a pencil, how to raise a hand to answer etc. The club has
been a huge success and this week we will conclude this particular session with
the Greens as we share the story of Christ’s birth.
The rest of our time has been spent
trying to finish construction needs at THC as well as developing policy and
procedure manuals so we can begin the job of hiring house parents and hosting
pregnant girls.
Please
pray with us:
-Praise:
for our safe return and good transition back to life in Greece, for the
continued recovery of the stress fracture in Peggy's knee.
-For the
Alphabet club in our gypsy neighborhood: for a clear presentation of the gospel
this week in the Christmas story and that God would draw many of these children
to Himself.
-For God
to bring us the house parents He wants for THC so we can open the doors to
pregnant girls soon.
-For the completion of
construction, furnishing and funding of THC.
