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.