Teen Camp "Party in the House"

Not only have exciting things happened this month with the Operation Joshua outreach... but also young hearts have come to know the Lord out at HM's campsite property during the 10 day long TEEN sports camp.

Be encouraged by this powerful story...

During the worship time on the second to last night of camp, a dual "call" forward was given. The speaker asked for those who wanted to commit their lives to Christ for the first time to stand up and come forward and for those who already knew Christ as their Savior but wanted to take the step of completely surrendering and dedicating their whole lives to Christ to come forward also. The response was immediate and comprehensive as within seconds nearly the entire camp of 60+ young Greeks stood to walk to the front! Δόξα στο Θεό!!

Thank you for praying for the Greek young people! The Lord is definitely answering prayer. Please continue to pray for those starting a new relationship with the Lord and for the others who are seeking to grow closer to their Savior. Pray for them to have the eyes and ears to sense the Lord's call on their lives, and the strength and courage to obey Him. Finally, please don't forget to pray for the hearts of the three or more teens who didn't stand up and commit themselves to one side or the other that night. Pray that the Lord will continue to pursue them and draw them closer to Himself, using the experience they have had at camp as a memorable landmark on their journey to come to know their loving Savior.

1 Cor 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

Operation Joshua 2 Completed!

This year we passed out almost 44,000 New Testaments in the Messinia area of the Peloponnese,Greece over a period of 6 days. We had about 120 volunteers from 11 countries represented. God's Word makes quite a stir as we made the front page of the local newspaper, "Proselytism in Plastic Bags." Not everyone was thrilled to receive the gift we gave out but we are encouraged as we know that God's Word does not return void. Is 55:11.

Family Refugee Camp

10 Afghan families comprised our family refugee camp this year. We all had an incredible time. These are the faces of the people who captured our hearts as we strove to share the love of Christ with them in very practical ways all week. They were overwhelmed and commented on the difference they noticed in us. Glory to God!

Mens Refugee Camp

We hosted a refugee camp for the men who have been coming to the love meals and to our discussion times on Thursdays. It was an awesome time to share some fun with the guys and to just love on them. We had many great conversations with them about Jesus.

Retreat for Muslim men this week

The temperature has risen here and so has the pace of ministry.
Ready or not, the summer camps begin this week!

Please pray for us...

This week we host 20 refugee men for a three day retreat at the property.
They are all Muslims.
Please pray that God will be working in their hearts to draw them to himself.
Pray that the love of Christ will shine through our lives to them.
For understanding of the gospel of John as it is shared this week with the men.
That Jesus will make Himself know as God.
For safety, logistics, etc.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

30 years of marriage!!

Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will beome one flesh.

It's hard to believe that Mike and I celebrated thirty years of marriage this week! How would a 19 and 22 yr old have been able to even guess where they would end up 30 yrs later?

We are so grateful for the gift that marriage is. Grateful to both sets of parents who modeled love and faithfulness in marriage to us.

We spent the day at the office with staff meetings and then found a steakhouse (quite rare here in Greece) for dinner. We waited to go to eat till 8 pm but still were almost the only people in the restaurant!

One interesting thing, a new friend asked me, what was it that used to get on my nerves about my husband in the earlier days, and I couldn't remember a thing! Does God erase our memories as we grow older in marriage together or just use the early struggles to bind us so closely together? Either way, I am so grateful for my dear husband and his incredible love and friendship over all these years!

A word of encouragement for other marriages: keep on working at it, it is the best, an incredible gift from God and a lasting heritage to our children.

Mike is at the shipyard

Every three years or so the Morning Star is taken out of the sea and brought to the shipyard to be overhauled. This year Mike has been joining the team working on repairing the boat. It is stripped down, sanded, sanded and more sanded. Rust is removed, holes patched, rotted wood repaired and then it gets its new coat of paint and it ready to be launched back in the sea again.

Please pray for energy and safety for all the workers there. Pray for all that is needed to make the repairs complete to come in, including parts, finances etc.

This boat is a big tool that HM uses to take the gospel to the islands and surrounding countries of Greece. To read more, see our new HM website wwww.hellenicministries.com or on Facebook become a fan of Morning Star Santa Cruz.