Outreach: Greece
Athens, Greece--
This place (mostly the people) stole my heart. We had the most incredible ministry times here and I was so blessed by all the ways that God moved. To be honest, I could probably write a mini book of all the experiences we had here, but I’ll try to limit myself for now. During the first 15 minutes of being in the streets of Athens, one of the girls on our team fell on her ankle (while carrying a hiking backpack), we walked through the brothel district on the way to our house, and a random man came up to us looking for a girlfriend. Let's just say, I was praising God I only had the be there for three weeks! Now I wish I had three more.
Accommodation
We lived in the same building as a church called Samaria. The building had 4 floors, the first was a dining area, the second was the church, the third was where we lived, and the fourth was the roof access/one of the only places you could be alone. One of the ministries we worked focusses on brothel ministry. The woman we met with said they focus on two main areas, one with 130 brothels, and one with 80. She decided to take us on a tour of the area with 80 brothels and we literally walked in a circle around our house… The first time I video chatted my parents, I turned the camera to look out our window and pointed out all the lights, each of the lights represents an individual brothel. Also, one street over from us is a long alley that stretches several streets long and most days it is filled with people who are buying, selling, and taking drugs. Each white light on a building marks an individual brothel, so in this picture I can count 10.
Ministries
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Butterfly
This ministry is outside the city in a Roma village. Roma people are a displaced people group. They are thought to be descendants of people that left India years ago and became nomads, they have had a sort of nomadic lifestyle ever since. They often times don’t have any education and don’t understand how to be part of society. It is common in their culture to be “engaged” for arranged marriage when they are young children, and then married when they are around 14 years old. There is a lot of domestic abuse and their behaviors and attitudes are carried down through generations. We worked with Roma children in this village and the program there was focused on providing basic education but also teaching corrective behavior. It was really cool to see how much the kids had grown and learned (from hearing about how they used to be). It was so encouraging to hear the success stories of kids that had started going to school! We were very limited in what we were able to do because no one really spoke English (kids or volunteers-except the woman who ran it). On my last day there, one of the girls wanted me to sit with her while she made the craft, and then she wanted to sit in my lap during story time (she was probably about 7 years old). As I sat holding her, I just started praying over her and proclaiming God’s love for her. There was no way for me to verbally communicate with her, but I think in that moment, she knew she was loved, I think she could feel it.
Brothel Ministry/Threads of Hope
This ministry is doing incredible things. They reach over 500 girls in about 210 brothels, as well as on the street. They take tea and cookies and build relationship with the girls over time. They show love and pray for them, and if the girls want to get out of their situation, they help in any way possible. Threads of Hope is a company that employs the girls who have left this industry and it gives them another way to provide for themselves. They make different coin purses, make-up bags, and shopping bags, along with other fun things. We had A LOT of fun shopping and our team alone paid the wages for all the girls for a MONTH!!
Drug alley
Like I said, there was a drug alley (that’s what we called it) about 15 seconds away from our house, and on a couple of occasions we went and walked through it handing out pastries and talking to the people there. One of the times we went, we saw probably a total of 30-40 people there. It was honestly quite overwhelming because most of the people make no effort to hide what they are doing, so anyone nearby can observe the whole process. Earlier that day, we spent time in prayer before we went out and we felt like God was speaking for us to be bold in talking about Him and proclaiming the gospel. On this morning I was struggling with a spirit of fear and had asked my leader for prayer, but the feeling lingered as we started walking down the streets. We had been out for only 10 or 15 minutes and hadn’t met anyone who wanted to talk to us. As we were about to finish up, one of our teammates saw some men further down the street, so we made our way toward them. There were three men in a group, and as we walked up I noticed that one of them still had a needle in his arm. When he saw us, he covered it and apologized, he was so ashamed of what he was doing. All three of the men were so thankful for the pastries that we gave them and they started asking us why we were there. We got to talk with them about God and how much He loves them and how He has the power to break addiction. They knew about God but they didn’t see how He could heal them. We asked if we could pray for them and two of them said yes! We prayed for them to know the love of God and to know their worth, we prayed for their safety, and we prayed for healing. After we finished, I looked at them and one of the men, named Bill, looked different, his eyes were brighter and his whole face lit up. He said he felt different, like his face had more color, and he was so excited! Both of the men were so so thankful that we took time to just talk with them and that we didn’t judge them for what they were doing. It was such a powerful experience and so incredible to see God move during this time. It was especially amazing because a few of us felt fearful and uncomfortable in the beginning, but then we got to see God move in the hearts of these men in such a powerful way! We encouraged them to pray for each other and left them with big smiles on their faces.
Samaria
This was my absolute favorite ministry. We were working with a team of Germans who are long term volunteers in Athens and they kept things moving so smoothly! This is the ministry/church that was in the same building we lived in, so we really got to live life with these people for a month. Samaria focusses on reaching the refugees in Athens and sharing the gospel with them, while meeting practical needs. They are really amazing at discipleship and they have many different Bible studies/small groups to encourage conversation and growth. We got to be part of these activities and it was really incredible to see the growth that happened even during the short time period we were there. The recent refugee crisis has been something that has weighed so heavily on my heart for a few years now, so being able to actually meet people and build friendships was such a gift. I will never forget my brothers and sisters in Greece; they have forever changed my life for the better.
Thank you guys for supporting me and following me on this 6 month-long journey. It has been so life changing. I am currently on my way back to the States. I love you all and can't wait to see you guys and share more stories!!