Acclimation

καλησπερα!

I feel like we’ve been here forever already! Each day goes by slowly, which I love. Greek time is the best. We start our days no earlier than 10 am. Lunch is between 1 and 3. We tend to take naps in the afternoon :) All of the stores are closed from 2-5 ish so there’s nothing else for us to do. Hahaha! We eat dinner no earlier than 8. We’ve still better pretty tired so some nights we are in bed between 11 and 12. However, all of us girls are in one room, which means that a couple of nights we staying up until 2 am talking about our pasts and doing some good girl bonding.

The mosquitoes here are vicious. We killed five in our room before going to bed last night. Unfortunately that wasn’t all of them. I woke up with two few bites on face and a few more on my arms, hands, back, and sides. I’m so glad I brought Benadryl gel. It’s been saving all of us from scratching off our skin. I think it’ll be a little better once we are at the Bible College. There will be less access to our rooms for the bugs.

There’s been no lack of food, that’s for sure. Vicki continues to feed us well, often commenting on the fact that we don’t eat enough and are all too skinny. Her sister, Lily, has been doing quite a bit of helping out these last couple of days as well. As I write this, she’s in the kitchen preparing something delicious. Since my last post I’ve had slouvaki, Spanish tortillas, cherries, some kind of melon (I’m not a big fan of melon. I don’t like honeydew or cantaloupe at home, but by golly, this was stellar), numerous ice cream desserts, strawberries, mashed potatoes, some kind of cooked potato in oil (really wonderful), Greek salad, some kind of sausage, chicken, ham pasta, and more nutella than I care to admit. I need to stop eating. I’m worried about not fitting into any of my clothes by the end of the trip. I warned my team that they might be seeing quite a few appearances of my sweatpants…

On Sunday night, we went to hear the men’s choir from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago at Second Evangelical Church in Athens. They were phenomenal! They sang in English mostly but closed with a few Greek hymns. We got to talk with them after the concert. It was nice to talk to other college-aged Americans about what we were doing here for the summer. They were very nice and had been having an awesome time touring Greece. They just headed to Cyprus, so please pray for travel mercies for them.

On Monday, we cleaned up around the church. Judging from the amount of stuff we took to the trash, it really needed to be done. Pavlos had mentioned it on Sunday at church so a few of the church members came to help us. It was another wonderful opportunity to meet more people and form relationships. One of the men was telling us about living here in the 60s and 70s during the dictatorship. He and a few other members of Greek Evangelical Church in Peireas were sent to jail for something they didn’t do. They were there for three days before they were cleared, but because they were falsely accused, the church was given the freedom to operate without persecution. His point was that sometimes God works through trials and sufferings. The time they spent in jail was awful, but it was worth it. He also told us about all the times the church building (we are living above it) has been destroyed. It was destroyed a number of times by the Orthodox Church before they were given freedom, and it was bombed during World War II. It’s amazing. Through persecution and hard times, they always rebuilt. They knew that the spread of the gospel was more important. It’s something I need to remember.

Tuesday morning, Vicki took us to another market. This one had so much food! Everything looked absolutely wonderful, especially the fruits. That’s where the cherries and melons came from. We brought tracts with us to hand out. They were just small flyers about the gospel. We weren’t ready to actually hand them directly to people yet, so we did a sort of reverse pick-pocketing. We would hold a tract surreptitiously in one hand and then drop it into someone’s basket when they weren’t looking. I was quite a chicken at the beginning. During our first walk through, I only gave out 3 of my tracts, but I started to feel better about it towards the end. When we left I only had two left! Proselytizing is illegal here so we have to be careful about what we say and do and how we approach it. We don’t want to overstep our boundaries. I ask for prayer in this area. I think we are all afraid of broaching the subject with someone that doesn’t want to hear it. I, for one, haven’t taken the chance. Pray for courage and direction. Pray that God gives us clear and safe opportunities.

This will be my last post for at least a week. We are going to tour the Bible College tomorrow and are taking some of our stuff over there (like my computer) because we leave for Volos on Friday, and I don’t want to take everything. I’ll be off my blog, email, and facebook. If you haven’t heard from me, don’t worry. We will be picking up trash with the church members in Volos. That’s how they grow their congregation. No one in Greece picks up trash (or throws it in trash cans) so it’s unusual to see and causes people to stop and ask why. Pray that we have many opportunities to share the gospel. Pray that our team grows even closer. Pray for health, safety, and stamina.

Please feel free to read the blogs of my teammates as well. Tyler, Elise, and Camille all have blogs.

I love you all, and I appreciate all of your prayers.

In Him,

Kelsey