“We live by believing, not by seeing.”

The chalkboard in my kitchen displays this version of 2 Corinthians 5:7 to remind me that reality lies in what I can’t physically see. Eleni and I had a great conversation about it while I washed dishes after dinner together.

We’d already talked about God. She said that she’d visited a priest this summer who had told her that she couldn’t talk to God unless she was in a church. “I don’t believe that. I believe in God. I pray. But I don’t believe I have to go to a church to pray to God.” We talked for a couple of hours. The spiritual parts of the conversation weren’t always clear. Often Greek thought patterns are circular. I tried to emphasize trusting Christ for real life in Him.

A year ago when we met Eleni she wondered if God existed. New friends she’d made were atheists and their beliefs caused her to question the faith she saw in her grandmother. In the spring she said that she needed to figure out what she believed for herself.

She asked me, “How do you believe what you don’t see? Don’t you think we follow signs and then believe?”

I told her that often I choose to believe what the Bible says is true and then I see evidence that it’s the right thing. I gave her a small example of seeing anger in myself last Thursday, confessing it and trusting Jesus to change me, and then hearing three different lessons about anger within three days to confirm the truth

• Please pray with me that the Lord would give Eleni and other Greek students genuine, growing faith.
• Ask Him to bring clarity in the confusion of Greek religious thought.
• You can also pray that God would give us open doors for more conversations like this and would give us His wisdom as we talk about Him.

Thank you for praying with me!

And who is adequate for these things?

We’ve had a great first couple of weeks with students! We’ve enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones. I don’t think I’ve left campus on any of our school days without having a significant conversation with Greeks about the things that matter most to them. Many of them have expressed a desire in spiritual things. Seven different individuals have attended at least one of our group discussions over the book of John—either a Wednesday afternoon coffee time or a Monday night dinner and discussion.

• Some of my favorite thoughts from Greek students:
• Being a child of God means being fully accepted and loved.
• One thing that sticks out to me from our discussions last year is that Christianity is the only religion that is a religion of love.
• We Greeks are very practical. We study engineering or economics. I’ve never studied metaphysics (spiritual things, the Bible), but I think I’d like to.
• You study the Bible? Can Greeks come? I’d like to come.
• I’m not religious, but I talk to God.
• I’ve never even touched a Bible before.
• I really like your group.
• Of course I liked the discussion. I would have left if I didn't.


Please pray that God would draw us all close to Him, as the Author and Perfecter of faith.

to the other a sweet aroma from life to life

I loved Carolina’s answer to the first application question in our discussion about John 3 tonight. My friend, Jeremy, asked, “What is one thing that you’d like to learn from Jesus?” And Carolina said, “I’d like to learn about His forgiveness.”

Carolina has come to both of our Monday night dinner and discussion times. At the first one, she said things like:
• I need the light. I can’t do what’s right on my own.
• I learned last year with Paige that sometimes we need God to help us love other people. There was someone I had a problem loving. I couldn’t love her. So I had to depend on the Light to show me how.
• When talking about applying the passage— Sometimes I just need to stop thinking. I need to rest and trust and stop trying to figure things out. (It reminded me of Psalm 131.)

Tonight she said that a higher power has been speaking to her, telling her that He wants her to search for more in her life. She also said that she’d like for Jesus to tell her which voices inside her are good and which are bad. I’m praying that He will answer all of her questions and desires with great clarity.

All Greece Staff Retreat

We traveled north to the foot of Mount Olympus for a staff retreat with our Greek, Cypriot, and Maltese staff. We talked about how God moves mightily in individual lives and in countries to lead people to Himself. Such good perspective as we begin our time on campus! I enjoyed the staff. I enjoyed the mountains. I enjoyed the sea.

They're Here!

Our stinters arrived Wednesday. Four recent graduates have joined our team for the next school year. Andrew has returned for a second year. Ashley, Brittanie, and Joel are new to our team—and two of them (Brittanie and Joel) came sight unseen! As we drove into our neighborhood, Brittany exclaimed, “We’re not in Baltimore anymore!”

Yesterday morning we shared things we’re learning from the Lord over breakfast. The team’s answers encouraged me. Brittany talked about how God was leading her to find rest in Him in the middle of her first experience outside of the United States. Andrew talked about God’s abundant provision of his support. Jeremy shared the story of walking out of the office to look for housing for the girls, praying for God to lead them to an apartment, and hearing the voice of the girls’ new landlord 30 seconds later, asking if they needed an apartment. Everyone told of God’s goodness toward us as we’ve followed Him to Greece.

Please pray…
-that we’d all rely on the Lord as we begin this school year.
-that He would develop good relationships between us that reflect His love.
-that God would prepare us in every way for the beginning of the school year in a couple of weeks.
-that God would connect all of us to our previous Greek friends and to the contacts that our summer teams left for us.
-that the Lord would draw us and Greek students close to Himself through our study of the book of John this school year.

Apartment Pictures

The godly people in the land are my true heroes!

During the summer I read the phrase above from Psalm 16 in the One Year Bible. It expresses clearly my delight in those the Lord has graciously placed around me. People everywhere I went this summer encouraged and strengthened me by their steps of faith in response to the Lord’s goodness. I wish you could all meet one another to share your stories! In lieu of a big reunion with people you don’t know yet, I thought I’d share some faith stories. . .

Chad, Kelly, Emily (8), and Connor (4) left a stable, comfortable life and their dream home in a small Kansas town where they lived across the street from grandparents when God called them to join staff two years ago(and Chad and Kelly are in their 30’s!). They packed up their family and drove across the country to join us in San Diego for our summer project. With hardly any campus experience under their belts, they helped lead our project in growing closer to the Lord, sharing our faith, and building groups of growing faith. They learned things one day and passed them on the next day!

Ben heard that we often cannot send year-long mission teams because we lack men to fill them. Instead of listing a preferred location when he filled out his application, he asked our evaluators to place him on a team that needed men in order to be sent. Not only that, he challenged a friend to go with him. Both of these guys will be sent in January to Australia.

Ashley chose to invest her summer in our summer project in San Diego. Not only that, she was one of 20 who forfeited a full-time paying job to apply to work full-time in ministry on campus this summer. The Lord bore fruit through her courageous faith. He used her to lead a San Diego student to walk with God and He deepened her relationship with Him to the extent that she’s willing to take a leadership role on her campus in South Dakota to reach athletes with Jesus’ love.

Danny graduated in May and is planning to go on the World Race (a year-long mission trip to 11 locations around the world) in January. Instead of just taking time off between school and the mission trip, Danny served on our staff in San Diego this summer and is investing, without being paid, in ministering to men in his fraternity this fall. He has a group of six men he will meet with weekly to help them grow closer to the Lord. He’s trusting God to give them opportunities to talk with all of the men in the fraternity about Himself this fall.

Becca (a friend from my years at UNC) and her husband Paul used their vacation time and their talents to join a two-week mission project in South Africa. I loved seeing Becca’s pictures of South Africans and was so strengthened by her passion to see people all over the world experience the love of Jesus.

Jason, Nick, Peggy, Clayton, Kinsey, and Alexis packed up and moved to New Mexico in response to the reality that there’s not Campus Crusade ministry at the University of New Mexico, a campus of 26,000 students (not counting the other 18,000 students nearby). They’re meeting freshmen, sharing their faith, hosting fun events, and starting Bible studies as I type.

Brittanie found out about ministry in Greece through the Campus Crusade website. Sight unseen, she applied to take a year out from school to help us give students the opportunity know God personally here. Halfway through the summer her grandfather died, she realized that leaving her long-term boyfriend would be more challenging than she originally thought, and only a third of her support was raised. When God prompted her to make a concerted effort to seek support in faith that He wanted her to come, He raised 35% of her support in one week! He finished her support just two weeks after that.

And this is just the beginning… Jess went to the Middle East this summer and wants to return to give people who’ve never heard the opportunity to know Christ. Kristen endures a difficult life in one of those countries to connect with people who are hostile toward Christians. Maria, who’s of Chinese descent, is leading a team to take the good news to Japanese students—a radical move of love for those cultures. Kristine has left a secure teaching future to reach international students with Christ’s love in Houston. Alexis and Kim, after leading a Japanese exchange student to Christ in San Diego, are planning to go to Japan next summer on a mission project.

I’m overwhelmed at the honor of knowing so many people of such faith! I’m honored to know you and to live a life of faith next to you, too.

^“As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” Psalm 16:3