Thanks Giving

It’s crazy to me that it’s the week of Thanksgiving. The skies are blue and it’s in the 60’s. It feels more like September to me. I AM excited about celebrating this week, though.

I want to share a few recent conversations in which Greeks have responded with a new level of understanding about spiritual things. . . for which I’m very thankful:

ü Christos, a very unique theology student. He believes in God. He wants to get a PhD in Old Testament and teach university students. He’s very interested in spiritual things. When we asked him what keeps students from interest in spiritual things, Christos said “The Devil. He distracts us with so many other things. He doesn’t want us to know God.” Christos has begun to join us to talk about knowing God personally.

ü Nadia, a friend that we met last year in the sandwich line, heard that Ashley is considering ministering to the poor in Cambodia sometime in her future. We asked her if she thought Greeks would be interested in joining her. Nadia said, “No, I don’t think so. We’re too self-centered. We like our comfortable lives. But, I admire you for even thinking the thought of going.”

ü Our short-term team took Carolina and Ana with them on a trip to Istanbul last weekend. Everyone had rich spiritual conversations. My favorite thing I heard was that Carolina said, “So, I’m learning that everyone sins. We all sin. All the time.” She’s beginning to see the need for Christ.

There are more stories to share. I’ll save them for later. The Lord is working mightily.

I want to ask you to pray for something. We’re inviting all our friends to join us for a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night. It’s been fun to see our friends excited to come and to see them inviting their friends to join us. Would you pray. . .

ü That God would enable Greek students to come. That He would remove obstacles. That He would keep things from keeping Greeks from coming.

ü That students would see how graciously God has blessed us—the reason we have a day for thanksgiving.

ü That students would identify themselves with our group and our desire to follow Christ at a new level. Pray that more would begin coming to Bible discussions and Bible studies on a regular basis.

I’m thankful for YOU!

Texas Hold 'Em

Our team consists largely of Texans and, for some reason, our Greek friends are fascinated by the game "Texas Hold 'Em," so we gave them an opportunity to play last Friday night. The evening provided 25 of us with lots of fun and some really good deep conversations about life and about the Lord.

“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.