Mission Partner Visits in Athens

We arrived safely in Athens, and after seeing a few of the sites (see here), we headed out to meet with some of our church’s ministry partners here in this strategic city. First stop was a visit to the Bridges ministry, led by Voulos and Illias.

Google maps said that it was a 19 minute walk from the base of Mars Hill to Bridges.  This is the country of the Olympics, so maybe the Athenians just walk really fast, but it took us an hour even though we did not get lost.

We had a great time visiting with Voula and hearing the latest with their ministry.  Greece has just elected a new government that is not refugee-friendly, and Voula explained what some of their concerns were with these new policies.  

Then we met with Alexandros, one of the pastors of the church in Exarchia (see this post from a previous trip), and he showed us the progress on their church building and led us on a tour through the various ministries of Faros.  Progress on the church building has been slow because it was designated for historical preservation.  The women’s center that I worked in two years ago is now an educational center focusing on young women - preparing them with skills for the workforce.  We visited the home for unaccompanied minor boys that I worked at two years ago and then also toured a new facility where teens are learning technical skills.  MIT actually contacted Faros and is partnering with them at a center there.  There are many gospel opportunities in the relationships being formed there.  Very exciting stuff!

2019 Lesvos Team On Its Way

Our team met at the Knoxville airport with a few family and friends.  We had a prayer circle before departure.  It was so nice to be flying in and out of Knoxville this year instead of Atlanta.  Well worth the extra money.  This year's team (L to R) includes Dale Berry, Stephanie Estabrooks, Terry, me, Anne Martin, and Bob Mackey.  

We landed in Athens the next morning, found our way to our AirBnB spot right next to Victoria Square, and then spent some time seeing the sites and recovering from jet lag before jumping right in to our responsibilities.  Athens is starting to look quite familiar - having traveled there three summers in a row now.  

Monastraki Market area

Hadrian's Arch

Panathenaic Stadium

National Gardens

Syntagma Square

Acropolis

Mars Hill

Mother/Daughter Backpacking Trip

Rebecca has been talking for years about how we needed to take a backpacking trip together.  This summer when Joseph was away on drill with the National Guard seemed like the perfect opportunity. We were afraid if we waited much longer, that Rebecca would be pregnant or have a child and that our trip would never happen.  Turns out that on this trip, Rebecca was already pregnant, but I didn’t know it yet (because Joseph didn’t know yet as he was away on drill and she wanted to tell him in person).  So we had another little backpacker with us.  Rebecca did a good job keeping the secret, though I’m pretty sure she had to straight up lie at one point.

I was a little worried that backpacking in July might be miserably hot.  But lo and behold, we had a cold snap like I don’t ever remember having this time of year.  The high was just in the 70s and the low was in the 50s.  We were actually quite cold in our hammocks!

We were only gone for one night, and we camped at Alley Ford in the Obed River area.  We did not see another soul on our hike in or out.

We opted for hammocks instead of tents, and we also opted not to bring anything complicated to eat.  We heated water for hot chocolate and tea and ate power bars.  We spent our time reading, napping, journaling, and having some deep conversation.  I’m so glad we went when we had the opportunity.  I think we’ll be fine camping with her little one, but we will probably not be backpacking together for a while.  

South Holston 2019

First of all, before we could camp, Terry had to fix the camper where water had entered and rotted the floor.

There were also a lot of logistics to navigate with this year's camping trip.  Joseph and Caleb needed to get off of work (Terry did, too, but he's self-employed, so that's a little easier), Nathan and Meredith both wanted to take the NCLEX first, Noah needed to be on break from the summer semester at Lee, and I needed to be off a few days from my therapist training in Nashville.  So we ended up with just three days with all of us to make it work.  

Joseph and Rebecca had their own campsite and also hosted his mom when she came up for a few days.  Meredith camped in our trailer with us - her first camping trip!

Since I've talked about South Holston so much in earlier posts, I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.  Except for this first photo.  I think we could say that Little Oak Campground on S. Holston Lake is our WHEELHOUSE.  

West HIlls

Terry and I have been trying to get more involved in the neighborhood.  To that end, I signed us up for the West Hills wiffleball team, which basically involved a few practices in a neighbor's backyard and then playing in a tournament with other Knoxville neighborhoods.  It brought me back to my grade school days when this was one of my favorite sports.  Turns out I can still hit the ball!  But when we were on defense, I just stood at the ready and prayed the ball would go to someone else. And it always did.  LOL.  Our team had a 2-2 record, up from last year when we were apparently
0-4.  Go West Hills!

Another thing I've gotten involved in is a program called Walking School Bus.  We meet the kids at the end of the school day at West Hills Elementary, and then walk with them to the gazebo near the West Hills Y where their parents pick them up.  It has been a lot of fun chatting with the kids!

Last, but not least, I've finally gotten in the habit of going to work out at the West Hills Y.  I've made friends with several ladies there, and they even have a book club I've joined.  Here I am with some of my friends in spin class on the day of the Kentucky Derby.  Our creative instructor assigned us all names of horses, and some gals even wore hats.  All the songs on the playlist were about going fast or money!