In my last blog post, I promised to share the more positive part of our story here.
First, we met an awesome brother and sister in Christ, William and Geeta Splitberger.
These two gave up great jobs in the US as an attorney and an accountant to come to Europe to respond to the refugee crisis and the crisis in the church (less than 2% evangelical believers). They live in Frankfurt but also work in Greece and Italy. They have started a NGO called Gateways 2 life. Their goal is to share the love of Jesus with those who have been traumatized by this situation. At the center, they will provide laundry facilities, a place to get some tea and a snack in an AIR -CONDITIONED facility., a place for young children to play and get a posicle, etc. All for free! Or I should say all provided by those that believe in the ministry.
Our little group of five spent this past week is Panagouda, Lesbos preparing the Gateways 2 Life community center for women and children that will open this coming Monday! This was very familiar work for Terry and me as it was very similar to the last week of a house flip - with me doing the cleaning and Terry doing the skilled work. Terry worked getting mirrored film on all the windows, and the rest of us did a lot of cleaning. There were many layers of dust on everything! Just watch the progress:
Mirrored film helps with security and combats the heat
This was before we got a dustpan and had to use a shovel
Figuring out how to program with washers and dryers
Today our team in Lesbos had a humbling experience. On a mountain in the northern part of the island (where Turkey is just 4 miles away by water) there is a makeshift memorial.
The remains of thousands of lifejeckets, shredded rafts, engine covers and a few clothes belonging to the thousands of refugees who have made their way here in the last few years are collected in heaps. Approximately 5000 people have drowned in their attempt to get here. Five died this last weekend.
I think this display may compare to the pile of shoes in the holocaust museum. In fact, I think that this refugee crisis (along with abortion) is the holocaust of our day. We dare not turn a blind eye.
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We just walked around and let it soak in. A few items really stuck out to me.
This is sort of the "bad news first" approach. In later post I will share about our work here to love on the traumatized survivors of this tragedy.
Today we left the vacation portion of our trip behind and met the rest if the team when they arrived in Athens. Here we are in front if the Parliament building.
Our team is very diverse. Our common bond is Christ and that we are here to help our brothers and sisters that are pouring out their lives for the refugees (more on that later).
Since everyone else had jet lag, we had an "easy" day. Some climbed the Acropolis but others took a bus tour. Since Terry and I will be in Athens next week, we opted for the overview of a bus tour. Athens is a beautiful city with so much greenery on their streets. I did not expect that.
After dinner we met in the lobby as a team and discussed the week to come.
Five of us are headed to the island of Lesvos to finish work on the community center that will be opening next week. Just six miles from Turkey, this is where the refugees arrive by boat. The rest of the team will be working directly with refugees in community centers that are already set up in Athens or helping renovate a building for the Exarchia church plant.
The next morning we had some balcony time
And then set out in teams to attend either the evangelical church near the Acropolis or one of two church plants from that bigger church. Terry and I went with Dale and Will to a church plant in Glyfada. It seemed just like Redeemer church in Johnson City where we used to go EXCEPT THAT IT WAS ALL IN GREEK! They had run out of translation headphones so we were on our own to figure it out. I kept hearing one word over and over and wrote it down to ask someone afterwards. Turns out my one word was the subject, which was mercy. I reflected that much of the time, God can get our attention with a single word.
I took some video of the beautiful Greek singing. The words were on the overhead but I could just make out Theos, Christos, and alleluia. A few seconds of this video will give you the gist.
After the sermon there was a fellowship and I got a peek in the nursery. The pastor's wife was apparently translating while helping in the nursery. Impressive multi- tasking.
At the southern tip of this part of Greece sits Cape Sounio. On a hill overlooking the sea are the ruins of a temple built for Poseidon, the "god of the sea." It's supposed to a fantastic place to watch the sunset.
We've seen lots of ruins of ancient idol worship. In glad they're in ruins. My all the idols of my heart suffer the same fate!
The "golden hour" was intense, and Terry really blended in with the surroundings. Turns out we were not supposed to be on these rocks, but we didn't know and got away with it for a few minutes.
