Sharing the Gospel Without Words

Here at the end of our first week of work, I can honestly say that our work is making a difference in the lives of the women who visit the center.  But it is also making a difference in us.

I had intended to blog more often, but the work is tiring, and I have used my downtime in other ways.

On Monday we learned our jobs - operating the showers,

(And no, we don't hose them down - Melanie is just cleaning the showers after one round of women had just showered.), childcare,

and "talking" with women in the main room.It is very hard when you don't know the language, and there are several languages spoken here - mostly Arabic and Farsi, but also Somalian - or whatever they speak in Somalia.  God has been gracious to intersperse a few women who speak a little English, and we have also been able to communicate in other ways.

On Tuesday, partly due to pressure from a donor to give some of the supplies we had more quickly (there is not that much, but we did have some strollers, diapers, feminine hygiene products, etc), we started giving things right and left. We were practically mobbed with women who were thrilled to be getting things.

We saw the downside to this approach on Wednesday when people showed up asking for things we did not have any longer.  There was confusion, disappointment, and even anger.  I had about twenty women bombard me with requests.  One woman in particular seemed very distressed.  I told her I was sorry, then just really looked her in the eye and said it again. I started to cry.  We suddenly had a heart connection.  She sat down and with hand motions explained that her husband had been beheaded and that her young boy had seen it. She is in Moria with her two children.  Our tears eventually turned to smiles. She has been back every day.

Many on our team had similar stories. When you don't have words, God gives us other ways to communicate the love of Jesus.  It's hard for a talker like me.

Some women told us Thursday  (through an English interpreter) that this center is the best thing that has happened to them since arriving.  They can come and just forget Moria for awhile.

More later.  Pray for our team, for Gateways2Life, and for these women we encounter.

What's Going on in Lesvos?

Our team arrived on the island of Lesvos on Sunday night to work with Gateways2Life for the next two weeks.

This is the second time I have been on this island in just a year.  I am struck again by its beauty and the friendliness of its people, which we are fortunate to get to enjoy each evening when our work is done (the refugees are not so lucky).

William Splitgerber, director of Gateways2Life, gave us some background which was quite interesting.  Early in the last century, Turkey expelled 1.5M people of Greek heritage, effectively making them refugees.  Many of them fled  to Lesvos, only 4 miles away by boat.  It was a logical place to go since Lesvos had been under Turkish control from 1462-1912.

Present day islanders are descendants of those refugees and they initially met the current refugees from the Middle East with open arms.  The citizens of Lesvos were actually nominated for a Nobel peace prize in 2015! They are still kindhearted for the most part but are starting to be very concerned. For some perspective consider that there are 8000+ refugees living in Camp Moria (which was built for 1800).  The little town we are staying at nearby has less than 1000 residents!  Its economy depended heavily on tourism which has pretty much screeched to a halt since the refugees arrived. And worse, while refugees used to funnel through Lesvos quite quickly to Athens and then to other countries, those doors are closing - stranding these people here - and stranding Lesvos with lots of problems that they have no resources to handle.

This is a big opportunity for Christians to practice the Great Commandment to love our neighbor.  While there are several secular humanitarian groups here,  I am happy to say that through the grace of God, the UN has asked EuroRelief to run Camp Moria.  It is a branch of Hellenic Ministries - a Christian organization!

And the group we are with - Gateways2Life-  operates a center for women and children just outside the camp.  The main physical need they are meeting is for safe showers and laundry.  It is a big effort! The center here is just opening (last year we were here for the opening of another center outside a much smaller camp run by the city of Mytilene). They hope to run the center with a Greek local staff, but our team is being the beta testers and allowing them to delay this operating cost for a few weeks and do their interviewing. And it is allowing us to learn a lot and have our hearts impacted (more about that in the next post).

Acclimating in Athens

I have the privilege of leading a team of women to Greece this summer to work with refugees in the island of Lesvos through an organization called Gateways2Life.  More about that in future posts.   It’s actually not true that our team is entirely made of women, for Gateways2Life requested we bring a man to serve as gatekeeper at the center.  So Terry agreed to come along as our bodyguard, door opener, bag carrier, driver, etc.

After leaving town at 3:30 am, we arrived with rather bleary eyes at the international terminal.

We immediately realized we were supposed to go to the domestic terminal instead, but we're sticking with this photo since the other terminal is under construction and not nearly as photogenic.  You know you're with a good group of women when nobody minds being photographed without makeup!

Our group is headed to Lesvos but to get there you have to first go to Athens. So we took advantage of our 30 hours there to take in the sights and start bonding as a team. In this first part of thus trip that bonding was facilitated by getting lost either as a group or individually, jet lag, trying all sorts of transportation including bus, subway, and passenger train,  sharing a single shower, long walks, taking in iconic sites like the Parthenon, Hadrian's Arch, and Mars Hill, eating some great meals, and even getting to church on time (so maybe NOT on time, but we made it). The bonding has begun!

To Montreal and Back

Caleb spent a few weeks living in Montreal in June (he was supposed to be there all summer, but that's a long story and is really Caleb's tale to tell).  When we knew he was going to be returning to Knoxville, Terry and I flew up there to meet him and drive back with him.  I was excited to see where he was living.

Here's the view from outside his apartment

And here's the view from inside

We only had one day there, so he gave us a foodie tour of Montreal (this was basically the way I gained all the weight I had lost for Rebecca's wedding in one weekend).  We started out by walking to the closest subway stop:

Caleb told us that one thing he had learned was how he'd really prefer to live in a city where he could drive around instead of taking public transportation.  

Next we visited the old part of the city:

He took us to eat the locally favorite dish - poutine - which is french fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy.  Even though I like those items individually, I was not a fan of the combination.

He also took us for dipped ice cream at La Diperie (a big thumbs up!) at  just one block from his apartment.  The next morning we went to eat at L'Avenue.  This was probably the biggest and best breakfast I have ever eaten!  

Next we jumped in the car and headed back to the U.S.A.  First stop, The Adirondacks.

Caleb decided that he wanted to return via Scranton, of "The Office" fame.  We enjoyed our time in the "Electric City" - eating another enormous meal at an Italian restaurant there.  We took a lovely walk while waiting for our dinner reservation.

And last, but not least, we stopped to see the newlyweds in Virginia and had some fun hiking down by the river.

Top Twenty Photos

It's so hard to choose, but here are my top twenty favorite photos from the day.  I will let the photos speak for themselves.