"Grace and Peace To You"

These famous opening words written from Paul to the church in Corinth never held so much meaning. Today we were given an off day to visit the ancient city of Corinth, an hour outside of Athens. The experience will be ever present in the corners of my mind every time I flip past the pages of 1st/2nd Corinthians and Acts 18.

The special attribute to the city of Corinth is that it is the single most significant archeological site in the Christian faith. Many years after Jesus died, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. The city of Athens has been built on and atop most ancient ruins. Same for Rome, Thessaloniki, etc. The city of Corinth is one of the rare sites we see today AS IT WAS in the days of Christ and Paul's missionary journey. You can still see the seat where Galileo issued the lashings on the one who blasphemed against Paul. You can still see the place Paul is historically stated to have stayed during his tenure. There is a round stone with the inscription "Erastus, financial leader of Corinth" thus proving his existence and ending this debate. We saw busts of every major Roman emporer (including Julius Ceasar and Nero, who is famed to have martyred Paul) up until well after Christ's death. We visited the port where Paul set sail to Syria, ending his 2nd missionary journey. Even the ancient bath still contained the sound of rushing water inside (we could not enter, however). I found a tablet that had a decree etched into it that was dated to 51 A.D. (this is the time Paul was believed to have landed and stayed for a year and a half). There were unbelievable art works dated back to 1000-800 B.C., thus blowing my mind and sense of time (we think things from the 1800's is old!). We took a thousand pictures, so please be patient (the internet here is slow and it takes forever and a day to post them up) but I cannot wait for everyone to be able to see how incredibly preserved most of the city is.

Just a short blog, as we have a team meeting in 3 minutes. Tomorrow we will be aiding the 2nd Evangelical Church in immigrant and refugee centers, and holding our last festival of the week tomorrow afternoon at 7 (meaning it will be a long day!). We still cannot believe that we are able to serve here in Athens, and continue to seek ways the Lord can utilize us each day. Our deepest appreciation to those who are praying for us, and continue to pray God will mold us more with each experience along with those we touch.

-Austen

Wake Up Calls

So time is flying bye. Everyday we all seem to get a little ansy as we feel the summer is slipping away. I think we all (well for me anyways) get so caught up in ways to not squander our experiences that we miss out on how the Lord is blessing us and what He wants us to gain from our experiences.

Wake up call #1:

So the next few weeks we are working heavily with the community centers, putting on various festivals for the children. I am not going to lie, I don't think I am very good with children (so of course I have needed a little attitude adjustment). I came to this realization while babysitting and constantly wondering when the parents were getting home.....come on we have all had that feeling. Our team has so many dynamics and different talents: some are good with kids, some aren't, some are athletic, some artistic, etc. So, we all met before the festival to designate stations for each person. Austen and Emily were in charge of the stilts/just playing with the kids, Mallory and Rachel face-painting, Thomas and Chelsea balloon-making, and Caroline got stuck at the fish pond.....yes the fish pond. The fish pond was this little blown up baby pool filled half way with water and fake fish with magnets on them. The little kids would spend hours (it seemed like) either figuring out how to catch these things or their hand-eye coordination just wasn't up to par. So as I sit lonely at this park bench (with the language barrier intensifying at every moment), watching kids gouge eachother's eyes out in hopes that they might steal the fishing rod from a fellow festival-goer, my self-pity increased more and more. Frustration built as I continued to attempt to take control of the situation.....Ohee, Ohee (no, no) is the only word I could use and of course I was not heard. As the volcano was about to explode inside me, I just said what the heck.....have at it!!! I gave the kids the nets and fishing rods and let them go to town. Splashing ensued followed by huge grins and laughter. These kids didn't care about organization or whos turn it was. I am not going to say that from there on I had the best night of my life and the Lord just opened up this huge door to build relationships with these kids. But I am going to say that control is a major idol in my life that seaps out into so many different aspects of how I live (i.e. the fish pond). I mean come on, if I can't even give up control at some little kiddie fish pond then I think that is a major conviction......don't know where I am really trying to go with this except that it was a HUGE wake up call and just one of the many things the Lord has brought out of me since I have been here.

Wake up call #2:

So this morning was Nea Zoi (The New Life Ministry). I had been looking forward to this all week (as this is something I want to pour myself into). Our entire team went this morning (usually we split up) so that everyone would possibly have the opportunity to be involved every Wednesday. Well we get there and pray and have our worship time to prepare our hearts for the day and then get split up into groups. Because there was such a large number of us, one group needed to stay back and pray for the teams (because too many people on the streets is not a good thing). Well I was chosen to stay back and pray..........pouting ensued (so silly now that I think about it). I was so upset that I "Me, me, me" only had one opportunity a week to go out and minister to these women, and my one opportunity was dashed as I was "stuck" praying (I know so selfish right). So a few of us who were left behind decided to get our blood flowing and we walked down to where the Nigerian prostitutes are located (because these were the women we wanted to specifically pray for). The more I walked and thought, the more I pouted. On our way back, Brit (one of the interns for Nea Zoi) started talking about how hard it was going to be to reach these Nigerian women and how much hard work and preparation was needed to get this part of the ministry off the ground (as these women work illegally on the streets and not in the brothels). So all in all, more safety measures are needed as well as more thought and prayer because these women are hesitant to talk to strangers for fear of being arrested. The more she talked to worse I felt about how selfish I had been. We headed back to Nea Zoi and split up the prayer requests and it was such a special time. We prayed specifically (by name) for some of the women who had been reached and we prayed for the team while they were on the field as well as other things that the Lord had laid on our hearts. So many times I forget the power of prayer and what a vital role it plays in the Christian faith. Chelsea was also part of the prayer group as well (I think she was a little pouty too) and we both just looked at eachother after our time like "wow, I would not have traded this time for anything else". Wake up call: New Life Ministry was started with prayer and my selfishness def. got the best of me today.

Thank you for your prayers and for reading this,

Caroline

Getting Our Hands Dirty

Saturday morning, we had the opportunity to do a little manual labor at a youth camp an hour north of the Bible Institute. The village it was in was Kalamos, and it was a quaint little seaside community. The camp is the same camp we will be working at our last whole week of our stay (end of July), and we will be helping getting it ready every Saturday till the little tikes arrive. We accompanied a local denist who attends First Evangelical named Takis (Tah-kees) who has been volunteering at the camp every Saturday for the past 3 years.

The main problem with relational ministry, for us, is the issue surrounding "fruits of your labor". You primarily plant seeds, interact for moments, and all with the hope that they might just lose some sleep that night thinking about it. It is rare to see things such as last Monday morning, with a full blown start to finish converted soul in a matter of days. This is our hope and desire for every encounter we have, and it becomes easy to be let down when anything less occurs. This being said: it felt better than jumping in a cool pool after mowing the yard in July being able to get our hands on a tangible project.

The girls spent the entire morning cleaning the kitchen, scrubbing toilets and sinks spotless, and other various "girlie" projects (haha). Us men had the privilege of sanding down the amphitheater bleachers and applying a lacquer to stain. Talk about seeing something through to the end! After a momentary souvlaki break, Takis assumed we were tired and hinted for us to pack up and go. Not so fast my friend! We motioned to stay, and I think that took him slightly offguard.

He did not hesitate and put us to work loading all the mattresses onto the bunks. There will be 190 kids at camp the first week, to give you an idea of how many of these bunks there were. The girls did a fanastic job pulling together and using those muscles. It actually became a sort of joyous activity as the end came into sight. I was very excited that the group had such a positive attitude towards something that most people would have complained about, and we knocked those mattresses clear out of the water.



The next day, we saw Takis at church and he insisted that we come over to his house that afternoon for lunch and a swim (a pool is a rare luxury here in Greece!). IT WAS GORGEOUS. His home sat on the top of a mountain overlooking the Aegean Sea, one of the more picture-esque places we have been. He said it was all the Lord's, and even the blessing of digging into a water reserve (this is like striking oil in Greece, as it is extremely dry). It was moving seeing a believer who thanked God in every blessing, even the blades of grass in his yard. We enjoyed an incredible meal and great fellowship with Takis and a few other members of the church, and he said we will be welcome back any time and thanked us continually for our hard work. We are extremely thankful for him as well.

Our new word: "skoulimigomeretripa" (a worm & ant hole).

In Him,
Austen Weatherly

Words of Praise and Goodbyes

Blessings from Greece (Prayers Have Been Answered)
Today we learned that one of the women whom Nea Zoi had been ministering to has left the brothel for good (she was actually on campus tonight.......we weren't there to greet her but others were). The New Life Ministry ran into her in one of the brothels last Monday night and she quickly expressed her desire to leave immediatley. The ministry arranged her pick-up time that night and had bought her some clothing (she had none). Praise the Lord!!! Her story is quite interesting so I will just summarize it. She was from Bulgaria and lived on the outskirts of town with her two young children and husband. She commuted to work everyday in the city and ended up falling in love with a different man. So, they escaped to Greece together (him giving her promises of a new and better life) and he ended up forcing her into prostitution (i.e. she was a trafficking victim). He stole all she had and left her with no money, papers, transportation, nothing. She explained that she was brought up a Christian but at that point in her life there were no other options. She met a Pakistani man while working and she fell in love with him (he was in the process of trying to get her out but was killed in a car accident). So with all hopes dashed, some ladies came in last Monday (to her brothel) just offering tea and words of encouragement. She asked the ladies what they were doing there and as soon as they shared the gospel with her she immediatley jumped on the opportunity to seek help. What a blessing to this woman and to the many hard workers in the Nea Zoi Ministry. They work so hard (many times not seeing the fruits of their labor but just trusting in the Lord) that it is such a blessing and encouragement to see the Lord's work first hand!!! Keep praying for this girl for she still struggles with the Lord's forgiveness as she states "So, how can I be forgiven more than I already am......I need to be forgiven more!!" Argyris was quick to respond tonight that you cannot be forgiven anymore, the Lord forgives you and there is hope in him for a new and better life. Wow, what a blessing to see this first hand. Just thought I would share some words of encouragement and let you all see first hand what the Lord is doing through this ministry.

On a different side of things, Brian and Lorrie are leaving tonight. Ron and his wife Deborah will be joining us tomorrow. We have learned so much from these two and are going to miss them terribly. As much as we joke and kid with the both of them, they have taught us some extremely valuable lessons. They have demonstrated through their own stories that the Lord has a plan for us better than we can ever have for ourselves. They are incredible examples of what it means to be a husband, wife, father, and mother and for that I am truly grateful. We are going to miss pow wows in the furnace room, short meetings that turn into extremely lengthy meetings (i.e. Brian's tangents), Eeyore (Brian) and Tigger (Glorrie), nutella on a stick (or French butter cookie), random conversations in French, Lorrie putting Brian in his place, and the end-less lessons of how not to get pick-pocketed (which Brian sacrificed himself as an example). Thank you guys for the sacrifices you have made for the Lord and as Lorrie would say it "I will see you again in heaven!!" Love you guys

Caroline Weatherly

First Day with New Life and Austen's Testimony

Once again, time has slipped away. I have so much to tell, so Austen and I have split up the past week so that we are able to share all that has gone on. I know that many of you are wondering about how Austen's testimony went (I know he won't agree but I was just as nervous as he was). He got up there and rocked it though. The church was filled to capacity with about 200 people (there was also a group of campus crusaders attending). A translator was repeating every word he said (which for me would have bothered me but he acted like it was no big deal). He started it out by saying "Hi, my name is Austen Weatherly, I was born 21 years ago with another person." This was preceded with a long pause and a questionable look from the translator...he presumed by saying "No, this is not a metaphor, I have a twin sister." Of course, many laughs were heard around the room (definitely a great ice breaker). He talked about how incredible our parents are (which is more than true), but how much of his life was spent escaping from the Lord (and how even Greece was an "escape") but how the Lord used that escape to draw Austen closer to him. I really appreciated the things he had to say and will be posting a video of his testimony (if he lets me) so that the rest of you can see how the Lord used him.

Some major things have happened since I last posted. Wednesday (June 10) was my first day with Nea Zoi (the New Life Ministry). I was excited to be apart of this ministry. To have a better understanding (as intrusive as it might be), I feel that I need to go into more detail into the organization of a brothel. Brothels in Greece are completely legal. A brothel can be spotted (day or night) with a white light outside of the door. In a single brothel, there is a madam and "the girl". The madam (all of whom are women in their later years of life 60+) is what you would call the pimp. When a customer comes through the door, she walks out and either sends the customer away (i.e if he is too young, Pakistani, or Muslim) or lets the customer see the girl. I cannot begin to describe how demoralizing this process is (for "the girl"). Men literally shop around until they decide on their "purchase". Once the madam calls the girl, she comes out (most of the time nude) and the man then decides if he wants to purchase her. I say all of that to describe how broken these women are. Much of a woman's value is placed on how she feels about herself on the outside. There are so many times in my own life where I place such a high value on how I look (so to have hundreds of men a day judge you for your looks is something I cannot grasp). Man, there is so much to say to describe what we are experiencing so I will just start from the beginning.

We arrived at Nea Zoi (located in the red light district) at around 10:30 a.m. There were two teams of five (with one male on each team). We met for about an hour before we went out on the streets. We prayed for some of the girls that many of the people had known for a long time and then prayed for the safety of our team while ministering. We ate breakfast and had worship time. All in all, collecting our thoughts and adjusted our hearts before we went out. The first brothel we came to I stayed outside to observe. Men were walking in and out of different brothels (as there were many brothels on one street) with shameless faces. Men of all ages and social classes. Their attitudes could be comparative of shopping for used cars (like a businesslike approach). That disgusted me without even having to go into the brothel. Two people go in (bearing gifts of Bibles, snacks, tea, condoms, contact info, etc) and the main goal is to build a relationship with these young women. Success means getting contact information and perhaps meeting up for coffee or dinner (which this rarely happens). Many of these girls are trafficked woman from various contries (Romania, Albania, Nigeria), who have been decieved into coming to Greece in search of a better life. The men who have taken them have stolen their papers and left them with nothing so that it is impossible for them to return to their home countries (so in return they end up living the life of a prostitue forever). One heart-wrenching story I was told was of a Romanian Christian couple. The couple had become so desperate for money that the husband forced his wife into prostitution. She became so mentally ill with the life that she had been forced into that the husband ended up leaving her (this is just one of the many stories to share). I was extremely nervous about going into my first brothel. I didn't know what I would do or say (there was a language barrier to bear in mind) and I had already been disgusted with the men I had seen on the street. So, It was my turn (I grabbed the basket of gifts) and followed one of the Greek speaking women into the brothel. It was dark when we went inside with various pictures on the wall (i.e porn) and there was a waiting room full of men. I didn't even look at the men and headed straight to the kitchen where the madam and the girl were sitting. The Greek missionary that I was paired with (Dona) quickly struck up a conversation with the madam. It is sad to say but the madam reminded me of a typical grandmother, neatly dressed and well-mannered. She told me I had beautiful eyes and was concerned about my safety (I don't know what that meant??). I know your probably thinking "Why would these madams want us to come and speak to the girls?" when our work could possibly cause them to lose these women. It is because these madams feel that if they allow us to come in and convert these women to Christ then that somehow gives them favor with the Lord (like what they are doing isn't just as bad as what the girls are doing). So they greet us with smiles and warm faces (so peculiar). As Dona was talking to the girl, she seemed very reserved and distant from the conversation. Since I couldn't really converse, I just observed my surroundings. It was ironic because the kitchen was filled with pictures of Jesus (I think that bothered me the most). The girl was also naked and she felt no shame. There was emptiness behind her eyes. Several times she got up during our conversation to "show" herself to new customers and came back (meaning they had turned her down). There was no emotion (these men had just rejected her because of the way she looked and she still had no emotion). As our conversation went no where, contact information was exchanged and we left for the next brothel (if the girls are not interested in talking with us then it is hard to force more conversation). The next brothel was much more encouraging. The girl we met with could speak broken English so I was able to relate to her (wish was a definite gift from the Lord). She was a bit reserved at first, but the more I smiled the more she opened up. She explained how the man she fell in love with brought her here and told her she would only be doing this for a short time (but he ended up stealing her papers and taking all of her money), so now she is on her own trying to raise enough money to make it back to Romania. She was such a beautiful girl with such a pretty smile. I just felt like scooping her up and taking her away because I could actually see the emotion in her (I know she hated what she was doing). She also got up several times to greet customers (but was rejected each time). When she returned she would explain that the men thought she was too fat (broke my heart). We didn't get to dig in too deep with her but she was extremely receptive to our conversation and we exchanged phone numbers (be praying for a coffee date!!). I know this was a lengthy post but these women are so broken and need to know that there is hope for a better life. Their mind sets are they have stooped to the lowest of lows (and make alot of money doing it) so why should they work a normal job. Pray for these women that they would have hope instilled in their hearts and that the Lord would mend these broken and beaten women. We are really wanting to pour ourselves into these women and are planning on going out on Wednesday mornings and Thursday nights (from 10-12). Thanks again for your time and can't wait to send more updates.

God Bless,
Caroline

The Past Week

Last Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed the company of a multitude of kids (probably 100+!) at a Festival we put on downtown in Athens. We did face painting, stilt racing, limbo, balloon animals, etc. for the local immigrant children with GREAT success. I taught a group of up and coming John Elways to throw the football, and it really caught on. My arm was blown by the end of the day, as all types of kids wanted to learn how to throw a spiral like we did (or more like Caroline did haha). The rest of the group really got in touch with a ton of various kids who knew small bits of English, and we were encouraged as they told us they'd like to come to the community center the next week.
I am going to skip ahead to our work this week (since I think Caroline wants to split the blog up on what we are telling, so keep in touch for her side of things). We continued doing research for Tim in regards to his church planting. We printed out a Google Maps satellite image of the area he is considering planting the church, and walked all the streets plotting down what kinds of businesses were there, what sorts of people, etc. That afternoon, we went back to our respected areas and "interviewed" the people who worked there. We asked them how long they worked there & if they liked working there, If they lived there and how long/like or dislike, etc. and finished up with a question regarding church planting and what who it take for them to seriously consider going inside. It got a wave of mixed results...some genuine interest in the thought, some negative responses, a ton of indifference, and other random ideas. People are very open to talk we have noticed though, even about religious matters.
We also visited the University of Athens, once again, yet this time it was open with a few students to talk to. We went around asking various groups of students two questions Tim chose. These were aimed at directing them to the idea of Jesus Christ: 1) What kind of leader do we need, 2) What kind of community to we need to achieve the life we desire. We recorded their responses and hoped for and open door of couriosity. Me and Thomas had a very favorable conversation with one group of guys, and even got to share the Gospel in a very serious discussion! We had to say goodbye since we were late to meet the group, but got their names and intend to Facebook them.
Caroline will tell you more about the Neo Zoi missions we did, but it was extremely eye opening as saddening to see the people here.
FUN POINT: The local director of the school here, Argyris Petrou, invited us to eat dinner with he and his family Monday night. IT WAS RIDICULOUS. They prepared pork chops and potatoes, with traditional Greek salads (Cucumbers, Peppers, Onions, and Tomatoes covered in Olive Oil and Vinegar and a mound of Feta cheese on top) and also this Feta casserole-type dish. I was blown away!! We had this amazing dessert (kind of like a spicy cake with this special type of ice cream made from butter fat? maybe I'm close...). Anyways, this also created an amazing opportunity to hear their life story and all the ways God was worked in their lives. This will have to be another blog, as it is incredibly lengthy, yet incredibly moving.
This week was filled with pretty menial tasks, yet important steps in establishing a foothold in the community. We were greatly encouraged by conversations that were held, and anxious to see what the next month and a half holds for us!

June 5th, 2009

Today was a little slower paced than anticipated.

A little background: the Universities in Athens are zoned so that police may not enter. This is to facilitate free speech, freedom of opinions and protests, etc. This also means that students have a basic run of the school and may decide to close it down as they please. They really have begun abusing this law, and it is best described by the endless display of graffiti on the buildings.

Today, as we have been doing the past few days, was dedicated to asking the students certain questions - hopefully leading to helpful data that is useful for our partner, Tim, who is planting a church here in the next few years. Tim, a Cambridge/Oxford scholar, has designed these questions with the aim at guiding them to an open mind about a possible "new" church.

However, we bused in the hour and a half to arrive to a locked up school building and a ghost town of students. This is the nature of student life in Greece: unstable. Many uber-political kids belonging to such groups as Communist (a surprising number of supporters actually), Anarchists (who were the cause of mass riots earlier in December), and Socialists frequent these places. So today we were left with a few hours not accounted for.

We decided to take advantage of this opportunity to go visit the well ornamented Greek Orthodox Church down the street and learn a little more about it. We walked in to an amazing, semi-temple looking building and observed the people in there. They walked around from image to image, crossing their hearts, saying a prayer, kissing the glass, and going to the next one. (It was actually kind of gross, as you could see the multitude of kiss marks smudged on the glass from the people before them). It was pretty surreal, yet sad at the EXTREMELY apparent legalism of the Church.

That night, we split up and went to the two community centers belonging to the two churches we were serving. I went to the center for the 2nd Evangelical, and Caroline went to the center for the 1st. We started with a time of prayer, and then the kids began piling in. Immigrant children belonging to soo many nationalities (Pakistani, Albanian, Bulgarian, etc) were running around playing games. This one kid named Mufahsa (YES, just like Lion King) taught me, Rachel, and Emily this new game called Jungle Speed without any common language. It was actually neat to see us catch on and have fun without ANY words being exchanged. High fives were going all over the place and laughter as I kept messing up and getting all the cards sent my way for punishment was common. I played futbol (foosball) with some Albanian kids and got killed! Rachel gave her testimony and taught them how much Jesus has meant to her in her life, and it garnished some good responses. I learned later that the little girls thought I was a "hunk" and were more well behaved than usual (haha). We really had a great time as we found the language of "fun" is universal. We made it home around 11:30 (about standard here in Greece). Please pray for our patience as we must travel 3 hours every day to get to and from Athens...our human nature tends to feel as this time being "wasted", but in reality it is opening opportunities not existing back at the Bible School.

Εφηαστοωε (Thank You) and God Bless,
Austen Weatherly