Recap day 2

Our second day in Greece was my favorite and the reason I still wish I was there. On that day we were headed to help with refugees with a group called "Helping Hands". On our way there the sky was a weird shade of orange, and was raining. This was not your normal rain, it was mud falling from the sky if you can imagine that, as the Pastor said " it was like one of the Egyptian plagues". Later to find out that it was doing this because of sandstorms in Egypt. Odd as all this was we made it to the place. The bus that was taking us there could not drive straight up to the building. It had to let us off a few blocks from the place where a man met us to take us to the place we needed to be at. As we walked with him we started to see a lot of refugees start to crowd the streets. We were almost at the place when I saw something I thought I never would. There were people shooting on whatever drug they could get a hold of in Athens. This was horrifying, even more so when we learned that these people could not or did not want to go back to their home country. And they were not able to get a job in Greece, because they had no identity at all the only people who knew who they were was themselves and their family. They had no chance at a normal life and one of security. A group of us went on a prayer walk and another stayed to help with the refugees. I was in the first group to go on the prayer walk. It was a very hard thing. As we walked we saw all of these refugees in the street and the sex shops lining the streets. Prostitution is legal in Greece and is also tolerated. This was one of the hardest things to learn about. When we got back to Helping Hands we switched jobs with the other group. Me and Josh were there to just sit and talk with some of the refugees there. We were told by Drew a person in the other group to go talk to these two guys named Sam and Javad. These guys both were from Afghanistan. As soon as me and Josh walked up Sam got us chairs and Javad got us some tea to drink. These simple actions blew my mind. I was there to serve them and they were serving me. I later thought about that situation more. We sat with them and talked and learned a lot about both of them. Sam always was trying to make us laugh. They both left to go get some food and we went and started talking to some more people. They later came back and sat with me, Josh and Drew. Javad started asking Drew about this little book on the table that was in some sort of Arabic. Drew asked him what it said, it was a translation of the book of Luke. Drew was able through that little question to start sharing at least a little bit of the gospel. We do not know if he understood but we pray everyday that through some way that he did and would be able to find God, a God that loves. This little thing makes me want to go back and be able to talk to him a little more.

Recap

This is a recap of my experience on the mission trip to Greece over my Spring Break. From the moment we left Chattanooga I knew that a lot of things were about to change. What I didn't know is how much. It took a good deal of time to final land in Athens,Greece. And by the time we did we were all dead tired.
Our first true day in Athens we had the privilege to attend Sunday service at the 1st Evangelical Church of Athens. It was beautiful and an amazing sight. We had to wear these headsets that translated the sermon for us. It was odd not knowing what was being said without them. The biggest struggle for me was not being able to sing because I can't speak Greek, but being able to listen to my brothers and sisters in Christ in their language was an experience I will not easily forget. After the service they had a lunch for us in the church where we got to eat with the other RUF groups and a few Greek students that attend this church. After for the rest of the day we got to explore Athens. My group went to the Acropolis Museum with a couple of the Greek guys from the church. Some of the group had to go and exchange their currency and while they did that I got a chance with another guys from my group to talk to the guys. They tired teaching us a few Greek phrases that we could use. They also, told us of some thing that are rude to do in Greece that we wouldn't think was. We spent a couple hours in the museum looking at the art and artifacts. We then followed our leader to see something. I don't remember if we ever got to see it; he wasn't that good with a map. Even so, we got to wander about the city and fellowship with one another. We also, ran into some of the best dogs you could possibly find. They followed us for the rest of the day and barked at and ran after anything they thought would harm us, it was a strange thing. That is what went on my first day in Greece.