This is just a quick post to share with you a bit about my trip to Athens, Greece, back in the first week of March. I don't have nearly the adequate amount of time it would take to describe this trip. It was certainly incredible and much of the experience was really beyond words.
This was my third time travelling to Athens during Spring Break with Covenant's RUF group. The first year I went as a college senior and the last two times I have been a staff leader. It has truly been phenomenal to be a part of these trips. Each year I have been able to walk away with life changing experiences and memories that will always stick with me. My first two trips to Greece were very different from each other...both incredible, but just very different in the experience. This year was no exception, as I found myself stuck in the midst of familiarity, yet experiencing things from a completely different point of view...and some things were absolutely new experiences for me.
This year we had the opportunity to stay in a hotel in the dead centre of downtown, about 3 blocks away from the First Evangelical Church who we were partnering with. I could see the Acropolis right outside my window which was a beautiful setting at night, with the ambiance of a lively city surrounding us. Because of our location we walked everywhere and at times took public transportation to get to areas further outside the middle of Athens. I thought I already knew Athens pretty well from my previous two years, but I really got to know the city this year. I remember taking a walk one afternoon when we had a couple free hours. From my previous years I have learned how to dress to fit in to the environment there...wear dark clothes; a dark shirt with a black jacket and some really dark jeans with dark shoes. Anyways, I was blending in just walking around and some American tourists asked me for directions and if I would take a picture of them. They said, Excuse me, do you speak English?" and while I debated messing with them a bit I just responded, "Yes. Yes I do", which was met with a surprised look on their faces.
Some of the things we did this year were pretty remarkable. Not that we made a huge difference and 'changed the world' or anything like that, but it was remarkable that we were able to participate in some of these ministries. Just witnessing what these people were doing was amazing enough. But we found ourselves getting thrown into the thick of it every time. The first day our group went to this local resort place with the members of the church because it was a Greek holiday...the first day of lent. It was incredible to get to spend time with the church body, eat a meal with them, play soccer with the kids and fly kites (a traditional festivity of this holiday). I met a guy named Orestis at this gathering. Orestis is just a couple of years younger than me and I got into some good conversation with him. We ended up hanging out quite a bit for the rest of the week which was really a blast. It was a blessing to get to know him, such a great guy.
The next day we went to a ministry called Helping Hands in a section of the city called Omonia. This was the immigrant and refugee part of the city...primarily Muslim peoples from Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan made up the majority, but there are many other Eastern European, African and Arab peoples there as well. Omonia feels like a completely different country than downtown Athens, for sure. Helping Hands is a ministry to the refugees in this area. They provide meals, showers, clothings, etc for families in need and the way that they do their ministry is incredibly impressive. Each member of our group got assigned a task...mine was a floater, just going around and starting conversations with any of the Muslim men who spoke English. Of course, it's always a bit awkward to be standing in the midst of a hundred Arabic peoples, very few of which speak English, and try to start a conversation with someone...however, I immediately began a conversation with a guy named Hussein who was 24, like me, and from Pakistan. His English was very good, but still incredibly choppy. This was a conversation I will never forget. Hussein cut to the chase...he wanted to know my opinion of God. He told me that he was stuck in between Christianity and Islam...he saw truth in both, but also saw faults in both. He really just wanted to know the truth. It was absolutely mind blowing that I had gotten into this conversation with Hussein, completely led by the Spirit. I learned so much from Hussein about his culture, his family, about his Shia upbringing, about his problems with the Christian faith and what he understood of its theology. I shared with him a bit trying to give a satisfactory summary to his questions. It is incredibly difficult to talk theology in a very broken and primitive form of English, but somehow we managed it. Eventually, I just asked if I could pray with him and he agreed, and that was such a blessing. I met another man, named Orian who was from Iran and had been stuck in Greece for 3 years trying to get to England. We sat and drank a few cups of tea and chatted about all sorts of things...Orian was very curious of what America was like, he had so many questions for me.
You can check out Helping Hands here:
http://www.helpinghands.gr/en/about.htm
Later in the week we were able to participate in another mind-blowing ministry, which does outreach on the dirty streets of Omonia to trafficked prostitutes. The women go and chat with the girls, bring them tea and cookies and try to create a basis of longterm trust. The guys walk the sides of the streets as protectors and watchdogs, keeping an overall awareness of the surroundings and safety of the girls. This particular night our group went with the people of this ministry, Nea Zoi, to the street where the Nigerian women worked. It was incredibly heart breaking to see so many girls, really young girls, trying to run down cars and get their money, hoping a guy would pick them up. However, I will say never I have seen a group of people model Jesus as well as the group of ladies we had talking and ministering to those girls on the streets and outside the brothels. And never have I ever felt more masculine fulfilment than I did that night as a "bodyguard". One time I had to get in the way of some drunk guy who wanted a closer look at the white women...it was an adrenaline rush for sure. But it was amazing to hear that our girls never once felt in danger. I'm not going to go into all the things that Nea Zoi does, but I will say that they are an incredible ministry who have established themselves for years in this community. There biggest hope is that this small exposure would capture our hearts to pray for them and their ministry.
You can check out their website here:
http://neazoi.org/
The other bulk of our time was spent going into universities and having conversations with students about various different things...ultimately we were there to try to plug people into the church through an event we were doing called Expressing Hope. We would ask university students what they found hope in, and express a bit of our passions. I found that several people we talked to just loved practicing their English which was a great avenue for good conversation. One of my Greek friends (who I have gotten to know well from the last few years), whose name is Christos, had a friend that he wanted me to talk to. One day when we were at the philosophy university Christo told me, "Ben, I want you to talk with a friend of mine. He will not listen to me, but maybe he will take you more seriously if you invite him to the church and share with him what you believe." So we left the rest of the group and met up with Thannasis. We grabbed a coffee (cafe nes) and chatted a bit about our interests, what America is like, what Greece is like, what the education systems are like in our countries, about film and TV shows, sports, about religion, and eventually about what Thannasi believes. While we didn't agree on a basis for God, he did agree with my concept of hope...that we can catch glimpses of hope and beauty around us and that ultimately that has to come from something outside of us. While Thannasis didn't come to church while I was out there, I hope that my conversation was helpful for he and Christos' friendship. It was so cool to see the partnership I was able to have with Christo in sharing the Gospel with his friend and how my comfortability and experience in Greece were very influential in allowing me to have many long, deep and fruitful conversations with those God put in my path.
We did so much more than I was able to share. Explored Athens, went to Corinth and viewed the ancient ruins among other beautiful sites, hung out with Christo and George at a pub and watched the Barcelona vs Arsenal game late one night, ran into a Jehovah's Witness gathering with Joel by accident, had group devotions on the Areopagus (Mars Hill) with the guys, ran around the track of the 1896 Olympic Stadium, ate some INCREDIBLE suvlaki (aka gyros), spent some really quality time with our Covenant group....it was an amazing time.
Below are two videos summarizing our trip there. The first is a picture slideshow and the second is a compilation of videos from our group.
Shortly I will be updating you on my upcoming trip. I leave in 6 days. Crazy. Until then...have a blessed day. Thank you for all your prayers and support for my trip to Greece. It was a life changing and absolutely phenomenal trip. God is good and his goodness carries throughout the nations!
