the Hot Pot

Right now it is 7:30 in the AM. I normally wouldn't be up this early but I have been experiencing a bit of rumbling in my bowels, which I had to address a little while ago. Last night a bunch of us, me, Mom, Emily and about 14 of her friends, went out to dinner for the infamous "Hot Pot". I didn't know what to expect, just that it was good and also somewhat spicy. Now, I can handle spice, so I wasn't too concerned about that, but I kept getting hints that this could possibly destroy my stomach, so I was still a bit weary going into it.

However, I have been gung ho about pretty much everything we've eaten or that's been offered me (I've already eaten sheep brains, fermented eggs, cooked flowers, chicken parts, among other things) so I was ready to eat whatever was before me. Hot Pot is somewhat like a fondue restaurant. There were large bowls sitting in the middle of our table that were hooked up to a heater. The bowls were divided into two kinds of oil...the spicy and non-spicy. In the non-spicy were some vegetables and a raw fish soaking to create flavor and in the spicy were these red hot looking pepper things...it looked like some sort of death brew, dark red and full of ominous looking things.

People started passing around this yogurt drink and I was encouraged to take a swig. Apparently it helps line your stomach to keep the intense oil from the hot pot messing you up too bad. So it isn't necessarily the spice that gets you, it's just the richness of the oil...though the spice helps the process I'm sure.

Once the oils got hot we started putting all sorts of meats and veggies in to cook them. Beef, black chicken, little sausages and meatballs, potatoes, tofu, seaweed, sprouts, and a bunch of other things I didn't know the name of. Emily told me that I needed to eat from the spicy pot, so I did. And it was really good. Sometimes I would get a veggie that had really soaked up a lot of spice and it would be rough to the taste buds, but other than that I really loved the spicy stuff and ate from it most of the meal. Once things started rising to the top of the oil it meant that they were ready to eat. So you just reach in with your chopsticks, grab whatever it is you want, and put it in your little bowl of oil, then after letting it cool off you partake. (And, by the way, eating in China is great because everything that would be considered rude in the U.S. is perfectly normal in China...like making noise while eating, putting elbows on the table, slouching to put your mouth close to the bowl, picking off peoples plates, and reaching around others. It's so awesome!)

The Hot Pot really was delicious. I even added cow stomach and pig throat to my list. The pig throat was certainly the weirdest thing I've eaten thus far...like eating a rubber band, took me forever to get it down.

It was a good night. Met some really awesome people. I'm envious of my sister's crowd of friends...I would love being a part of that group. I finished the evening playing Ticket to Ride (if you've never played before you've got to try it!) and I won again...I won on Saturday night as well so my international record is 2-0.

But then I woke up this morning at 6 feeling that the bowels were in distress. And I ended up pooping out a completely green poop...never seen that before in my life. So I blame the Hot Pot for that, though it was pretty cool.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the city center and a Buddhist temple called Manjushri at the Wenshu Monastery. It has been so cool to see such a BIG city filled with so many temples and cultural sections. Another interesting observation is that Chinese people hate the heat...actually they really just hate the sun. They want their skin to be as light as possibly so they use umbrellas, stand in the shade, wear gloves or weird hats...they really hate the sun.

A couple of other cool things that we got to do yesterday were, 1) ride the subway and 2) ride in a three wheeled cart. The subway system is brand new and is certainly the nicest one that I have seen or been in. Awesome new technology that is brilliant for a subway line. The three wheeled cart thing is this motorcycle that has a little cart attached to the back like a mini-taxi. It was a pretty fun ride, especially with all three of us piled in the back.

I was actually able to download a video of yesterday! Found some faster internet. Check it out.

Monday we went to see the Panda's...and it was pretty awesome. Our driver, Yang Bing, was a phenomenal tour guide and he took us to a spot away from the tourists where there were 6 pandas all frolicking around. The Pandas really were fun to observe. The Chinese love panda bears. It is their national animal. They pamper these things like crazy. It was a pretty cool place...basically a zoo of Pandas, Red Pandas, peacocks, swans, other birds and Coy catfish. The lake where the catfish were was crazy...there were so many of them wriggling all over the place trying to get in line for food from tourists throwing in little pellets. All those pandas got us in the mood for Kung Fu Panda 2, so we decided to go to the theater that night to watch it since it was still being played in English.

Here's another gem of a video:


We ate dishes that night, again phenomenal. Egg and tomato dish, fried eggplant dish, and cabbage and pork dish and then walked around a nice little park where I bought a couple of DVDs for 75 cents a piece. We then went to see Kung Fu Panda and it was hilarious...made it even more special to watch a movie set in China while sitting in a movie theater in China!

Well, that's all for now.

-b garrison

China: Day 2

Day two was another great day. Another cloudy/polluted looking sky day. At this point I could really feel the pollution in the air...it was affecting my eyes and throat a bit.

I slept in until about 9 AM which was really nice. We ate a bit of breakfast and left by 10 for the Qingyang Temple, an old Taoist temple on the west side of town.

Going to the Taoist temple was a really incredible experience for me. It was kind of surreal to be surrounded by so much in my face darkness, a religion that is so blind and lost. Granted not many people are still religiously devout but much of the superstition and ritual are still very present among young and old. Several people came in burning incense to appease certain gods, of which there was a separate building for each. The architecture was beautiful. Everything you'd think an ancient Chinese temple to look like.

From the temple we went to eat lunch and we had noodles again...not the Muslim noodles that we had the day before, but the traditional Chinese noodle dish. It looked like a big bowl of Ramen, honestly, but it was SO much better than that. And so much food too. I was surprised I finished it all. After lunch we went across the street to a Art/History museum where we checked out some of the exhibits, which were really cool. And we walked in thinking it was free, though we found out later that it wasn't...however, Chinese people won't confront foreigners if you play the dumb card according to my sister. And they didn't confront us. Funny.

We then went to my sister's university where she had class and dropped her off. We wandered around a bit while she was in language class and saw the normal student life around the campus. We stumbled upon a bunch of elderly people playing some sort of croquet game and they seemed really intense about it. Mom and I went to a cafe type place a couple of blocks away that my sister referred and spent some time there reading and then met up with Emily at the end of her class.

Her tutor taught us some Chinese phrases and mentioned that I had a bit of knack for it, though I don't think I did too well. That was pretty fun though. I learned "ce suo" which means toilet. Crucial. After class we met with Emily's old tutor who bought us dinner at a northeastern Chinese dish place...also awesome. It seemed like a sketchy place to eat, but at this point I had gotten used to that.

After dinner we went to TV night at a family's house that are friends of my sister and watched a couple of old episodes of So You Think You Can Dance. And that was day two.

I am hoping to write about our Saturday trip to the farm by tomorrow. Saturday was certainly the highlight of my trip thus far. And Sunday's trip to Jinli Street was also really enjoyable. Overall, I have had such a great trip and I've been able to meet some amazing people who blow me away. China is such a unique experience...and I have been doing a poor job explaining it thus far. You really cannot describe the feeling that this country offers. God is good. He is allowing me to look into this culture and learn much about my life and my heart, my passions and idols and how God wants to use me for the future.

in Him,

-b garrison

China: Day 1

I am back in my sister's apartment today after a very enjoyable morning at the Panda Research Center. The capital of the Panda Bear habitat in China...the panda is certainly China's beloved animal. It was pretty sweet. But I'll get to that later on. I will also note that trying to upload one video on YouTube or a dozen pictures is showing up to take at least "230 minutes" which is not what I was expecting. Therefore, videos and pictures might not come until Hong Kong and the States...unfortunately. But I will see what I can do.

So my mom and I left Beijing early Thursday morning on Hainan Airlines...a local airline leaving from the domestic terminal. People taking our tickets looked at us twice to make sure we were in the right place, seeming to say, "Are you sure you want to be here? Are you in the right place?" We were definitely the only foreigners on our plane. They put us on a stand up bus to get to our plane on the tarmac. They kept filling the bus up until you would be absolutely certain there was no more space available and then they would pile in a few more. Mom and I got on after about three of these instances...I jumped on the bus shoving a few guys into the mass of humanity standing helplessly without a pole or handle above them. Mom looked at me and said, "Are you serious?" I'm pretty sure she was the last one in, plastered against the door like a wall ornament.

We got to the plane, which was huge...8 seats across and 45 rows deep, and once the doors of the bus opened it was a mad dash up the stairs into the plane. There was no line. In fact,m I'm pretty sure since I have been here I have yet to see any resemblance of a line. And I've loved that, actually! The plane was very comfortable, plenty of leg room and a larger than usual video screen in each persons seat with plenty of movies and TV shows to watch.

After our 3 hour flight we arrived in my sister's city eagerly anticipating her friendly face and exciting smile. Once we got to our baggage, we could see Emily outside the gate eagerly waiting and waving at us. I grabbed our bags and tried to catch up to my mom who was running out the gate. And I tried to document the embrace on camera but I couldn't get there in time. I will say, it was SO good to see Emily, and so great to see her and Mom greet one another on Emily's home turf.

We jumped outside to grab a taxi and I was again thrown into the thrilling roller coaster ride that is the Chinese traffic world. It was crazy, yet again. Several times I could have slapped another driver in the face we were so close to other cars. Here's the thing I've observed about driving around big Chinese cities: 1) There are no rules. People go through red lights, drive the wrong way down a one way street, don't drive within the lanes, do not give pedestrians the right of way and park anywhere they can. 2) You must honk your horn at least 5 times per minute. OK that's an exaggeration, but there is so much honking of horns. If anyone is in your way and you are going faster, or if you are driving through a red light or going the wrong way down a street, honk your horn and people will get out of the way. 3) There is always traffic. I haven't noticed a difference to rush hour and calm traffic, though my sister says there is. There is always a huge amount of cars, scooters, buses, taxis, bikes, pedestrians, and all sorts of other transportation devices.

Anyways, we began driving closer to the heart of the city. And, while it's true that people are everywhere in China, I could definitely tell that the amount of people was increasing as we got closer and closer to the center of a city which holds 13 million people. Everything was still so new to me, so I was snapping pictures of buildings, signs with Chinese characters, traffic, dudes carrying huge bags of you name it on the back of their scooters...

Finally, we arrived at my sister's apartment complex, where she lives, but also the location of the apartment we were all going to be staying in for the next week. It is a large complex of about 8-12 buildings, maybe about 16-18 stories each, no elevators, and a big pool in the middle that you have to pay to use. After getting settled in a bit we were hungry for lunch and Emily wanted to take us to get Muslim noodles, a dish originating from northwestern Islamic Chinese peoples. This place was awesome! Only 6 yuan (or kuai which is the slang term, like "bucks") for a bowl, which is equivalent to around 90 cents. And it was a huge bowl of noodles, which can be fat or thin, with any kind of meat and sauce, just not pork. So much great food to eat for less than a dollar! I loved watching the guy made the noodles by hand, it was fascinating to see how he made each noodle, which originated from a large roll of dough. I have a video, but it'll have to wait I suppose. This was also my first time to use chop sticks in a very long tie, and honestly I have never really been able to use them before. But I am committed on this trip to not use any utensil but them and I hope I am getting better. I have been complimented twice by locals that I am doing pretty well...probably made fun of many more times.

I forgot to mention that to get to the noodle place we got there by way of scooter and bike. This certainly fulfilled my Chinese bucket list of riding a bike in the midst of traffic. My sister drove her scooter with my mom sitting on the back and I got to ride Emily's bike, pedaling hard to keep up with her while avoiding cars, pedestrians, bikes and mopeds going every which way. Often a bike would come in from a side street and try to zoom in front of me or a scooter would be going against the flow of traffic and you wouldn't see him until he was a foot in front of you. And often a taxi will make a turn through a red light and force his way through pedestrian traffic which would split me up from Emily and Mom and I would have to book it to catch up. Here I am talking about the traffic again...the thing is, it is SO unique, it continually blows my mind.

Anyways, after noodles we went the the outdoor market which was another sight to be seen. We are in no touristy location, by the way...this is my sister's world in the midst of the city, everyday, normal China. Which is what made it feel all the more raw for me. We stood out like sore thumbs everywhere we went the first couple of days because we were the only foreigners around. The market was filled with everything you would expect it to have, fruits and veggies galore. Plenty of stuff I didn't recognize. There were huge bags of rice, eggs, spices, etc. But there was much more that would wouldn't necessarily expect to see. Like huge slabs of meat hanging from a big rack outside the meat shops...several buckets of fish and eels alive in water, a cage of big frogs also alive, pig snouts and chicken feet unpleasantly sitting in an ice box. It was a pretty cool experience.

From there we took our goods back to the apartment and then went for a little walk around the neighborhood. Visited a few shops and stores that Emily frequents, went into the large Carrefore, which is like a WalMart and a mall combination to see more unique foods, a KFC, a ton of people...

At that point my mom was starting to feel the sleepiness...I was convinced that I was totally fine until we put on a movie in the apartment and all three of us fell asleep. I woke up and drowsily made my way outside to meet up with some of my sister's friends for dinner. We went to a place close by that served what Emily calls, "dishes". Local Sichuan dishes are amazing! There are some weird flavors and interesting mixtures, but overall the food was phenomenal...and it is NOTHING like Chinese food back in the States. I now know what REAL Chinese food tastes like, and I'm very thankful for that. My sister's roommate (a national) was telling us how upset she was that they don't get Chinese food right in the U.S. And now I completely see what she means by that...it's not even close. The food has definitely been one of the best things about China thus far.

Once back at the apartment, I jumped in bed and passed out until the morning. It was beautiful.


-b garrison

China

 Hello everyone!

I wish it hadn't taken me so long to post here...I am just now completing my fourth full day here and there is so much I could write about. So because my time is short and because internet here is extremely slow I will write about my first two and a half days. Tomorrow I will complete the rest. Also, because the internet is so slow right now, I am unable to download hardly any pictures and no videos. So you'll just have to wait for those until tomorrow when I can get on some faster internet speed.

Alright. China. Such an overwhelming experience to take in so quickly. Nothing could have prepared for what I have experienced these past few days...and I have loved it!

On Tuesday evening I met up with my mom in the Seattle airport. Her gate was right next to our departure gate, which was pretty sweet. We left the states at 7 PM Eastern Time and braced ourselves for an 11 hour flight...of which we were served one meal and the video player was broken so we saw the same episode of Big Bang Theory 6 times and no movies. However, I was able to do some good journaling, a bit of reading, and a little napping here and there. We arrived in Beijing around 10 PM local time on Wednesday and it really didn't seem too out of the ordinary for me time-wise. Honestly, I think jet lag wore off by Friday, which was a lot better than I was expecting. 

Mom and I arrived in the Beijing airport and went through customs fairly quickly and harmlessly (you always think something is going to go wrong and you'll be stuck in this weird limbo of not being allowed in the country but unable to get back home or something...or maybe that's just me) and I got my China passport stamp! We picked up our luggage and made our way out to the main lobby to find our shuttle bus to our hotel, which after a bit of asking around we were able to find. On that same shuttle was a very nice local girl who was coming back from college in the States and she allowed us to use her cell phone to call my sister. 

All this time I am trying to allow everything to soak in. I am in China. There are people everywhere...the place is bustling. Everyone is staring at me, I certainly stick out being tall and white. There are so many people and we are the only white people to be seen. No one speaks English. We walk outside and you can smell and feel the pollution. The sky is red in the light of the city with a heavy haze which is unlike anything I have ever seen. There are a couple of huge video screens on the side of the road playing commercials. We walk to the bus and I almost get hit by two taxis, having to carry my mom's luggage I'm not as agile as normal, but honestly, these dudes are just driving like maniacs. It was evident that I was in a completely different world.

The shuttle ride to the airport was CRAZY. Our driver was ridiculous! Cutting people off, coming within inches of bikers and honking at everything moving. I was loving it. We got to the hotel and I was really pleased at the room. The shower was awesome! and it was very modern and comfortable. One thing I didn't realize was that I could not drink the water from the tap here, which I should have known, but somehow I guess I didn't view China the way I see it now. I also thought I would be able to use a credit card in some stores, but China is still very much a cash society, which really surprised me.

I got a few hours of sleep and we woke up around 5:30 the next morning to get to the airport and catch our next plane to go see my sister. On this flight I am certain that we were the only foreigners...kind of hilarious. Getting on the plane was a stampede like I have never experienced before and getting off the plane just as crazy. I have a video I am hoping to upload soon of the madness.

Well, this is taking me much longer than I expected so I will write much more in the next two days...

Until then, I will just tell you that I am loving China. It is hard for me to explain, but it has been such an awesome experience...every bit of it. I have met some amazing people, seen some really cool things, gone to temples and museums, rode a bike through crazy traffic, played games with locals, picked peaches at a farm, eaten some amazing food, hiked through some mountains, learned some Chinese phrases, been stared at a lot (many pictures taken of me, people pointing, etc.) and overall I have been blown away at my sister's world and so impressed by her love of the country, the people and her skill in the language (we'd be lost without her, seriously).

Much love. I will keep updating in the next few days.

-b garrison

Hello, Seattle.

I have about 15 minutes to write so I will make this quick...

Well, today is the day. I am meeting my mom in the Seattle airport and we will fly to Beijing nonstop this evening. I am pretty pumped...this morning it finally set in.

I flew into Seattle on Saturday morning after getting a ride to the Atlanta airport the previous night, which was a fun adventure in itself. I got to Atlanta around 11 PM and my flight wasn't leaving until 5:30 in the AM. So I just woandered around a bit. Funny thing happened; I ran into an old friend who went to Covenant who just returned from Costa Rica with a buddy and they gave me all the rest of their fruit bars (which was a real blessing because I was starving). So that set the tone for my trip...I knew God was going to bless it and some cool things were going to happen. I slept for about 3 hours in the airport, then got on the plane to Charlotte and from Charlotte to Seattle.

In Seattle I was picked up by an good friend of my dad and uncle's, (they lived together in Portland for a while) Andy, whose family I was staying with while I was in town. It was an incredible blessing to get to spend time with Andy and hear awesome and hilarious stories of my dad and his brother in Hawaii or in Portland. I greatly appreciated the entire Northrop family for taking me in and giving me a great experience.

On Saturday Andy and another friend of my dad's, Dave, took me through West Seattle to Alki Beach where we had some fish and chips at Spud's. It was a gorgeous day in Seattle...no clouds whatsoever. The Olympic mountains were gorgeous that day. And tons of people were out. I loved that atmosphere at the beach. Then that night we had a great dinner cooked by Terri, Andy's wife...after I fell asleep for a couple of hours on the couch.

Sunday morning after church I went with Anna (their daughter) and her boyfriend, Jeremy, to a Seattle Mariners game...forever my favorite sports team. And it was awesome! Safeco field is amazing and the Mariners won! From there we hung out a bit and went bowling that night. The next day I slept in a bit and then went with Anna and Jeremy to the Waterfront downtown and the famous Pike Place Market which was pretty sweet. I really loved the Market and the environment that it brought. And the weather was still beautitful! Warm and sunny. tons of people were out, many street performers, the fish tossers were throwing fish around, the hippies were selling their art, the produce was fresh and amazing, etc.

And one really cool experience was the gum wall. A huge wall where everyone has put their gum over the years.

Today I walked around the marina here in Des Moines and spent some time on the Puget Sound. Terri made some amazing salmon for us. And now, I'm about to head out the door to the airport. So, here we go...next post will be coming from the Orient.

-b garrison

the Summer Adventure

I want to start by saying that my summer this year will not be nearly as epic as last year's trip to Australia, Fiji and New Zealand; however, I will say that it will still be pretty sweet. And I'm really excited about it all.

Tomorrow night I will get a ride down to Atlanta to catch a flight to Seattle, which leaves at 5 AM. I will spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Seattle with one of my dad's old roommates and then on Tuesday I am meeting my mom in the airport and we will fly to Beijing, China, nonstop. I am super pumped for this trip because my mom and I are going to visit my sister who I haven't seen in a year and a half. We'll get to see where she's been living and going to school, meet her friends, etc. Simply getting to see her life is so exciting for me.

We're going to spend about a week around her area and then travel to the Guilin and Yangshuo area for a few days and then finish in Beijing where we will visit the Forbidden City and Great Wall. From there my mom will fly back to the States and my sister will go back to her city, while I will go on to Hong Kong for about 12 hours (which should be enough time to explore) and then fly to Seoul for 9 hours (which may be pushing it) and then to LAX. From there I will fly to Chattanooga via Charlotte and get in just before midnight of the same day...crazy how that international dateline thing works. Anyway, the plan is to really explore as much of Hong Kong and Seoul as I can, we shall see how that ends up. In the end it may just be a really bad idea, but I'm going for it. To see more details you can go to my Upcoming Travels page above.

Here's a map:

 

View Summer 2011 in a larger map

So much has been happening so fast here at Covenant that I haven't really had time to let my trip sink in. I can't believe it's already time for me to go to China...I probably should start packing. Part of the craziness has to do with me preparing to leave Covenant, a place I have been for 6 years, and moving forward with life. It is both sad and exciting. I got a job as a Youth Director at my church in downtown Chattanooga and am really excited about that. The last few weeks have consisted in me ironing out the details before I leave because the day I return I am getting thrown into the madness. I also, just last week, signed a lease on an apartment closer to my church, which was a pretty big deal for me. The place is just a bunch of boxes right now and will be for a while since I'll be gone most of June, but I'm excited for what it will be.

Anyways...this was just a quick update about my summer and what is soon to come. I hope to be posting on this blog frequently as I travel from place to place and I would ask that you would be praying for myself, my mom and my sister as we travel around together. I appreciate your prayers...


Much love.
-b garrison

RECAP: Athens, Greece (the third time)

Hello, everyone.

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!


in Him,

-b garrison