We Made It!

We made it safe and sound with no problems. Sorry we haven’t been able to send an update sooner. We spent the day in Athens on Sunday and traveled to the camp on Monday. Since then we have been busy setting up camp, cleaning EVERYTHING, making beds, setting up tents, working in the kitchen, prepping all the crafts for the women and children, and bonding as a team!

The camp is an incredible work of God. We have heard testimonies of men who were baptized last week from Afghanistan, Syria and Iran. We are also working alongside teams from Sweden, South Africa, Brazil, and other ministries including The Helping Hands & Oasis. All this is conjunction with Hellenic Ministries.

The refugees have been here since Wednesday. Since they have arrived, our schedule has included worship time, discussion groups, craft time for the kids, swimming in the sea, and lots of fun games and activities. Our team has taken on many duties such as meal preparation and serving, waterfront patrol, washing dishes and cleaning bathrooms, and directing activities and crafts. We’ve had many interesting encounters with spiders, snakes, large beetles, and glowing phyto-plankton.

The refugee families are from Afghanistan and Iran, and many of them are separated from family members, whom they have sent on ahead of them to countries like Germany—in hopes that they will be reunited someday. They are all very sweet and eager to build friendships, and the children are especially energetic and excited about everything.

Please continue to be in prayer for the relationships we are developing here, and that the Lord would provide the energy we need to continue serving with joy. Our time here is over halfway over, and we want to make the most of these remaining days! Thank you all for your prayer and support!  

We got through security!

HERE WE ARE, Dave is of of course behind the camera! We got through security at the PTI Airport in front of the ACC wall. Waiting for our flight through Philly and then on to Athens. We should get in at 9:15am over there which will be 2:15am EST over here.

LOVE

THE GREECE TEAM

* will are still working on our team name :)

We are packed up and ready to go!!

Well it's time to pack it up and head to Greece. We had our final meeting on Thursday night to organize and pack up all the supplies we are taking with us. Here are some pictures of the creative packing job we did!

Here are the beautiful bracelets that Jordan's neighbor made for the team to pass out to the women. Each bracelet was specifically prayed for and the only thing that was asked in return was for a picture of the women wearing the bracelets so the small group could continue to pray for them.

                 We are also taking sandals, Crocs, soccer balls, crafts, candy and sporting equipment! Aren't the litte Crocs CUTE????

Three Days Away :)

Hey Everyone! This is Hannah, and I am excited about the fact that we leave for Greece in THREE DAYS (actually only about 62 hours!)

Our team is almost ready to go. We have purchased all the supplies we need for crafts and games, and I for one have begun packing my suitcase already :) Saturday morning will be here before we know it!

We found out recently that when we get to Athens (on Sunday), we will spend about 24 hours there and then head to the camp a little bit early to help get ready (on Monday). The rest of the staff will arrive on Tuesday, and then the refugee families will arrive for camp on Wednesday! Camp runs until the following Monday. We are really looking forward to serving these families, especially the children, who will be spending most of our time with.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Please continue to be in prayer, especially for the following things:

• That the rest of our financial support to come in. We are still quite a bit underfunded, but are in faith that God will provide!
• For smooth travels on Saturday when we leave! For no delays or lost baggage, and that everyone would stay healthy and safe.
• That God would be working in the hearts of the refugee families we will be serving in Greece, and that he would open their eyes to come to know him and learn more about him while at camp.

We will hopefully have another post before we leave on Saturday, and Lord-willing, a couple posts while we are in Greece! Thanks again for all your prayers and support!!

Hannah for all

Getting Ready....

We want to say a quick thank you to all who have responded to our letters. We greatly appreciate all of your love and support. We are working on the final preparations for our trip as we are less than two weeks away! We have learned that there will be over 50 kids ages 4-13 that will be attending camp so we are working on arts & crafts and games we can do with the children. We have a meeting tomorrow night at the Moody's house to tie up a lot of loose ends and to see where we are with our support. We will create a new post at our meeting tomorrow night so we can recap where we are, what we have left to do and how you can specifically pray for our team and the ministry we are going to serve! Here is where we are at as of right now....

Jeff has been our fearless leader keeping us on task and making sure we are prepared for our trip. He does a great job of communicating with Bruce & Irene to make sure we have the most updated information as well as lead our team communication. Jeff created our budget and handled all of our travel arrangements.

Diana, Carol & Mignon are diligently working on getting the craft supplies and lessons organized! The theme of our crafts & lessons is CREATION! We will be doing a VBS with the kids in the morning and doing sports, recreation and games with the families in the afternoons. This is a huge project to oversee because there are such wide ranges in ages, the language barrier and translations issues and not knowing what these kids have learned about creation previously!

Jordan has been put in charge of a moon & star craft. She found a neat glow in the dark wood moon and star mobile that  the kids can decorate and assemble. There will always be a light even when its dark when the kids take these home with them!
She also found a neat verse that will go along with this craft. The verse is Psalm 148:3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. Here is the verse translated into the language Farsi.

اورا،خورشیدوماه تحسین کنید

اورا،همه آن که شماستاره های درخشان تحسین کنید

سرود ۱۴۸ :۳ .

Hannah has been put in charge of  our keeping our blog updated and doing a craft when we talk about the birds. She found the cutest little birds that the kids can make out of pom poms and fun squiggly eyes.

Miriam has been so diligent in collecting our support, organizing our budget and updating us on our progress so we can be good stewards of God's money!! Miriam brings a lot of experience to our team with all of the mission trips she has been a part of in the past.

Dave has been a huge asset to our team with his past experience and knowledge. He keeps us on the straight and narrow path :) Dave has been assigned to take pictures so we can document our journey and share with all of you. He has also been assigned to lead our devotions each day we are in Greece. Each team member will be responsible for doing a devotion each day that would encourage our team during the trip and keep us focused on the power of God!

Craig, Jordan & Chad have been asked to lead the "Family Activities" during the afternoon portion of camp. This will be such a neat time to really bond and love on the refugee families in a relaxed atmosphere. They are trying to organize some games & sports that will be easy to do with the families even though there will be a language barrier.