Soooo wow that was the craziest week since coming to Greece FO SHO.
Monday of course we started with our adventure day, and it was also the last day with Lucy because she had her squad leader vacation this week. We walked around the upper city a little bit to a small restaurant where I DEVOURED a pizza, then we headed to St. Theodore’s church. When initially figuring out what to do, I ran up 5 flights to our rooftop where I looked around the city and saw this huge church and was like, “We should go there.” So after our fire food, we walked to the church. Sadly it was closed, but we got a pretty insane view of the city. All was well, I made some (not to toot my own horn) FIRE chicken noodle soup, we said bye to Lucy, then Ava, Emery, and Naty walked her to the bus station. An hour after they left, I was having a dance party next to Jaylynn and Liv when I got a call from Ava, and since I was locked into that thang, I greeted her with, “AVA YOU RUINED MY DANCE PARTY.” She then proceeded to say, “Emery’s foot is really hurt, it might be broken, and I think we’re getting an ambulance to the hospital.” UHHHHH so the mood changed pretty quickly. Long story short, Emery had to get surgery for her broken ankle and Naty and Ava were exhausted, but they eventually all got home and it was alllll good.
Lunch
St. Theodore’s Church
Scooters are not aloud anymore
With the circumstances from the night before, we were down a few people to go to the refugee care center, so Tuesday, Liv, Kat, and I went to help. There was lots of produce to sift through, so we spent the first couple hours picking off bad leaves from lettuce and beets, throwing away moldy kiwis, and sorting them all into different bags. When the refugees arrived, all three of us were in the kitchen handing out sandwiches, cake, and tea. Having three people as opposed to seven made this ministry much more challenging, but I still really enjoyed it.
Wednesday, Lexi, Liv, and I walked to Moses to be picked up by a guy named Philip to be taken to a Christian camp called CEF. Here they’re remodeling basically everything and there’s construction everywhere. That day they were demolishing the dining deck, so we moved some chairs and took apart a metal tent structure piece by piece. Our last task was to clean the newly built cabins which are actually beautiful! They bought us gyros for lunch which was really sweet, then we headed home at 3:00 to grocery shop and cook dinner.
Thursday turned out to be our sabbath for the week because Saturday we were asked to help with something. 😙
Friday while the girls went out to evangelize, I stayed back with Liv at Moses to have my one on one with Antonis. He started out by asking, “What are your expectations for this meeting? Do you want to leave smiling or crying?” LOLL. I said I didn’t have any expectations, but I did want him to challenge me. So he did, and he presented something that made me think a lot about what I would do when I came back from this trip. We talked for a few hours and it was very fruitful. I got a text from Jaylynn saying we could get our ears pierced at 4:30, and it was already 4:00. I HUSTLED back home with Liv, then when I got back at 4:20, Jaylynn was like, “you ready to run?” We SPRINTED to the piercing place and got there in 10 minutes instead of 25. I just got my triples pierced, but since I had been running quite literally minutes before, my blood was pumping and it was coming out so much. AH.
Saturday we didn’t get much context before what we would be doing, but we ended up going to Antonis’s mom’s clothing store to help with folding and cutting threads. I started out in the folding department, but when I was learning too slow, they moved me to the thread cutting 😔. For about three hours with a break in between, Naty, Ava, and I were inspecting all the seems on different shirts and pants and cutting off each straggler thread. This is actually SO tedious and I have way more of a respect for people in the clothing industry because this isn’t easy work. Saturday night, we worked on cooking lasagna, garlic bread, and cookies for church the next morning. Antonis told us Friday morning that we would be cooking a meal to feed 25 people, which honestly caught us off guard. We realized we would not be able to pay for that, so he was generous and gave us money to make a good meal. Stress turned into peace while we cooked and it ended up being really fun.
Some of the most mentally challenging work so far 🥲
Lasagna!!
The first Sunday of the month is when our church has communion and worship. Antonis and Peniotha lead worship and it was beautiful of course. In Greece they don’t use grape juice and a cracker for communion; we have fresh bread and real wine. The first church service when we got here, we were all taken aback when Jesus’s blood was the real deal. All jokes aside, I think there is beauty in having the real illustration of His blood and body as it was at the Last Supper. After the service we all ate our food, and Antonis told me to pull up a chair next to Justin. We talked about our one on one the other day, and Justin gave me some advice on going on another trip later this year. This conversation opened my eyes a lot. I got to spend time journaling/processing that night, then called my parents which was very insightful.
HOME COOKED MEALS THIS WEEK
At this point I really need to go back to the root of my personal relationship with the Lord and seek him as I would a normal friendship. I’m still trying to keep my ears open to His voice. This week!!! I want enough time to be stubborn with Jesus and wait for Him to speak. ALSO wisdom is so important and it’s something that’s come up a few times recently. Antonis talked about how he gives wisdom and he always tries to abide by James 3:17: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” I watched a sermon this morning actually about this verse which was insane because it came up randomly on my feed, but the pastor explained how peace and wisdom go hand in hand. Also God’s wisdom is overflowing and He’s always willing to give it out if we just ask for it. THAT’S SO COOL. This week I want to be asking for wisdom with all I’m doing and just grow in that skill of asking for help. 🙂
He has good plans.
“Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?”
Luke 12:25
“The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”
Psalms 32:8
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