a sweet for you

Being on the other side of the world for the first time in a country that you dont know and in a place that uses a language you dont understand can weigh you down, pretty quickly. We’re irritable. We snap at things we normally wouldn’t be bothered by. We’re tired but can’t fall asleep. It’s frustrating.

The 3 of us recognized that we are feeling the weight of this trip. It’s heavy, it’s not just a fun, month-long escapade for the 3 of us to explore Greece. We have little direction and don’t have mentors that are with us to escort us to get where we need to be or help us figure out how things operate here-we’re on our own. 

But we aren’t. It’s funny how we can feel so alone and overwhelmed but at the same time be so much more aware of the Lord’s presence. I’m realizing just how BIG God really is. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard worship in more than 3 languages-can you imagine what it sounds like to hear people who you have no idea how to communicate with praising the same God you do? Or the fact that a palm tree can be standing right next to an evergreen tree--how can those 2 types of trees survive the same environment? If God is going to make sure the trees can stay alive, I can rest knowing I’m in His hands, and this trip is too. God has a funny way of showing us He’s watching over us, and He’s placed people in our lives and on this trip that reiterate that. Even people we haven’t ever met-we woke up to find a note with a fruit dessert in our fridge: “Good morning, A sweet for you...Have a good week”. 

We’ve officially gotten through our first week in Greece. We’re still learning and adjusting but we are almost over the jetlag. We went to the beach yesterday and swam in the cold Mediterranean Sea among sea urchins and sat and just took in the beauty. I’m looking forward to not being preoccupied with culture shock so that I can focus more on the ministry with the prostitutes. I’m sure that will happen the longer we’re here and especially once we talk to those girls. Please keep praying for our time here- it means so much and we know The Lord and his angels are watching over us.

lightbulbs

You’ll walk right by them without even noticing if you’re not looking for them. There’s no signs or business hours posted but the light bulbs indicating the brothels are a familiar sight to the people living in the red light district of Athens. More than familiar, those light bulbs have a meaning that can be so accepted and nonchalant. But to me, the meaning of those 60 watt yellow bulbs is daunting- it’s sickening, it’s heinous. 

We walked to the building of the Nea Zoi (New Life) ministry not knowing what to expect. I had started to get nervous as soon as we got off the metro--my angst must have been written all over my face as Stephanie asked me if I was alright. 

Across the street from us was a skinny blonde in a short pink dress. She paced back and forth within a 5 foot radius at the intersection. The 3 of us exchanged glances...is she...? Outside the office building, what I encountered today is something I will never forget. I didn’t even notice until later the frail body and skimpy clothes that accompanied the pair of eyes that is already engrained into my memory. I don’t know how to explain what I saw- hollowed eyes surrounded by bloodshot veins...but somehow they had an amber color that wrapped around her black lifeless pupils. It wasn’t disturbing because of the fact that her eyes were bloodshot from being addicted to drugs- it was the emptiness and pain behind them that made my stomach feel like I had a whole grapefruit sitting in it. 

But those girls standing on the corners are somewhat independent of the brothels and aren’t necessarily under a pimp’s ownership-at this point they’re so addicted to drugs that that’s what keeps them captive and the only way to feed their addiction is to sell their bodies.

This is hard to write and hard to explain when it’s not something common or on any comprehensible level if you haven’t seen it. I wouldn’t understand the heaviness [I didn’t understand this heaviness before today] if I had never been right there among this darkness. But I know that God hears us and knows our hearts, so I will ask for prayer..

-for the women in the brothels with no concept of love or trust

-that the men entering these brothels as customers would feel conviction and find another way to fill the emptiness and void (which can only be satisfied by God)

-for the people doing ministry (such as Nea Zoi): that opportunities would arise for them to share Christ’s love and that they would be received in the brothels

That is a quick, broad overview of the prayer needed for this problem. It’s more than a problem but I’m too tired to try to think of a better way to put it. Mollie, Stephanie and I will be going into the brothels to talk with the women within the next week. 

den sas halase

I don’t even know what that means, but it’s about the only thing I’m sure of over here. That’s the name of the wifi network we miraculously connected to. I don’t mind when things are different and I don’t expect things in Europe to be the same as how they are in America, but we’re having trouble getting accustomed to a few things:

-ovens (I burnt my hand trying to figure out why it wasn’t heating)

-toilets (throw your used toilet paper in the trash, don’t flush it)

-door knobs (we got locked out of the parsonage testing the door lock)

-showers (the head of the faucet disconnects from the sink and then you squeegee the bathroom floor when finished)

-street signs (where are they-and what do they mean?)

-body gestures (holding out your hand as in to wave or how we would indicate the #5 apparently means “Go to hell” or worse, I forgot that as I gratefully did that gesture when a car let us walk across the street)

Oh, and one other little thing: THE LANGUAGE...Yia what? Besides the fact that we were still dealing with jet lag and a 7 hour time difference, it was so hard to concentrate on anything that was going on. We’ve had to receive so much information in the past 48 hours on such little brain capacity, I’m pretty sure after a while we started to drown out even the english spoken to us. 

Tonight we worked at a festival for children, doing face paint and playing Twister...all without speaking English. Well we spoke English but the kids didn’t know what we were saying. The best part was when a little boy asked me to draw a Greek flag on his arm and I didn’t know what that looked like, so Mollie told me to just draw an American flag on him. A) what american kid would ever ask to have our flag painted on him and B) I’m sure the greek boy wouldn’t appreciate my patriotism. 

At the end of the festival a few of the boys were breakdancing and it was really cool. The majority of the kids don’t have parents who ever know where they are and are also Albanian, facing a lot of racism from the greeks. The festival is set up by the community center which is one of their places of refuge and somewhere they can get attention from adults who care about them. Pray that these kids see Christ’s love and acceptance for them through the volunteers who run the Community center.

God is so much bigger than our minor details in life that seem so huge when we can’t figure them out. We stomp and yell and get irritated when we don’t see the bigger picture because we don’t trust that the Lord has it all figured out. We need to remember that He meets us right where we’re at and then says “let’s do this thing together”. I’ll take Him up on that offer, because I know I’m not going to be able to do this on my own.

pretend I posted this on Saturday

It's easy to oooh and aah and coo at babies and cute little children when you come across them at Dunkin Donuts or see them while waiting in line at the grocery store. Let me tell you how fast your attitude can change about that when crying babies are both behind and in front of you on a 10 hour flight. Isn't there extra space for them under the plane where the luggage goes?

I've flown on planes more times than I can count. I don't get nervous. But for some reason I found myself worrying about the flight before I even got to my seat. Maybe it's because I think that the Boeing 767 will have trouble flying or staying in the air because it's heavier than the 737 I'm used to. The 3 of us decided that Mollie and Steph would take turns sitting at the window while I'd be in the middle. It turns out that our plane had three aisles and our seats were in the center, so nobody would get a window seat. I was laughing as I pointed that out to them until their response was "we may not get a window seat but we each get a shoulder to sleep on!" Lucky for them that my height places my shoulders conveniently where their heads can rest. I feel like the boyfriend.

Being the headrest will hep me forget about any possible disasters as we fly across the world. It still seems surreal that we're traveling so far away- until I stop and listen. I became aware of the language barrier as soon as we got on the airplane. Since my German vocabulary is limited to mein, kempf, and scheise, it was intimidating when English was not the first language spoken by the pilot. I quickly realized that I am officially out of my element.

Back to the babies. What would it be like if God had my idea of throwing all the crying babies under the plane so that He wouldn't have to listen to them when they got annoying? The Lord's patience and mercy astounds me...I know I've been that wailing child but He answers and provides when we dont deserve it.

We got off the plane at 1:00pm Frankfurt time, but our bodies are still in the Florida time zone of 7am. Not to mention I took Tylenol PM only 5 hours eariler- I didn't wake up until we hit the ground. We exited the plane to find ourselves outside-not inside the airport the way we do in America. A handful of transportation buses with LED signs gave us way too many options of which wrong bus we could choose. But being the proud Americans we are, of course we didn't ask anyone for help and jumped on a bus hoping it was the one that would take us to the terminal. We lucked out that time, but I'm sure we will soon learn the hard way if we don't let go of our pride um, really fast.

disclaimer

I know that Steph & Mollie have told some of their family and friends that "we have a blog" -yes, a blog focused on the trip to Greece. As for anything that goes on the internet, I know that what you post online is fair game for the world wide web to see. However, I just want to warn whoever reads this blog that it is MY personal thoughts and raw humor, so if you do not know me personally I understand that things may be misinterpreted. Basically I'm saying that I am not writing on behalf of Mollie or Stephanie....I'm sure they'd appreciate me giving that warning so that they aren't guilty by association.

That was way too long of a heads up, but I figured I'd let everyone know. All readers are welcome! I'm sure Mollie and Steph will appear as guest writers at some point :) That would be a nice change.

We are about to board the plane. We got ripped off and had to pay $56 for our carry on bags because they were too big. Security was a breeze besides the fact that Mollie almost lost her Macbook (I secretly thought the security guy stole it while he was talking about Blackberrys as a distraction).

See ya on the flipside... (name that movie quote)

ready for takeoff

In about 24 hours I will be on my way to Ft. Lauderdale airport to leave for Greece. We connect in Germany and have about an 8 hour layover...the adventurous girls of the group are tempted to explore Frankfurt while we have time to kill but the smarter girl of the group says that's probably not a good idea.

When I say "group" I'm referring to the 3 of us going on the trip. Originally there was going to be 6 of us but the group started dwindling for various reasons. When it was official that there would only be 3 girls going on the trip it became a little intimidating once we realized how vulnerable we could be as a smaller group. My personal thoughts are, if some sicko really wants to abduct American girls, they'll find a way to do it, no matter how many people are in the group. But let's not worry about that.

I know that God has a purpose in sending such a small group over and I'm not worried. It also happens to be my two closest friends I've had since I started college, so I see it as a blessing to be able to serve with them and have such an amazing experience with the two people I know the most.

Mollie, Stephanie, and I are so excited and have been getting our last few things together before we leave. We have no idea what's in store for us, but we know that it's going to be quite different from what we're used to over here in Florida. The missionaries (Bob & Maria Hill) have been emailing us and asked if we had any requests for breakfast for the first morning we arrive. I figured we should be low maintenance and replied that we'd be fine with something such as dry cereal or bagels. The Hills wrote back saying "you wont find bagels in Greece but they have great bread...."

I can't wait to get our arrogant, oblivious, ignorant American butts kicked.