Tuesday

Tuesday by Bruce

Today was national independence day for Greece. Almost all of the shops were closed today for the holiday. The exceptions were predominantly albanian run coffee shops. The coffee shops that were op.en were full of greek orthodox parishiners. The normal breakfast time is somewhere near 8 oclock which may seem a little late but considering most nights we don't get back to the room between 10 and midnight it is early enough. Today after breakfast the bible study with David and the refugees was about the leper. I never really understood how much peace, love, patience, and faith in general he must had to be able to worship God under such a stressfull situation (having leprosy a virtual death warrant). But yet came to Jesus on bended knee, asking if it be His will to heal him. It would have been so easy and maybe even easy because of our natural sinful nature. (atleast with mine). Jesus then replied that "it is My will" the man was then healed after being touched by Jesus. Wow, what a demeanor this man had!
After finishing bible study the work day began, finishing framing up doors and sheet rocking and a variety of painting in different areas. To really appreciate the challenge of framing a door here you must know that the only plum lines in the building are the one's we made. It is not uncommon to have a variance of 1.5 inches from top to bottom. The walls are bowed and there is no lumber to use. A generally 2 by 2 u shaped channel is what is used for studs. We must drill into the concrete walls to secure our base for framing. One of the other challenges is not having a functional consistent leveling tool, so when in greece build your own make shift plum line.(thank you Jesus for gravity!) All in all good progress seems to be being made .Maybe not by U.S. standards but under the baseline of a "slippery " schedule, meaning: the schedule is subject to change at any given moment. We are in fact getting things done.
Getting back to our bible study, it was a very timely topic. (Go God ! ) Thinking about the hardships of the refugees, even the leper had bigger problems than they do! They are people without a country or papers, but the leper was destined for a painful miserable life. Now there is something to think about the next time "my life" is so hard.
This has been an amazing oppurtunity to show God's love to group of guys that have fled there country, and most who have been jailed and or shot! (that is a whole new level of bad day!) The appreciation of our sincere caring for them and accepting them (and being accepted) as fellow brothers in Christ has been an incredible experience. . We look very much forward to sharing the experience as best we can after returning.