Wednesday

Wednesday Thoughts by Brittany(again)

 

Here I am again writing the blog that everyone is supposed to help with. The guys have an aversion to sitting down and writing this I guess.

 

We are finally starting our usual routine for the day.  Our day looks roughly something like this:

-Wake up and eat breakfast at the hotel,

-Go to the mission for a group Bible study

-Work at the mission and cook lunch(which isn't until 2pm by the way)

-Free time from 3-5

-Go back to the mission and work 5-10

 

Our daily schedule is very flexible and today after the Bible study we went to the open market. It happens every week and  it takes up at least 5 blocks, but maybe even more. Fresh fruit and vegetables were everywhere and piled extremely high. The variety of different kinds is just incredible- there were 16 kinds of olives at one place.  

After our little field trip we went back to the mission and the guys got started on either cooking, organizing the basement or plastering the walls and fixing holes. Bailey was in the hotel sleeping her sickness away and I practiced piano for the later that night.  Oh! I forgot to mention our group sang Wednesday night and will also be singing Saturday and Sunday during their Church times.

 The closet and storage area was a disaster! It is much more functioning now!

 

Josh and Mike finishing up cleaning what used to be a disaster area.

 

 

I forgot to take before pictures, but the process of plastering the many holes has begun in the children's room and the stairway.

 

So that night they had their supper Ministry for the people at the Mission. They have worship, a sermon and then they feed everyone. There are probably about a 100 adults and 25 kids. The kids are absolutely adorable but crazy as well. It is incredibly hard to work with kids for an hour and half when you can't speak their language. While most of us helped with the kids, a few worked in the kitchen and Bruce shared his testimony.

 

A couple of things to highlight are the bakeries and the intensity of the work here.

First, the food here is incredible and depending on what route we take on our walk to the mission we pass three bakeries. It is a phenomenal thing. Everything is fresh and handmade by the families who own the shop. It's fantastic.

 

Second, our work here is not what we really expected but it more difficult than we anticipated. Originally we were meant to renovate a new kitchen and dorm building for the refugees. But due to government red tape and papers it has not happened. So we have been fixing things at the old mission building, but more than that we have really had time to invest in relationships with the guys here. Well, not so much Bailey and I, but the rest of our team has. Just a note here, the gender difference is quite baffling. We are constantly on edge trying to decide if it acceptable to address someone or not. With the native Greeks it is fine, but in the mission being alongside Iranian, Persian and Muslim refugees it is hard to know whether you are going to offend someone by shaking their hand or even addressing them.

The guys we have gotten to know are incredible, we have heard some of their stories and have even started teaching one of them how to play piano.

What we are doing here is really challenging. We have discussed this and our team agrees it would be much easier to do hard construction work than to establish relationships with someone who doesn't speak English. Pray that we do not feel frustrated with feeling unaccomplished. We are not doing what we set out to do, but we are making an impact in a different more relational way.

 

One specific prayer request is for our guys impact on the life of a specific man with a  6 year old daughter here. In short, the daughter has been neglected and abandoned by her father. The man is trying to make it to another country and decided he has a better chance to make it to safety if his daughter is not with him. He has agreed to hold off on his decision until the mission leader is back from his trip.