The Weekend

Well it's hard to keep it straight, but here is the update the past couple of days. Thursday night we met as a group (about 25) at the Belvidere Hotel for prayer and study time.  I offered to do the message, which meant I guess I volunteered for the whole thing.  Since I wasn't there for the previous meeting, I wasn't sure what was expected.  Anyways I did a kind of message/study/discussion time around Matt. 5:43-48.  Praise God it went really well, with lots of involvement from a group that consisted mostly of people young enough to be my kids. On Friday I was off.  I spent a couple of hours talking to a young man from Estonia in the common room.  I thought he was a volunteer with one of the Christian organizations, because that is all I have met so far at the hotel.  Well it turned out he is not a Christian.  He is not sure if he believes in God.  He had a lot of questions and was eager to get together again.  I tried to bring the conversation back to a personal level but he kept wanting to discuss broader issues.  I am hoping before this week is out to be able to see him again. Later I walked down to Molyvous and greeted the owner of Nadia's apartments who we got to know when Cheryl and I were here 2 years ago.  It was good to see her, but caught her at a busy time.  If you ever find yourself visiting Lesbos be sure to go to Molyvos and stay at Nadia's apartments.  I continued through town and walked out to the breakwater.  Every way you turn you see the castle, the beautiful Agean sea, the Turkish coastline and the mountains of Lesbos.  It is breathtaking and difficult to capture in pictures. On Saturday my shift was moved from first shift to second shift (we leave the hotel at 2:30 pm and are back by 1:00 am)because some of the volunteers were sick, well it turned out they went anyways.   Good thing because we were pretty much busy the first 5 hours.  I brought a hand puppet with me.  I spent most of the time managing the line getting into the clothing tent.  As I said before it's a great time to just "talk" to the refugees. I usually ask them where they were from and where they are going.  Lots of answers on where they were from Afganistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka, Syria, etc. Whenever there was a family with little kids the hand puppet would make an appearance.  The kids would really get excited, sometimes the very little ones looked a little concerned.  This would also break the ice with the parents.  Part of the job was to figure out who to let into the clothing tent.  Really gets crowded with 6.  So the challenge looking at the line is to figure out where one family ends and the next one begins.  Some families have 2 parents, 4 kids, a brother and a mother of one of the parents.  Need lots of hand diplomacy when you try to send in only part of the familiy.  They are excited to let you know who is in thier family. When it quieted down later in the night I went for a walk around the compound.  Two men in their late 20s came up to me and thanked me for the work we are doing there.  They are surprised to find out we are volunteers that have come from other countries to help.    When asked about where they are going, they either didn't understand my question or they are not sure where they are going after this.  I let them know I would pray for thier safe journey. After a short night of sleep I joined others for a trip down to Mytiline for church service.  A lot like my CBC family except add 2 violins and a ukulele to the praise team, mix in Greek, English and Greek/English choruses.  After the message the pastor whose name is Philemon (like the book of the Bible) asked me to pray.   He hadn't met me and did not know who I was.   Following his line of sight I knew there wasn't someone 7 foot tall standing directly behind me.  After my initial shock I prayed.  What a privilege.

After some of us went out for lunch and took the coastal route back to the hotel.  This got us back around 5:00 PM.  With us was a young man who was a refugee from Afganistan 2 years ago.  Shortly after his arrival he became a Christian and arrived yesterday excited to tell the other refugees about Jesus. He speaks Farsi, Arabic, Greek, Russian and English.   There were some mixup on his sleeping arrangements so I offered for him to share my room for the night, but I suspect it might be a permanent arrangement while I am here.  We joined the larger group down at the Belvidere Hotel for evening praise and worship time. Today is Monday.  I had breakfast over at another hotel with Euroreleif the umbrella organization that all the Christian organizations operate under here.   Then went and dropped off my laundry.  It is now 11:00 with no specific plans for the day, except rest.  There is a prayer meeting tonight and then Tuesday I have a 24 hour shift at a stage 2 camp.  Right close to where boats land at Skala Skimmea.  This camp is run by EuroRelief the umbrella organization for the Christian groups operating here.  The place I have been working at is Camp Moria. It is a stage 3 camp.  At camp Moria the Tea Tent, Clothing Tent and Family Compound is staffed by Christian organizations. God is so good.  I am guessing it will be a couple of days before I can get internet access again. Hoping to have more stories at that time.