A Sunday in Athens, Greece

What a day!

I woke up this morning and realized that the hotel had no power. Fortunately I was able to roll over and go back to sleep. Why the power outage? I think it had to do with the snow showers taking place in Athens. Yes, I said “snow.” Yes, it was 60 degrees 2 days ago, and yes the flowers are in bloom. When Dino picked me up early this afternoon I asked him how often it snows in Athens. “Never!” was his overstated reply. I guess it is a pretty unusual thing.

This morning I organized and began packing. I leave tomorrow morning for Istanbul. The morning passed quickly. After breakfast I met a woman, Kristen, from Evansville. She is the publisher of Evansville Living magazine. We had a nice visit. She gave me a magazine.

Early this afternoon Dino, one of the preachers for the Athens Church of Christ, picked me up to spend the rest of the day with him and the various groups that would meet in their church building. [This morning Greek Christians worshiped.]

We got to the building some time before 1, and many Bulgarians had already assembled. Their meeting time is from 1-3 p.m. About 50 assembled on a snowy day. The highlight was a baptism of a lady in her 60s. She stood before the group and confessed the Lordship of Jesus. It was a wonderful thing to witness. I didn’t understand many words, but it was a great experience, especially communing with brothers and sisters with which I will someday share Heaven.

As the Bulgarians left the Russian-speaking group arrived. As with the Bulgarian-speaking group there are several nations represented. Dino spoke in Greek, and a Ukranian young lady, Tonya, translated. Dino asked me to speak a few words as well. What a privilege! I told them that we are all one in Christ; communion reminds us of this.

The English service didn’t happen, due to snow. Most of them are Africans, and Africans are not used to snow. We did have an informal multi-national group meet to pray. One young man is an Iranian who was converted from Islam while living in Cyprus. His name was Tony. What a story!

Dino and I did manage to get a little bit of a late lunch somehow. He took me to a little local establishment that was full of people from all over the world. The food was amazingly good! While we were in there a group starting singing. It was a group of Albanians celebrating Kosovo’s Independence. I’m not sure I have ever experienced anything quite like it. The Greeks and others starting clapping along, joining the celebration.

I am now getting ready to go to bed hoping for a safe trip to Turkey tomorrow. Turkey, of course, is my main focus.

Here are few pictures from today.