I have some catching up to do as we have already been here in Greece for almost a month. How time is flying by!!
We arrived safely on November 29th. Our flights all went smoothly and the kids did great. Levi was the most surprising as he slept less than three hours our entire flight time. Needless to say mom got even less sleep!! All our bags arrived safely and we were so grateful to see Johnathan Macris to pick us up. As we headed to the car it dawned on Phil that all our carryon bags had been left near the baggage carousel! We were so focused on getting all eight of our bags that we simply forgot those other little gems...this included our important documents bag which had our passports and cash in it!! The Lord had us covered though and our bags were retrieved by some new friends we had just met on our last flight. Thank you Lord as it could have been a long drawn out process to try and retrieve them without any identification as that was in the secured area!
We were now ready to head out and how good it felt to be reunited with our Greek friends!
We spent our first week at the home of Alex & Jo-Ann Macris. They gave us wonderful hospitality and the kids thoroughly enjoyed playing with their three children, Elizabeth, Allison, & Jonathan. The jet lag did not seem to be too bad for three out of the four of us. I was really feeling bad for the Macris family as Levi had many nights of screaming for hours...He finally settled in only to be jostled again when we moved into our own place!
We are now settled in our one bedroom apartment. It is located in the bottom floor of a three story house that was just completed. Mike and Peggy Lowe (another couple with Hellenic Ministries) live in the two floors above us. They have been a wonderful blessing to us! Caitlyn has had a hard time understanding why she can't just tromp up the stairs to see Mr. Mike and Mrs. Peggy any time she wants! My favorite line has been..."No Caitlyn, that is not our house..." We are in a nice location that has some quite streets where I can take the kids out on some walks. There are even some pastures of horses to look at for scenery. The Lord knew I would need this! I try to get out at least once a day with them as we don't have a yard for them to run in (the grass has not been planted yet) so we all need this break. There are grocery stores within walking distance too.
As this was a new construction we needed to furnish the place. IKEA helped us with much of that but we still needed to get appliances. We were able to get a refrigerator from Craigslist but were having trouble finding the other things. After a week of not having a washer or stove I had a meltdown. Peggy had been very gracious in letting me use hers but I did not want to bother her everyday...
Many of you know I love to cook so no stove was hard for me! Finally one Saturday morning I had a meltdown and Phil got the brunt of it when he told me I may have to wait another week to see if a particular lady decided to sell hers or not. I was so frustrated that I headed out for some fresh air and to have a little talk with God. I was so ticked that it took me some time to ask the Lord for forgiveness in my attitude and after a bit longer I surrendered and said, "OK God...if I have to wait give me grace."
When I arrived back home over an hour later Phil said, "I am sorry honey, do you forgive me; I think we may have a stove coming." Yes!!!
Peggy had been in our apartment earlier and had asked what it would take to get us a stove. We all were discussing this when Phil started to get a little heated. Peggy excused herself and soon after I was out the door.
I guess her husband, Mike, had gone down to a store and Peggy called him to see if he could check the price of a new stove. Phil decided to get a new one there as it was the same price as a used Bosch we were hoping to get from a lady who did not know if she would sell. :)
THANK YOU LORD!!!
Later in the day Mike took Phil to go buy it. He came home with a stove, microwave, and vacuum! I was so thrilled!! Many of you also know how much I love to vacuum!!!
A bit later when Phil and Mike were hooking up the stove we got a knock on the door. It was Johnathan & Alex. They said, "We have some appliances for you guys!"
WHAT!!!
Yes, you guessed it...just the Lord's style...double portion! They bought us a stove, microwave, vacuum, and a washer!!!
Can you believe it! We were all astonished especially me when I thought for sure Peggy must have called Johnathan too. He swore to me that nobody called him or told him anything. So, the only one who could have prompted him was the Lord AND not only that but he did not even know my fetish for vacuuming. I never expected to have a vacuum when we were only going to be here three months. I was perfectly content using a broom and mop. The Lord knows the desires of our heart and wants to bless us! He sure did for me!!!!
We decided on which ones to keep and then the guys did some returning...
A big event for HM was their "Love Meal" special feeding/performance on the 17th. We were able to take part in this as well and it was a real blessing for us. On the Sunday before we went down to their Hall, where they serve their weekly love meals for refugees, to help prepare the chicken for the meal. We did not arrive till later in the afternoon so much of the chicken was already done but we were able to wash us about 75 chicken legs. Caitlyn helped me wash while Phil did other tasks.
The following day we returned to help where ever we could. Much work was to be done as there were to be two feedings with a total of about 400+ people being served. The first group was mostly Greeks living in poor living conditions if not out on the street and the second group was refugee families. The Lord provided many hands to serve and the people were fed, heard the Gospel, and given a gift bag of food. Johnathan shared many stories of gratefulness expressed by those being served. Everyone was exhausted by the end of the night but so thankful to have been there. Caitlyn really enjoyed helping serve and meeting a new friend in a sweet little refugee girl. Levi did great hanging out in the Ergo carrier all day being carried by either mom or poppy.
