Well friends, after three crazy months of busing around South America experiencing this beautiful land full of green mountains and amazing people, today I (we – Bsquad) set out for Greece.
I’ve always been hesitant to say I’m excited about it. I mean, it’s Greece and Europe, why not be excited. But what we are walking into, I don’t imagine any or most of the squad has ever seen or experienced anything like it. I certainly haven’t. We received a little training yesterday in preparation for leaving today. I heard for the first time yesterday about the recent agreement between the European Union and Turkey that now only refugees directly from Syria would be granted asylum. That all others are being detained at Lesvos and sent back to their home country. And out of protest, all except one NGO working on the island have left.
We were told (and really already knew this) that we are walking into darkness. An environment driven mostly by fear. But we get to be a light in the darkness, we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus. THAT I AM excited about.
My team and one other team will be working in Thessaloniki, two other team will be working on the island of Lesvos, and the last team just across the border in Macedonia. Beyond that, we don’t know much. Just to be prepared for anything, ready for long days doing whatever is asked of us. That’s actually pretty normal for the race in my opinion, but somehow it means something different going into Greece. We’ve been asked to learn some phrases of Arabic…I know one so far (thanks Lynzie!)
The squad left our ministry sites around Tuesday this week to meet back in Bogota for a couple days for Leadership Development Weekend (LDW). The last two days have been full of teachings from fellow squamates and our squad leaders as a way to pass on the knowledge that God has been giving us. While I always enjoy these times, usually my mind is full of all kinds of thoughts, processing things as they come and whatnot. But the last two days my mind has been unusually clear, peaceful even. It’s been a nice change but weird at the same time…I almost didn’t know what to do with myself, thinking something was wrong with me. But then I realized, this is a gift from my heavenly Father. I think He has given me this time to enjoy Him before what I anticipate will be an extremely hard month mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. The calm before the storm.
So, I ask for your prayers during this month. In my humble opinion, prayer will be the most powerful and important thing any of us can do this month. We are not working in Greece, we are allowing God to use us to bring His Glory and Name to be known in this place. For Hope, for Peace, for Truth.
Thanks friends, love you all. -Pamela
