In Croatia we rested and refocused on God as we had our debrief on the island of Brac. There God lured us closer to Him with His breathtaking creation. At night it looked like the stars joined us in the calm sea, as phosphorite sparkled underneath the ocean. A Croatian brother in Christ, Vijeko, did some amazing teachings, very inspiring and filled with wisdom.
From there we went on to Ancona, Italy. It was only a stop over for our ferry, so we had a single day to see and experience Italy! It was so cool to walk around in the narrow streets, with washing lines colouring the blue sky, locals deeply discussing some topic in Italian on the side of the road, and the air filled with the aroma of good Italian cooking. My day ended with eating genuine Italian pizza at a small Italian restaurant, chatting to God about the day and about the memories of the ministry so far this year.
The ferry then took us to Patra in Greece. A lot of amazing things happened during our visit to Greece,which you can read about in our team blog. But there is one more memory I want to add: The one afternoon I started chatting to an old lady who was a shopkeeper in Patra. After a while the conversation turned to religion, and it was a privilege to share the gospel with her. She gave me a silver charm with a little cross on as a present, and I in turn gave her a little beaded South African flag. She touched my heart dearly, and it was as if we knew each other for years as friends.
After a few days we were all off to Turkey! Our main focus was to study the book of Ephesians, as Ephesus is in Turkey. We visited 3 of the 7 churches as mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3, and even more Biblical sites. God took our thoughts back to the days of Paul, when true Christianity cost your life, and Christians were radical in all they did. We made a written out copy of the letter in Revelations to the church in Pergamum, and walked to the ruins of the ancient church to leave it there. As we prayed over the site, an old man started talking to us, telling us that this is one of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations. He knew the Bible! After a conversation with him, we found out he was a Christian, one of the only a few left in Pergamum. He shared his testimony, and we handed the letter over to him, encouraging him and praying for him. It was so good to see God bringing him over our path, to mutually encourage one another in faith.
And now we are in Israel where we will be spending a few days to visit Jerusalem and see even more ancient Biblical buildings and places. From there we will go to Egypt where we will be ministering.
