Cyprus is an island of mythological proportions. We arrived by plane from Morocco and it was a long journey. Because we travel in such a large group, we arrived early to the Marrakesh airport, about 8 hours early? We fly to London and layover from about 10pm to 7am. It sounds like a lot of time but when you calculate a large group of people, getting off the plane, going through customs, grabbing bags, moving to the other airport, and settling in…we were left with being in London in the middle of the night. It was cold and I opted to stay in and get some coffee and soup and talk.
After our check in, we take a flight from London to Cyprus, this is about 5 hours? We realized somewhere around this time that we didn’t have a ministry host. We haven’t had one this entire race and so I was actually excited about the opportunity this would bring to give God more glory.
That first afternoon we were greeted by another team’s contact at the airport and just the love and hospitality we experienced made me love Cyprus immediately. It has rained that morning but the sun was out. We got loaded into a truck and we rode in two groups (after jump-starting a car first) to where we would stay for one night. I slept on the couch that night and had one more night with the other team.
The next morning we were faced with a reality that we didn’t know where we would stay in Limassol (the town where our host was originally) but we couldn’t stay in Lanarca (where we first arrived) anymore. So, we explored different options and prayed. And then without knowing where we’d sleep, we headed our. So our options at this point was to maybe tent out (the hostel within our budget was booked but they had camp sites) or Airbnb (but we hadn’t heard back and it would be temporary since it was twice our budget).
Well we arrive to Limassol and somewhere in between figuring out bus schedules and transport in Lanarca, we get the Airbnb confirmation..thank you Jesus! We arrive on the lovely beach front apartment and praise Jesus. But it gets better!
We go to the international church the next day and we meet this man who, without knowing too much about us let us live in this mansion of a house up in the mountains and gives us a van to drive. A 7 seater van to be exact. How amazing! What a divine answer to prayer. We started our time in Cyprus without knowing where we’d sleep and then in two days we get this amazing place to stay for the rest of our time here. And to hear this man’s story was heartbreaking. The house is solar powered and custom made and and the story of how our friend got this house is basically the literal story of “ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find”. And then to hear this man’s work, what his story is and what he does now is out of this world. Anyways he is super nice and gave us this house to sleep in and stay in and we’ve already had a great time hosting friends over for dinner that we met in bible study last Monday.
And this is how Cyprus is so refreshing compared to Morrocco… Cyprus is small – it takes maybe 4 hours to drive from one side to the other, but it is divided. Turkey occupies the northern part and the southern part is Greek Orthodox. And we are staying in the Greek part. So think Yum! Kebab skewers, feta cheese, olives, hummus, Turkish delights (but here they do not like us saying that but instead call them Cyprus delights, I mean makes sense we are in Cyprus after all). But the Greek part is quite international. About 20% of the community are ex patriates of one sort or another. Lots of Russians, eastern Europeans, English, Americans…etc. So when I say we went to church on Sunday, met other believers, went to Bible study, this is a real luxury.
What is also interesting is how the Greek Orthodox Church views Evangelical Christians…they view us like we are some kind of cult. But back to the cultural divide for a little bit, so basically there is this stalemate tension here and the locals are quite vocal about it. Two nights ago we met this man who owns this local taxi company and he said that he is a refugee here…his house is owned by the Turkish and he cannot go back. So sad. He has established himself here for many decades but still doesn’t feel at home here. We talked to some friends last night and they said that sometimes the people who lost their homes are able to go into their occupied homes and maybe sit for a while if the occupiers are nice and it’s eerie because the house is left unchanged from when it was left years ago.
Well we’ve been here about a week and we’ve been meeting locals here and there, connecting with the church here, some of the team are helping out with soccer coaching and some will be helping the coffee shop youth outreach, human trafficking centers and donation centers, harvesting olives off this one big olive tree and a couple of other things – will talk in more detail about it next post but for now wanted to share that we are in beautiful Cyprus, feeling refreshed and encouraged, thankful for God’s provision and would love prayer for the people of Cyprus. We want to see God work in marvelous ways this month!
