29.5.11

Coffee and Nutella...at 5AM


On the short flight to Charlotte, NC, I was blessed to be sitting by a girl from Cali who was returning home from a Missions Conference.  She is in the process of raising support for a 10-month mission trip to Thailand, and it was a huge encouragement talking with her.  We prayed together as the plane was landing, and through this, the Lord surely blessed me with confidence in the work He is going to do in and through us this summer.
On Friday, after what seemed like a lifetime, our team finally landed in Athens, Greece…stiff-legged!  Pavalos, the pastor of the Greek Evangelical Church of Peiraias, greeted us at the airport.  We have already seen the necessity of becoming more flexible to the slower paced Greek culture, the changing of plans, as well as the falling through of plans!  We were originally supposed to be staying at the Bible College, but it would be packed quarters until the end of next week.  So, we are now staying at the Greek Evangelical Church for about 6 days.  Also, we were to be traveling to Volos the first week, and now we’ll be going after our 6 days in Peiraias.
Saturday morning we were able to sleep in and take a short stroll around the neighborhood, having not the slightest idea where we were going.  Ms. Vicki, a mother figure of the church, prepared Tyro pita and Baklava around 1PM; she then gave us a better-directed tour – taking us to the port and beaches.  In a way, this can be a parable God used to show us that we really can't do things on our own, but with His guidance, He'll show us the beautiful, good things...especially in a place that is not our home.
As Ms. Vickie began preparing dinner for us, I became even more excited about practicing what little Greek I know with her.  She guided me through phrases and vocabulary as I pointed to everything I could find so she could tell me the word for it.  It was quite entertaining, considering she speaks little English.  However, she knows Spanish, Portuguese, and Greek - so my 2 years of Spanish were somewhat beneficial.  I learned she was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and has lived in Greece for 27 years now - it took her 6 months to learn the Greek tongue.  She laughed with me and said she enjoyed my questions because she was reminded of herself – always curious and wanting to learn.  So, she kept asking me “What more, what more?”
We, as a team, are in the process of getting to know each other and soak everything in.  We are all trying to get comfortable in a place where we were just thrown into, and right now, have feelings of a lack of direction.  Our mentor couple will not be arriving for 2 more weeks as well as Emily, a new addition to the team who we have yet to meet.  Right now, we are definitely in need of having go-with-the-flow attitudes and rest while we can (I like the sound of that)...
I am awake writing this at 5AM because I could not sleep.  Several of us couldn’t.  Elise and I were woken up by the heat and a mosquito that wouldn’t quit pestering us, and we couldn’t get back to sleep due to the loud commotion on the street… Also, the nightmares I’ve been having for about a month now still won’t cease.  I am hoping I will soon be able to sleep peacefully!  So, we stayed awake, talking and eating nutella and toast.  But we have church at 10:30 so I am going to try and rest for a short while.

In Christ,
Camille

1 comment:

  1. Well, this is my 3rd time trying to post you a comment...I guess what I was saying wasn't what God wanted me to say...So here it goes.

    We're not on the same time zone, same eating schedule, praying schedule, or even sleep pattern- but you're in my heart in prayer every single day.

    I hope that Greece is everything you''ve expected and more, I know you're probably going through a lot, but I pray that you would find strength in knowing that God put you there for a reason because there is no way all that money came in randomly!

    You can do this, I believe you and I know God believes in you Camille.

    You are such a great girl and I am so jealous that you're halfway around the world doing something that most of us dream about getting a chance to do.

    When you don't know what to say, when you don't know what to wear, when you don't know what word to speak: pray

    When you don't know what to eat, when you don't know where the money is going to come from, or what song to sing: pray

    When you're unsure of yourself, when you feel unloved, and when you feel hopeless and lost: pray

    When you don't know why can't sleep, when you don't have comfort at night, or feel sick: pray.

    Find comfort in the comforter and take on every day as if it's your last.

    You can do this. Miss you tons!

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