Greece:Samos Team Update #3
Hello prayer warriors!
As our team continues to adjust to the climate & the soothing sounds of the cicadas, we were able to experience some of the local culture earlier today. We traveled by van & boat to our local training site at Porto Astro, north of Athens.
Johnathan Macris is the current President of Hellenic Ministries & he asked us this question in our program brochure:”Can you imagine living in one of Greece’s 8,000 rural villages and receiving one of the 1.5 million Bibles delivered through Operation Joshua – reading about Jesus for the first time and wondering if someone could help you understand?” That’s what the Greece-Samos team is here for.
We were blessed to hear from Johnathan this evening as he summarized their journey from the beginning of Hellenic Ministries about 38 years ago. He explained that if the summer evangelistic outreaches were a movie, he would break it into 4 different scenes.
Scene 1 – Catching the idea – This would go back to the 1970s, when he and his father Costas discussed whether they should preach publicly in Constitution Square as open evangelism was unheard of. It was the first time anything like this had been done in public and once they did it, everyone was in shock. But they did many public events and there were thousands of people who walked by and heard the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Scene 2 – It took 17 years, but they distributed 1.5 million bibles to all of rural Greece. This culminated in 2023 in taking the scriptures to 8,000 villages and hanging them on every doorknob.This allowed the scriptures to be taken in to homes.
Scene 3 – This season is about following up on the scriptures that were taken into the homes. Here we will engage with people on a 1-on-1 basis, building relationships & making key connections. We need to believe that we are the aroma of Jesus. We need to imagine that God is leading us – like Philip – to someone searching for truth.
Scene 4 – During his presentation, Dan Vorm will get us thinking about what season 4 will look like for Greek evangelism and church planting as a result of the relationships established during season 3. So stay tuned and perhaps dust off your missionary shoes, because you, too, could be a part of scene 4. They are always looking for extras!
Please pray for Dan Vorm who is on the teaching schedule for tomorrow. Please pray for good health, confidence, and an energized delivery of training materials. Please also continue to pray for our team unity and energy as we adjust to the high temperatures. Thank you for your continued prayers!
Cindy Hubert for the Greece – Samos Team
