Spring is here and Easter is right around the corner.  On one busy day at the Athens Refugee Center we were showing the Jesus film in Farsi, as we always do on Saturdays.  In the midst of this chaos, two women sat crying.  Our teammate Susie asked them if she could help them.  They said, “We were watching about Jesus.”  She realized then that they were focused on the movie and she left them to watch.  When the movie was over she went back to the women to see if they had any questions.  They said, “We did not know about this (Jesus rising from the dead).  Why has no one shared this news with us before?”  Easter is a time when we can share with refugees the wonderful truth about Jesus’ death and resurrection.  In the past we have done that in a variety of ways.  We have had special events with puppets and crafts all sharing the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.  We share messages about Easter and pass out literature in their own language.  We give out Tsoureki (a sweet bread traditional at Easter) as a special treat at our Easter meal.  This year once again we are planning a special outreach and other treats.  Your gift can help us to share the message of Jesus at this critical time.  To give, please send your gift (designated to “Helping Hands, Athens – Easter 2012) to:

International Teams – USA; 411 W. River Rd.; Elgin, IL 60123; USA

International Teams – UK; PO Box 11; Brecon, Powys, Wales, LD3 9WJ; UK

International Teams – Australia; PO Box 1123; Baulkham Hills, NSW 1755; Australia

International Teams – Canada; 1 Union Street; Elmira, Ontario N3B 3J9; Canada

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Subject: Leadership change at the Athens Refugee Team

International Teams USA and the Athens Refugee Team (Helping Hands) are pleased to announce that Kent Morley will be serving as the new team leader effective March 1, 2012. The previous team leader,  Brett Sanner, and his family will be relocating back to the US this spring after nearly five years in Athens.

Prior to coming to Athens, Kent was a successful small business owner and an elder in a local church.  Originally from Oregon, Kent and his wife Myrna have served full-time in Athens with International Teams since July 2008. Kent has served on the Helping Hands leadership team for nearly three years, providing pastoral care for the ministry team during that time.

 “God is at work in amazing ways in the lives of refugees here in Athens,” Kent says. “He is prying people out of the grip of darkness and transferring them into His Kingdom. I am honored to serve with such an outstanding team of dedicated and gifted individuals who are passionate about joining God in that work.” 

Thanks so much for your prayers and support during these outreaches!  Your partnership in these outreach events is so important to us.  Thank you!  Here are a few more pictures from our week.  Enjoy!

A packed house!

Enjoying the festive environment!

Our teammate Michalis with some of the Afghan boys

Burnt bread from the bottom of the rice pot - an Afghan treat

Kingdom Beyond Borders is a collection of refugee stories and testimonies from 15 years of ministry at Helping Hands!  What more could you ask for!  While most of these stories pre-date our family’s arrival in Athens, it is encouraging to see the legacy of God’s work here.  I’m honored to a part of a long line of God’s servants here in Athens.  Indeed, we stand on the shoulders of giants.  Our history here encourages me; our future here inspires me!  Here’s the publishers description of the book:

Kingdom Beyond Borders is a collection of true stories, told by refugees – unwanted people living in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Helping Hands Ministry in Athens, Greece, shines as a bright beacon on the long and treacherous refugee highway. There, the heroes of this book – like thousands of others – found help, acceptance, and friendship; but above all, they found the key that unlocked the secret to the Kingdom. These are their stories.

All profits from the book go back to International Teams‘ refugee work around the world!  So, buy a copy for yourself and one for a friend (of course, this is the perfect Christmas gift for anyone interested in missions, refugees, or who simply loves a great story)!

Amazon (paperback and Kindle) – HERE

Barnes & Noble – HERE

WestBow Press – HERE

The definition for despair is: 1) To lose all hope; 2) To be overcome by a sense of futility or defeat…  More and more we are seeing refugees who are “living lives of quiet desperation” (Henry David Thoreau).   A few days ago at our family meal and outreach, I sat with a family who have two children.  Their son is one of my favorites – a very sweet boy, who likes to tease me about my poor Farsi.  After dinner the mom was standing outside on the balcony with her son and daughter.  She was looking down to the street as the traffic went by.  Susie [a teammate] stepped out to speak with her.  She told Susie that if she didn’t have two children to care for she would jump in front of one of the buses as they went by.  I had no idea.  A life of quiet desperation.

“A” a woman with five children to care for gets up early each day to take her older children to school and then goes to work cleaning apartment buildings for little pay.  She struggles every day to keep her children fed and to have a place to sleep.  Often her heroin-addicted husband comes home at two or three in the morning and he wakes her up to cook food for him in the middle of the night.  He is sometimes abusive and she is afraid.  A life of quiet desperation.

“L,” a journalist who wrote a book on human and women’s rights, has a death warrant on his head.  He fled his country and has not seen his wife and children in two years.  As he sat on our couch recently, he began to weep when I asked about them.  A life of quiet desperation.

Many young Afghan men left their homes after being denied an education because they were the wrong ethnic group.  They spend their days living in the park,  walking around from place to place to get food.  They feel they are wasting their lives and there is no end in sight.  Lives of quiet desperation.

Families that are separated as one parent takes some of the children and goes to another  country hoping for asylum and to be able to send for the rest of the family.  An almost blind grandmother caring for her grand daughter whose parents have moved on and no longer want her.  A child left to live with relatives or friends or even worse, on their own, as parents break up the family in hopes of moving on.  Lives of quiet desperation.

… We do what we can to ease their way – we give out groceries, we give out clothes, we listen to them, cry with them, pray for them.  In the end there is little we can do to change their circumstances.  But we can offer hope.  Hebrews 6:18-19 says “God did this so that… we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.  We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”  In a world where nothing is secure we need an anchor.  

Read the entire update here.