Project Thessalonica

Friday, May 10, 2013:
The Lord instructed us to beware of those who wear long robes and love greetings in the market (Luke 20:46). Beware, because they honour the Lord with their lips, but their hearts are far from him; because in vain they worship Him and teach for doctrines the commandments of men; because they reject the commandments of God to keep their traditions (Mark 7:7).

How would you react to a man in a long, black robe instructing people that the freely distributed word of God was heresy and then commanding little children to kiss his hand in a sickening show of power and pride? Well, we did as the Lord instructed and preached Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen again for the salvation of men’s souls! The man in the long, black robe hates this message, he hates Jesus, the Bible and he hates the men who preach it and the women who hand it out (Jn. 15). So, as any good church-run state would do, the man in the long, black robe makes a phone call and the Christians get hauled off to the police station…again, to have our passports checked…again, in order to stop the preaching and distribution of God’s word. While these events are light afflictions compared to persecutions of past Christians, not to mention our Lord and Saviour, they are nonetheless annoying and disrupting…and illegal :). We were not officially “under arrest”, but were forced to ride in the back of police cars to the station and locked in a holding area with common criminals…while our passports were “checked”, of course. After about 45 minutes, we were released. Four Americans, a Brit and an Aussie all guilty of giving out the gospel…Praise the Lord!

The lesson is simple, anyone willing to obey the Lord and “go into all the world” will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12)! Howbeit, the incorruptible seed went forth to hundreds and we ask that all continue to pray the seed will find good ground.

As we make our way around the city, it is inspiring to see the historic ruins and to imagine oneself present when Paul and Silas were reasoning with them out of the scriptures and to see the agora where is it quite plausible Jason was brought and falsely accused by envious religious leaders (sounds familiar, Acts 17). One thing is for certain, the warfare then was spiritual and the same is true today! Just as they, we are wrestling against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). But praise the Lord, we have the victory through Jesus Christ, who has spoiled those principalities (Col. 2:15) and hath made us more than conquerors, promising us that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:37-39) Amen!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013:
Crowds were back to normal capacity as our group ministered on the streets in the city. Three preachers sounded forth the saving gospel to this generation of Greeks on the same ground where Paul preached the same saving gospel to his generation (Acts 13:36). The word of God quietly worked on the hearts of those who would receive it and good conversations were had in both Greek and English. One man read the entire Gospel of John before going on his way while another couple, who spoke very good English, sat and listened to the men preaching until they all finished before going leaving. Let us continue to pray the seed sown will find good ground and bear much fruit to the glory and praise of our Saviour!

It was truly a blessing to be at The BIBLE Baptist Church of Thessaloniki for Wednesday night service. A good crowd of Greeks, Americans, Aussies, Afghans and Brits were in attendance for the preaching of God’s word. Br. Brent and Br. Nathan shared the preaching time and brought respective messages on ‘eternal security’ and ‘properly receiving God’s word’. These are lively services with those in attendance frequently commenting and asking questions during the preaching as they grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Many years of spiritual darkness and “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” must be undone and the word of God rightly divided so that all may worship in Spirit and in truth. Nonetheless, it is such a blessing that saved sinners from all over the world (literally) can be together in sweet fellowship (1 Jn. 1:3).

Thursday, May 9, 2013:
This morning the group was busy letter-boxing in the city, which is quite a production given the maze of one-way streets and double-parked vehicles that must be negotiated. Many residential buildings in the city place their letter boxes inside the foyer making it very difficult to access them due to key pad combination locks. However, if you are Bethany and Lydia Logan, you get people to hold the door open for you so that you can stuff the boxes and then smile and wish you a good day as you exit! :). Let this be a lesson to us all who have children that it is worth the effort, if at all possible, to take them with us as we minister publicly. Rarely will someone turn down literature from the hands of a child and oftentimes they receive more favour with those being ministered to than do we adults!

This afternoon, we dove into stamping Gospel of John booklets while everyone took care of some respective personal items. We then enjoyed a meal together at the Logan’s house and rested up for what promises to be a busy weekend as we look forward to the street meeting Friday, a baptism Saturday and church services Sunday.

Please remember these prayer requests:
1. Angelo flies out early Monday morning and a translator is needed to continue effectively ministering
2. That our group will obtain favour from the Lord and the Greeks and that we can make a difference in their lives for the cause of Christ
3. Continue to pray according to 2 Thess. 3:1-2

The Greek Easter celebration ended Monday…but that did not necessarily mean people returned to work on Tuesday! Our plans to do food shopping were thwarted because the stores were all closed, so we went to the city center to sow some incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23) and offer freely the Bread of Life (Jn. 6). We wondered if God might have switched our plans – it turned out to be a great day! The following are highlights from our 3 hours on the street:

1. Perhaps the most uplifting event was getting to see Avra, a dear Greek lady whom we have heard much about from the folks here. It was a blessing getting to meet her and we are looking forward to spending more time with her and the others during church services.

2. One gentleman approached and said “I’m 80 years old and I know I’m going to die…I just want to know the truth!” He was shown the Way, the Truth, and the Life!

3. Pray for Antonio, who believes Jesus is God and died for his sins, but has been taught that only the priests can have the Holy Spirit and that scriptural understanding is reserved only for them as well.

4. A Pentecostal man stood beside one of our members and sharply rebuked his fellow-countrymen when they refused our gifts. He stated he was ready to punch those who treated us badly. We started pointing to…just kidding 🙂 !

5. Pray that Alexis and her 7-month old baby girl visiting for 6 weeks from ? will honor her word and attend services this week. Promises like this abound, but few follow through.

Rest assured that when the precious name of Jesus is preached, it has an effect on people. Despite very low numbers of people out and about, there was no lack of excitement! We preached Christ…to many Greeks, foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23). Men earnestly contended for their religion, some to the point of fighting amongst themselves, while we earnestly contended for the faith of Christ with those who would listen (Jude 3).

We finished out the day letter-boxing in the city. It is truly amazing how many ways a letter box can be designed and built! We then enjoyed a meal together at one of the fine Greek restaurants that abound in this sea-port city.

Please make the following matters of prayer:
1. Angelo leaves May 13 and a translator is badly needed.
2. We are hopeful there will be a baptism on Saturday.
3. That our team will make a difference in someone’s life for Christ during our time here.
4. “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.” (2 Thess. 3:1-2)

The team from Spring City Baptist Church arrived safely and began settling in while stamping some Gospel of John booklets that will be given out on the streets. We enjoyed fellowship and a meal prepared by the Logan’s at their house before retiring for the night. Unless you’ve been here, it will be hard to understand what a wonderful work the Lord has done in preparing all the details of this project! It is such a blessing to see His hand at work and to be serving with dedicated servants who simply love the Lord and want to see the name of our Saviour lifted high (John 12:32) in this city!

What a joy to labour together with other believers to get the gospel out! Below you see a picture of some of those in the church working together to stuff over 13,000 envelopes with the good news of Jesus Christ. It took 9 hours to complete this job, but all were happy to do it for the Lord. We prayed over this literature, and it is now at the post office ready to be delivered. It will cover a radius of the city around our church building and potentially reach over 40,000 individuals. Please pray for the recipients to respond to the Spirit of God and get in touch with us!

The gospel continues to sound out in Thessaloniki for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our public preaching has encountered no more opposition due to the grace of God and answered prayer. Literature also floods the city door-to-door. It is amazing just how many tracts and gospels of John have been distributed. May Jesus Christ be praised. This week we are planning a mail-out to over 13,000 households in a circumference around the church building. Keep this before the Lord!

Recently, we have been blessed with Harula’s husband attending our services. We have tried unsuccessfully for 10 months to get this man to visit or converse with us. His wife has been coming all along, but he was always leery. Possibly because of Angelo’s persistence and Mrs. Logan’s continual sending of sweets to him via his wife, his heart softened. He and his wife now enjoy coming together. What a joy to see Greeks (born and raised Orthodox) follow along in the word of God as it is preached. They both (older couple on the back row pictured below) now acknowledge the fallacy of the Greek Orthodox religion and declare they have been saved. Please pray for them. This past Sunday we had 5 Greeks, 1 Nigerian, 1 Iranian, and of course, 5 Americans with 1 Australian. So many more have promised to attend. Others have been hindered with extra work as they struggle to pay their bills. We are praying that the things of the Lord become first in the hearts of those to whom we are teaching the precious word of God. Please be in pray over a replacement for Angelo. He departs Greece on May 13th. We are looking now for a translator to hire.

Day 11 (Last Day:(
Friday, April 19 10:30am

Up and ready and no matter how hard we try, we cannot sleep in. Did not need to go letter boxing until noon so after our time with the Lord we began stamping the gospel of John with the church’s address and phone number and started reminiscing about yesterday;
-Elisabeth and I were coming back to Br. Logan during street ministry when a camera man and reporter came up to us and put the mic up to Elisabeth and spoke Greek. Elisabeth says she can’t understand and he says you don’t speak Greek? No! They walk away frustrated.
-When I was holding the gospel sign I saw a woman coming from my right and I heard her say, “tsk, tsk, haven’t you anything better to do?” At first I am caught off guard because I am not expecting to hear English and by the time I turned towards her, she was already a few meters away.

12:00pm
After praying for our day we all head over to Br. Logan’s. Karine (Correct spelling, sounds like Carina) wants to come letter boxing so she goes with Angelo (to have someone to speak with), Ben and David while LauraM, Elisabeth and I go with Br. Logan. What a great day and we get over six boxes emptied by close to 2:30pm. We all had a good time and I even saw the street where the Apostle Paul hung out; they named this street after him! Ha Ha!! Angelo said he changed Karine’s name to Paul-ina as she was witnessing to people on the street and telling them to, “read the gospel and get saved.” She is so full of excitement for the Lord but very mixed up as well; Wanting a sign from God and very into the Charismatic signs and wonders thing and does not think you can have eternal security but lose your salvation whenever you sin. It is very sad because all of her (and our) answers are in the Bible. I think the saddest part of our day tho was watching an older man ripping up the gospel he took from his letterbox. If he only knew what it was he was doing but, one day the Lord will remind him of that moment and he will regret that day.

6:00pm
After lunch at Cosmos we all went for a last hurrah at Starbucks. I think there are only 4-5 in Thessaloniki and we must have it them all, several times:) We saw a man with the biggest watch I’ve ever seen, it looked like a mini clock. We said farewell to Karine as she took the bus home and we drove back to the Logan’s to say good-bye and pick up more gospel of John to stamp.

9:00pm
At “home” packing and cleaning the mission-house. Hard to believe we leave in the morning. Angelo has been so kind and shared with us some of the wonderful times that he has had with all the teams and misses each one as they leave. I am so glad tho that he will have time to rest, study and do his laundry:) after we go. The next team comes the first week in May and Angelo heads home to Australia the second week. He has been a real blessing!! The Logan family are wonderful and the whole family look and act so at home here on the mission field. They were very kind to us and I so enjoyed our short spurts of time together.
I really liked our team; LauraM-Florida, DavidJ-Alabama, Elisabeth-Alberta and Me. I think we had a great time together; worked/played so well. Many, many laughs and wonderful memories.
So grateful the Lord allowed me to come.

Day 10
Thurs. April 18 10:20am
Couldn’t make it out of bed at 7:00am to go pay bills and hit the market for the smell of fresh fish!? So up at 9:00am. with devotions and time with Elisabeth. Br. Logan and Ben came for us at 10:30am to go to the square. On the way we saw a man fall and slide on his motorcycle but he picked himself up, acted like nothing happened and all is normal and then parked his bike.

11:15am
Back at the square where we were last Thurs. and we all found that not everyone was as quick at taking the gospel of John as they were last week. Of course I never noticed a difference because for some reason I don’t hand out my gospels as quick as the others but I just agreed with everyone. We did empty four boxes though and that was good. Angelo spoke with a couple, Demetri and Yannie, who were this close to becoming J.W.s until Angelo showed them the truth from the gospel of John and shared other verses from the Bible. Even explaining what the J.W. believes and how there is no logic to it helped this couple to understand that that doctrine is wrong. He had the privilege of speaking with this couple for over an hour.

2:00pm
After our quick stop at Starbucks we were off to see Mario again with the literature promised. While on our way, we were reminiscing about telling Mario to, “trust Jesus only.” Then LauraM and I decided to have him make us a necklace that says, Trust Jesus. When we were speaking to Mario the first time, there was a girl in her mid 20’s who came over and we found out after she left that she would visit Mario almost everyday for up to 2 hours. Angelo told him that that was not a good idea and the relationship could turn from friendship to something sinful. Angelo asked if Mario would like his wife to visit with a man everyday for that length of time? Mario fervently agreed that he would not like that. Well when we saw Mario today he told us that he asked that girl not to come again. After saying farewell to Mario, we headed off back to the souvenir shop at the fort and then to Carrefour where the chocolate and candy is so good.

5:30pm
Home to get ready to go out for more pizza. (I’m still an Angilinas fan:)

7:00pm
We pick up Ben and on the way to the pizza place Angelo gets a call from Corrina and she wants to letter box tomorrow. That is so exciting. The older man at church says that her husband is a wicked man and her situation is not good. We are so thankful that she is wanting to come and pray that she will get good fellowship while we are together.
Still before the pizza place we go around and around and around the round about; kind of reminds me of a Mr. Bean movie:)
Once we get to the pizza place we get the traditional greeting from the waitress, “please put the toilet paper in the trash and not the toilet, thank you !” Just kidding, not really for the locals, this greeting is for the foreigners. One of two possible reasons that I can figure out; 1. it is superstitious or 2. they don’t have big pipes like they do in Canada/America. Anyway, Elisabeth comes back from the facilities and says, “what ever you do, do as the waitress says because I forgot and it took forever to flush everything down.” We were wondering where she went!!! It was up to Angelo, our host with the most, to show us how this is done.
It was a fun day and it is good to not only be serious but also have fun in the Lord’s work.
In Greece you can still smoke in the restaurants and it is so strange to see and smell this.
We do not see any train tracks in Thessaloniki but Br. Logan says that they do have a rickety train transportation, I think outside of Thessaloniki.

11:27pm
Last day tomorrow, hard to believe we will be leaving. Truly a gift the Lord has given me and thankful I could share some of my trip with you all.

Day 9
Wed. April 17, 11:00am

It was a late night last night for everyone, in our beds by 2-3am. I was dragging myself to bed and ended getting up at 9am. Time with the Lord and that needful first cup of coffee helped me kickstart my day.
Off to the Logans for 11:30am and we pay homage to the Dessert Queen. Loved that coconut cake. Once through crazy traffic Br. Logan figures out the streets, and where we need to be. No barking dogs, no Albanians, just letter boxing with the odd apartment door open. We think that maybe there is one living in the apartment building that is desiring the truth so God gives us that open door as a gift! It feels good to see boxes once filled with 300 gospels of John become empty. We share our time with Mario to Br. Logan and how exciting that time had been. We end up talking about different things while driving and we had discussed the snow falling back in Canada and I asked Br. Logan, “when does it stop snowing in Greece?” and his response, “it doesn’t snow here!” Hmm! I think I like that idea of no snow:)
Elisabeth asked about the voting system; whenever there is an election, everyone has to go back to the place they were born to vote, no matter how long they’ve lived where they are living. So interesting. Remind anyone of another couple having to do that?
Well it is almost 2pm when we meet up with Br. Angelo and the other team.

2pm.
We all head back home for lunch but stopped at the bakery first. Tried a few different things. After lunch la la land was calling and I had to obey.

6:30pm
We head off to church and before the service there is a time of fellowship. Once Corrina comes in we all sit down and had prayer requests, time of prayer and Bible study. Br. Logan preached on the Will of God: Understanding His will. It was so good and it is thrilling to see the new Christians ask questions and truly want to know the Bible.

9:00pm
Br. Angelo, David, LauraM, Elisabeth and I head for Starbucks as I have run out of Tim Hortons:( No problem, this will do the trick (even more so) in the morning. Then we head to my new favourite restaurant Full tou Meze (correct spelling:) From this time forward the combination of being tired and funny people have kicked in our desire to laugh. I try to take a photo of the counter in the restaurant and the waiter sees what I am doing and steps back into my photo; the waiter who took our order has the most comical facial expressions, pretends to be shy and eyes Elisabeth with raised eyebrows several times. He told me he did not recommend the mushroom port abelo but the grilled mushrooms and Angelo said it was probably because they didn’t have any. David is imitating the Greek singer that is being played throughout the restaurant. It is so funny and he is so good we suggest he put out his own Greek singing CD!!

11:10pm
We head off and you’ll never guess what we come across; either a photo shoot or movie shoot. This old-er guy on a Harley Davidson coming down the cobblestone street and this look of “where is he” scowl on his face. We are all just laughing and have our cameras out only to discover Angelo isn’t even taking pictures but pretending. It is so funny and we can’t stop laughing. As we leave Angelo compliments the fellow on his Harley Davidson. Well back to the car and as we head home, four police on motorcycles speed by us and we figure they want to make Starbucks before it closes!!

12:00am (presently 1:41am)
Home and as each one goes their way I think we can all agree that is was a good day. Pondering on the last week and anticipating the next two days. How God has been so good in every area.

Day 8
Tues. April 16 10:50am

Off to our street meeting at the Arch which began at 11:20am. At one time this use to be the entrance into the city. After singing a few hymns we head off to hand out the gospel of John. Sometimes I head off with Elisabeth and we both take note of the Starbucks on the corner and other times I head off with LauraM and stop for a fruit smoothie. It is very thirsty work! We have many contacts; LauraM spoke with a lady and was able to give her the gospel, the lady wanted to read her gospel of John before committing to anything. Laura confirmed with her that salvation was not through the church because you can not trust men and the lady said that is for sure! Hmmm! Elisabeth gave the gospel to a lady who then came up to Br. Logan and Angelo and said that she was calling the police and was going to sue them for telling a different faith. The police humoured her and told us to leave for five minutes and then we could come back; so that is what we did. She was no where to be seen either, that’s how serious she was I guess. Boy can LauraM and Elisabeth ever get the gospel of John out. No one seems to want to take them from me or David and I don’t know why. Elisabeth says she has a scowl on her face so people fear her:) and I don’t think LauraM gives anyone a choice. I will practice my aggressive scowl tonight on them and see if they take the gospel from me:)
Went to the Temple of Zeus where they now have a Muslim Prayer Tower. There was reconstruction going on so I couldn’t get a real feel for the place. Then off to the Orthodox church to see what all the fuss is about but I couldn’t get a real feel for that place either. Now off to Starbucks which even Br. Logan got a feel for. Yummmmm! Hey, even missionaries need a Starbucks! by the way, the code to use the WC is 1977 if you ever need it.

3:00pm
Headed home exhausted; laid down for a rest and an hour later I was waking up. At 5:30pm we headed to the most authentic Greek Restaurant in town; The Ful to Mesa (incorrect spelling) to meet with the Logan family. It was wonderful; we had Greek salad, 2 kinds of deep fried cheese, stuffed big onion with meat and onion (I think), fish, pork, squid or octopus (I can’t remember) I do remember that it was good. Everyone had a fun time and it was good to all be together and to get to know each other more. We headed down the street to a souvenir shop and more Starbucks. Can you believe it. I wasn’t even a Starbucks fan until I came here and only because they don’t have a Tim Hortons. I’ll repent once I get back to Canada:)

9:00pm
We say good-bye to the Logans and head to the parking lot but before we get to far we stop at a vendor who twists wire into your name in English or Greek and strings it into a necklace. This man, Mario, is searching for the truth but cannot seem to separate good works with salvation. We say Jesus alone but he believes Jesus plus church, Mary or good works. He is mixed up in a lot of things as that is what he has been taught for so many years. We tell him that the Bible, God’s Word, is our final Authority but because he does not read the Bible, the church and what it says has been his authority. We were there for three hours witnessing to this man and noticing that other people, throughout the three hours, would stop to listen and we would hand them a tract. We pray that on Mario’s way home, he will think on these things and that God will give him clear understanding.

12:45am
We enter “home” have the awesome Coconut Cake that Mrs. Logan made for us and I eat while doing my report, need a second piece to keep going and now I can finally say Good-night.