Dear Friends and Family,
It’s March already, but nonetheless, Happy New Year from Athens! We are excited to update you on all that has been going on and that God is doing here. So much has happened, it’s hard to know where to start.
Christmas Parties
In our previous newsletter we asked for prayer for the Christmas parties which took place in early December. We can say that God answered those prayers. We were able to serve around 150 refugees each night for 4 nights that week. Several Greek churches came to help cook the food and we had a team from the States help out as well, so we were able to focus more on being with the guests. We started the evenings by taking photos of each family as they came in next to a decorated Christmas tree with a backdrop. Smiling for photos is not something Afghans are used to doing, so Henk had to help Allie by trying to make funny faces and say some broken Farsi phrases. Usually this resulted in enough humor to get the family smiling!
As with a lot of the work we do, we don’t immediately see results in terms of people pouring out their hearts or giving their lives to Jesus, but we do know that these parties will be remembered for a long time. For many, it was their first introduction to the story of Christmas and we pray that this, rather than an image of Santa Claus and commercialism, will stick with them as they remember Christmas.
When everyone was sitting down, a group of Farsi-speaking believers performed a Nativity drama. Many of the refugee guests were recording the play with their smartphones, and some were even sending it live through skype to their relatives in Afghanistan! After the play, the pastor of the Afghan church gave a Christmas message in Farsi. Although at times there was a lot of noise in the room (partially because of the many crying babies and toddlers) many people were paying close attention.
The food was served – delicious Iranian rice, chicken and salad, with a Greek dessert. To close the evening, the moment everyone had been waiting for – the time to hand out presents! We had prepared packages with different gifts for babies, boys, girls, teenagers, men and women. Despite the challenge of handing them out in an orderly way, they were gratefully received!
In the meantime we have had our own Christmas break, in which Henk’s parents and sister came over for a visit. We enjoyed spending Christmas together and were able to get out of the city and see some of the beautiful Greek countryside.
New Building
The theme for our new year so far at Helping Hands seems to be “the new building”. Our team had been praying for years for a bigger space, and this prayer was unexpectedly fulfilled in the form of a building being donated last spring! It’s actually a floor in an office building about 10 minutes walk from our current center, with 5 rooms which will be used as classrooms, a cafeteria, a living room and a baby room. Our team has been busy these past months praying, discussing our vision and strategy and brainstorming about how to use and furnish the building. Next time we hope to share more about this!
One of the special connections we have made so far is with an Afghan couple called Amir and Lucy with their 3 kids.
Praise God for Amir's openness and desire to learn His truth. We appreciate prayer for our continuing friendship with Amir and Lucy, and for opportunities to continue meeting together.
Lucy has also expressed interest, but we cannot communicate much with her as she does not speak English and she is illiterate. She also stays home more often because of the kids. Pray that Allie would find opportunities to connect with her. Lucy is interested in a Bible study for illiterate women that our teammates who speak Dari are planning to start. Pray that she would be able to join and not be held back by fear, or practical issues. Allie will be participating in this group by preparing ongoing crafts with the women.
Pray for their kids (who range from 1 to 6 years old), who have gone through a lot of trauma in the past few years.
“I met Amir at men’s day, where he had some insightful comments and questions after one of our Bible studies. I invited him to meet one on one to study more of God’s word together. Amir speaks sufficient English, which is great because I am still only a beginner at Farsi. We are following a method called ‘Discovery Bible Study’ which takes key Bible passages from the Old and New Testaments. The idea is to learn to discover God’s truth for ourselves through questions like ‘what do we learn about God and man in this passage?’ and to learn to obey what it says by asking ‘how can we apply this to our lives in the coming week?’ It’s great seeing how Amir sometimes takes away something completely different than I would have normally seen in the passage. When we read the story of Passover in Exodus, he noticed how God required them to sacrifice an unblemished lamb. He said God asks us to give him our best, not just what is left after we take the best for ourselves. God is speaking to him! He also loves praying together.”
Prayer and Praise
Besides our regular work-week, we often have other opportunities to build relationships with refugee friends in a relaxed way.
- Praise we are feeling at home here.
- Praise for opportunities to make new refugee friends and share our lives with them.
- Pray for strength as we have started intensive Farsi classes, on top of our regular work schedule.
- Pray for our team as we develop plans for the new building, for wisdom and unity as we move forward.
- Pray for balance in our schedule as we are planning new activities and programs (like crafts, art-based trauma care, English classes and social nights for the young guys) and deciding how to best manage our time.
- Pray for Amir and Lucy as they have genuine fears about what their countrymen might do to them, even for just showing interest. Pray that God would keep them safe.
We love spending time with old and new friends and enjoying the scenery around Athens and further afield. Here are some photos from day trips around Athens including some time with Henk's cousin and her family, who came to visit. (Click to enlarge)
We love hearing from each of you! Thank you for the the many ways each of you is a part of God's work among refugees in Athens!
Blessings,
Henk and Allie Oosterhuis