In the spring, in addition to the heat, the refugees usually come to Greece more and more. Now the wave of refugees has been significantly aggravated by Turkey opening its borders to Greece. Turkey is being accused of using the refugees to pressure Europe in the war with Syria. In recent days, Greece is pushing the refugees back along its border with Turkey. According to some sources, refugees do not even have to pay the smugglers in order to cross the border now, which would indicate that Turkey wants to try to surprise Greece and the EU with the largest wave possible. Some Greeks and Europeans are afraid that we will again experience what happened in 2015, when over a million refugees poured into Europe, mainly through Greece. Especially in Lesvos and the islands near Turkey, wild protests have occurred among the local Greeks. They try different methods to scare both refugees and foreign volunteers away from Greece because they feel they have had enough of the refugee crisis. Several volunteers and organizations have moved away from the islands in recent days. In addition to a team that is at Lesbos, we also have a family who just moved there from Athens. They have lived there for a few months already, but was now moving their stuff from Athens to Lesbos to primarily help starting a prayer house on the island. They departed from Athens on Sunday and just before the wife and the children were about to take the flight to Lesbos, they received a phone call from one of the volunteers working there. The person advised them not to go there at all, as several foreign cars during the day were vandalized by local groups. They have barricaded roads to and from the refugee camp on the island, prevented refugees from arriving at the beaches and thrown stones and shattered windows and frightened the people they suspect are helping refugees. YWAM has also has a vessel docked in a harbor. They suddenly became a target for a mob who started throwing bottles of gasoline and threatened to burn up the entire boat. They quickly had to leave the harbor to find a safer place out in a bay. Pray for both the refugees and the volunteers who are out on the islands trying to help, as well as the Greeks who feel helpless in this never-ending crisis. The latest news is now that some volunteers have started to go back to the camp to help but not sure yet what the reactions will be from the local protesters. Here in Athens the situation hasn't changed so far. But many are wondering if this is the beginning of a new wave that will try to enter Europe, via Athens. One thing that differs from 2015 is that many people lack sympathy with the refugees. You do not want to have a million refugees again in Europe, which also is understandable. Still there are people out there that we cannot leave in despair. Without a long-term solution, I am afraid that it could result in even greater human suffering than before. According to the information I have seen, Lesvos has about 20,000 refugees and throughout Greece, almost 100,000 refugees are scattered (most live in refugee camps). Several of them are still waiting for answers whether they can stay here or not. Preaching where Paul preached! I had the privilege of teaching a DTS (Disciple Training School) from Lesvos last week here in Athens. The theme was DMM (Discipleship making movement) and evangelism. It was the first time I taught a whole week! In the DMM teaching, among others, you go through how the gospel is spread by the first Christians (in the Acts of the Apostles), how you can share your testimony and the gospel to other people, and how to train disciple makers. We had two afternoons at Marshill (where Paul preached to the Athenians). We were having worship, testimonies and open air preaching for our group and many around us sat and listened to what we said. The first day on Marshill I quoted Paul by heart from Acts 17 (Paul's speech to the Athenians). So much of what Paul was talking about then still applies to us today. Among other things, there was a man who wanted to talk to us because he had just come down from the Parthenon (Acropolis located next to the Aeropage) where he prayed to Zeus and some other god (there are those who still believe in mythology!). Another couple was very interested to hear more about how God can speak to us and that He is near us. Many of those who were there were Orthodox Greeks who believed in God but had not experience the life you can live with God. It has only become a culture that they follow. There were several others who wanted to talk for a long time and had many questions about faith. Here is a picture from Marshill as I am quoting Paul from Acts 17:22-31 "People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
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AuthorFamiljen Sandås består av Martin, Hege-Elise, Kaleb, Rebecka och Eliah. Archives
March 2024
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