the americans have arrived...

This summer we have 9 Americans here for a summer internship (Including my good friend from Seattle, Kelly (in front on the L). She is a friend I first met at Bethany Comm Church in Seattle...it's such a treat to have an old friend here to process with!) This summer crew are from all over the US and bring a variety of backgrounds and related experiences. They are spending three weeks with us for anti-trafficking training and Greek lessons during the day. Then, 3 nights a week we are hitting the streets at midnight to reach out to the Nigerian girls. We hope these extra visits to the streets will further deepen relationships. The goal is to have a small "party" with the girls the last Thurs in July before they leave for work on the streets. It's always helpful to talk with them without the looming pressure of customers, police and street distractions.

I've been buoyed by the intern's enthusiasm and commitment to the cause. They seem to be learning a lot and enjoying their time....and it's encouraging for us to have people visit with fresh eyes and energy. We will be brainstorming about ways they can take this new knowledge back to their home cities and churches. Trafficking is alive and well in the USA, too.

Lest you worry about all our hard work...we are building in fun, team-building activities too! We spent Wednesday at an island near Athens. We rented bikes for the day and rode them to a beach...the refreshing water was just what we needed to hide from the blazing Greek sun! Free travel advice: this country is much more comfortable to visit in the spring and fall!

We would appreciate your prayers to cover this next few weeks. It's a lot of time together and a lot of late nights! So please pray for team unity and energy. Also, there weren't that many great conversations in our first outreach on Thursday ...pray that we'd be able to connect in significant ways with the girls we meet.

mountain escape...

I had the chance to vacate the city for a few days last wk and escape to a small village sandwiched between the sea on one side and Mt. Olympus on the other. A perfect scenario really. Greece is beautiful just outside of Athens! ;)

We have a new team member! Annette hails from Australia and plans to be with Nea Zoi for two years. She has already started jumping headfirst into relationships with the women she's met on Outreach. Today she is meeting with two girls from Nigeria to start lessons in English reading/writing. These girls speak English but didn't have the chance to go to school. So, although we don't have experience teaching, we figured we could start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.....

Please pray for these sweet girls, Kelly & Kora. Kelly came to Athens to do this work...but she "didn't know it'd be like this." She does it to support her 4 younger siblings and Mom at home, as there is no work in Nigeria. She also signed over the deeds to her family's house when she came. She will supposedly get it back when she pays off her €50,000 debt to her trafficker. (...because a plane ticket from Nigeria costs €50,000 ??!??!???! ) But, since she can't read, what did she really sign?? As so many of the girls do, Kora has a similar story.

Please pray for wisdom for Annette today and pray that this is a start of friendship that God can use to lend hope, mercy, options and new opportunities.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free...." Gal 5

update from sweltering Greece...

Most of the Nea Zoi staff at a Team Retreat last month.

Good reports keep coming in about the 'escapee' from last month. She seems to be adjusting well in the shelter and they are working on getting her legal papers so she can travel home to Romania.

In other news, last week I met with 2 girls that want new jobs. One is not working on the streets anymore and the other girl is still there until she can find something else. While it's encouraging to meet girls that are asking for new work, it's so frustrating for me to not be able to hand them something on a silver platter! I've read of organizations in other countries (such as Cambodia) that can give the girls sewing positions or domestic house-cleaning jobs. Sadly, we can't do that in Athens....we don't have jobs to offer and the economy is crummy in general. But we are glad to come along side them as they search....network with them, sit with them while they make phone calls, help them read the Greek newspaper ads. Hopefully our encouragement and support is a wee bit helpful!

But I would love to see a Greek businessperson (someone who would know how to jump thru all the Greek bureaucracy hoops!) want to open a coffee shop to employ a couple of our girls. He/she would have to view it as "mission" because the girls have tough backgrounds and varied levels of experience or qualifications....they may work one wk and then not show up the next! But I love the idea of business as mission. Hmmm, I'll have to pray about that more intentionally/specifically...

In the meantime, please pray for ideas, faithfulness and wisdom as we work with these girls. And for open doors to new life...

ps...if you are reading this today/Thursday, I'm headed to our 12:00-2:00am outreach! Please shoot a prayer! Thanks!

the good news with the bad...

Thank you so much for your prayers. This time God didn't intervene in the way we had hoped. Not being able to envision a way to manage a 9-month pregnancy without the $$ prostitution provides, Michelle found a doctor to do the sad deed last night. But I am trusting the Lord intervened in less obvious ways....hopefully the conversations, the kindness and love she experienced during the last few wks will serve as seeds of hope in her broken life.

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer..." Ro 12:12

But let me cheer you with some good news. We had an escapee this wkend! My teammate, Dee, met her in a brothel between customers...she was cold to us....didn't want to chat. She wasn't interested in what Dee had to say.

But then Dee said, "Why do you believe all the lies they tell you?" That's all it took! 180 degree turn. Just like that. With those 10 words her frosty exterior melted, her heart softened and she had ears to hear options. Long story short - she ran away without any of her possessions, hid with us for 2 nights while her captors looked for her and finally our team delivered her to a shelter far from those that take advantage of her!

The good stories give us encouragement to fight another day! Thank you, again, for your prayers last week....please pray for this escaped girl to find meaning in her new life.

baby #21...

I spent yesterday with a visiting team of college kids from Indiana sticking stickers. We plastered them all up and down the street that we go to on Thursday nights. It's a thriving, bustling vegetable market by day and a popular place to find a prostitute by night. Hopefully girls will recognize our logo and be able to find our tele number if they need it. Please pray that they won't all get taken down and that God will make them visible to the right eyes.


We hope a girl like Michelle might see the stickers. We met Michelle in a brothel. She's 23. Her story is tragic....she was raped by her father at 12 then raised in a Romanian orphanage and only received some elementary education.

Now she's living with a man 20 yrs older that she calls her boyfriend. Her job in the brothel supports them. She's now 2 months pregnant and called us to get help with an abortion. She's had 20 other abortions with no anesthesia and wants to do it differently this time. (wow)

We're definitely not the 'abortion people' but it is an opportunity for us to be in her life...to have some conversations with her. So my co-worker, Vicki, has met with her a couple of times to discuss other options for her pregnancy but also for her whole life! As she listened she said she can't begin to even dream of the other life Vicki talked about. Where would she start? How would she pay for an apartment with no education and no other skills? Her boyfriend cleverly tells her that all the Eastern European men here want to sell her to someone else. So she is jumpy and constantly suspicious of everyone around....and the fear conveniently keeps her locked away from civilization. She didn't even know how to ride on the escalator because she never gets out in the city...she's either working or at home.

Vicki put her in contact with a doctor we know and trust but didn't go with her to the appointment. The doctor couldn't commit to what Michelle had hoped for because she is so far along in her pregnancy.

This is the latest email from Vicki, "We had many long phone conversations today during her breaks in the brothel. She has asked again and again for me to go to the doctor and help and I had to explain to her again how I feel and what I believe. To make the story short, she and her boyfriend want to meet with us and discuss the adoption solution. So please, please pray God will change their hearts and that they will make the right decision. Pray for us as well, for peace, wisdom and guidance from our Lord. We have a meeting on Friday to meet them both and talk things through."

We're on the cusp! Of a miracle for baby #21 or of yet another horrible decision in a life of 1,000,000 tragedies.
Please pray with us today!

blooper reel....

So I was supposed to bring the refreshments for an annual Nea Zoi meeting for Greek supporters. I went to the store to buy all my ingredients. Should be pretty straight forward, yea? Well, I made banana bread out of BISQUICK, tried to put INSTANT coffee through the filter coffee maker, and set out SALT and CONDENSED MILK for them to use in their coffee and tea!! Sheeeesh, I'm making culinary vocabulary flashcards RIGHT NOW! (and I've probably been dismissed from the refreshment committee....)

In other news....spent Saturday at Corinth with some of the kids from the Greek Bible College and their professor who happens to teach Corinthians. He was a great guide (obviously)...it was really fun to be there with someone who can explain the pile of old stones from a Biblical perspective. So much of the old city is still there...the main street, the shop walls, even a public latrine! Here's me strolling on main street...

Here's the college students on the ancient starting blocks. Paul used so many race references in his letters because athletics was a real part of the Greek life.

Paul stayed in Corinth for 18 months and worked as a tent maker in one of these shops. (These are different NW shops than the shops I miss in the Pacific Northwest!)

This is the Bema judgement seat from Acts 18 where Paul was brought before Gallio, the Proconsul, accused of "persuading men to worship God"...

Just a few miles away is Cenchrea, where Paul had his hair cut before jumping on a boat to Ephesus. (Acts 18:18) This is me at the barbershop... (well, maybe...)

And finally, here's a more modern wonder. The Corinth Canal - built in 1881 to connect the Gulf of Corinth with the Aegean Sea.

wreaking havoc....

Athens had a bad day yesterday. As you probably saw on your TV, somehow this favorite Greek pastime....

turned to sheer madness! My roommate and I had been warned by the US Embassy to stay inside and away from the typical protest spots. We didn't know that would be up the block from our house!! We knew it had to be close when we could hear the crowds yelling and the tear gas "bombs" going off right down the street. We had to close our doors when we started coughing and had itchy eyes. Luckily my Dad delivered these handy masks all the way from Idaho just in case... here we are enjoying Greece from the balcony...

and here from inside ....trying to avoid the smoke from the bank & fire truck that were on fire just a couple blocks away....

This media van was totally destroyed....

Before...

After... poor dumpster...

All this expensive destruction because the EU bailout requires reductions in salaries. As wages are low here in comparison with other EU countries, the people are protesting these cuts. But I do feel bad for all "the little guys"...all the shop owners who now have to replace all their windows...

The chaos seems to have settled down today. I still hear some sirens but things have scaled down a bit. We have our late night Outreach tonight at midnight. I'd appreciate your prayers tonight for our safety. And that we could have some good conversations. Lately there have been so many police out that it's been hard to engage. It's nearly comical trying to have a meaningful conversation when they are running away with their shoes flying off! Also, I've been feeling convicted lately about not doing enough with the Nigerian girls. We're out there 2x a wk...they know us...they like our tea. One girl even called the office asking for a Bible this week. But why doesn't more happen??? Is it a cultural thing that we aren't picking up on?? Should we be reaching out to them in a different way? If I call them more during the day each wk, will they respond?? Please pray that the Lord will lend me/us wisdom and that He'll do some miracles in our surfacey relationships! I'm constantly reminded that my ideas and skills are contained in a mere, leaky "earthen vessel" and that any power is of God and not from me (2 Cor 4).