Back in Athens

Well this is it, ‘normal’ life has started again. This is my second day at the office and yesterday we had our first home staff meeting of the season, where all of us, families and kids, gathered after the summer. This was the first time we’d been together since before the summer and it was great to see everybody and catch up. Stories were told and we shared in a lot of laughter, like we do best here at HM. As we were talking and sharing I was reminded of how this summer has been a summer of milestones; for the first time ever we had various ministries operating at the same time. As the Sports Camps were happening, preparations for Operation Joshua and China Challenge were going on. During our final camp, where we received kids from Germany, (affectionately called German Camp), Joshua took place. Then during summer cleanup a good chunk of us left for China. And while all this was happening the Morning Star was doing ministry in the islands! For the first time in 10 years Alex saw her sail away! He is normally on board as skipper but this summer the previous captain of OM’s Doulos, Alexander Feddes, came onboard and took her in charge for the summer. What a tremendous blessing that was for Alex.

It is just so neat to see how the Lord used the HM family this summer in so many different ways and for so many different purposes. As we grow, more opportunities are coming along as new people bring new ideas and visions.

Stay tuned for the future as all things are possible through Him.
The sky is, quite literally, the limit!

The Lord Tests His Own

“Blessed is the man who preservers under trial,
because when he has stood the test,
he will receive the crown of life that God has promised
to those who love him.” James 1:12

Well I feel like these past two weeks were a test.
I came home two weekends ago after three days of hard work at the property wanting only to relax, crawl under my blankets and watch a movie. When I walked in through the door and went to switch on the lights they didn’t come on. My first thought was “Oh great, another power cut” (we get one of those every once in a while) well at least the power would be on in a few minutes, right? Wrong. I walked into my kitchen and found a huge puddle of water in front of my fridge... the power had been off for quite a while meaning that this was not a short term power cut but a long term one. SHOOT! Since I hadn’t been home at all this summer, due to summer activities outside of Athens, I was unable to pay my summer’s electricity bill. When the bill came in September it was too high for me to afford. I can afford small chunks here and there but not the amount they were asking for. It looked scary and daunting but, like with everything else, I prayed about it and placed the bill in the Lord’s hands. Well, He didn’t provide on time, that is my time, and my power got cut. I must admit that I went through a small crisis of faith. Why did the Lord allow for that to happen? In His Word He promises to provide for all of our needs, and this was a definite need, why hadn’t He provided? Was I out of His will? Had I been disobedient and so was I being disciplined? I had no idea what was going on and I was totally confused - something I don’t really enjoy. Well anyway, what does one do when one has no power? One lights candles and gets on with life, and that’s exactly what I did. I lit candles and instead of watching a movie I read.
That night I was invited to a goodbye party as a friend of mine was leaving Greece. We have a lot of friends in common and so I met up with some guys I hadn’t seen in a while. Out of the blue one of them started complaining to me about HM, that we were a proud bunch of people that don’t allow anybody into our group. That caught me off guard (I don’t particularly think that HM staff is proud, by the way). I was already feeling vulnerable and confused with everything happening at home, so to be attacked like that, unexpectedly was definitely not a good thing. I started defending HM and tried to get to the bottom of things, trying to find out where he was seeing problems so that we, as staff, could remedy them. Anyway, as we were talking, he started asking me personal questions like if I was satisfied with everything, if I had any complaints etc. Again really odd questions. As I was answering him, thinking about my situation at home, I came to the realization that no, in the grand scheme of things, my slight discomfort was not severe enough to be grounds for a complaint. Can I complain about my life? No, I love it, every aspect of it. How many times do I encounter people in a 9-5 job thinking to myself “I would not want to be in that position, how board would I be, how meaningless my life would be” As a missionary, more specifically as a Christian, everything I do, we do, has eternal value. I might not be able to pay my bills on time, but who says that if I had a regular job I would be able to pay them? By the way, at the end of our conversation the guy told me that he was just messing around with me, testing, wanting to find out if I did the work with all my heart. I could think of better ways to find out, but anyway.
Before going to bed that night, still confused as ever, I read Day 5 in Purpose Driven Life. That chapter is about how everything we go through has a purpose and that the trials that we encounter might not be anything other than the Lord testing us.

“God continually tests people’s character, faith, obedience, love, integrity, and loyalty. Words like trials, temptations, refining, and testing occur more than 200 times in the Bible. God tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son Isaac. God tested Jacob when he had to work extra years to earn Rachel as his wife.”

All of a sudden it clicked. The power cut, my friend asking the all the weird questions, could it be that the Lord was testing me? I probably wont find out until I get to heaven but that’s what it felt like.
The Lord, as always, was faithful and provided, albeit, a week after the incident. I found out about the power cut on Saturday, Friday the following week the Lord provided. He did so through a lovely couple that were working on the Morning Star during that time. Thus Monday morning I was able to pay my bill. After letting out a huge sigh, I thought to myself “well at least the power to be back on tonight”. Well, when I came home that night, still no electricity. WHAT!? Tuesday I went on a Morning Star trip, Thursday I came home, still no power! You’ve got to be kidding me?! You have got to love Greek efficiency. Alex called the electricity company for me on Friday morning, as we got home too late on Thursday, and got really upset at them. By this time I had been out of electricity for two weeks. Friday night comes along and... still no electricity! OK at this point you have to just stop and laugh. Was this some kind of a sick joke? Saturday afternoon Alex came over to fix my hot water heater (which by the way had been broken since May, LOL - darn you Murphy!) when he found out that the power was still not on he called the company and got upset at them again. Within the hour somebody from the electricity company came over to see us, made a quick phone call, 5 seconds later I had power. WHAT the switching on took all of 5 seconds!? I kid you not, the guy put his phone away walked to the panel and the wires were hot!

I don’t know what the Lord was teaching me during this time, but I sincerely hope that I learned my lesson, LOL! I do not want to go through that again.
Anyway, now my phone, internet and TV, since they’re all on the same bill, have been cut. That, on the other hand, is not as serious as I can definitely live without it for a while. I just praise the Lord for having sustained me for this long and this far. Working for Him is a privilege I hope I will never loose.

Article

Oh by the way I thought you guys might be interested to know that there was an article written about us by the Associated Press during our time in China. Some of our team met journalists and were interviewed by them.

This is the article for those who are interested in reading it please click here.

Ready to go home

Well our vacation is drawing to an end; we are leaving within the next 3 hours to go back to Bangkok. It is sad but at the same time exciting. This time has been greatly needed for all of us and it has served our tired bodies well. Now I am ready to go back and tackle what the Lord has for me back home, back in reality. So many times when I’ve looked out at the see with the white sand and amazing view and it’s just seemed like we’ve been on a movie set getting ready to film and desert island scene. This just doesn’t seem real. The Lord’s creation just never ceases to amaze me.

We’ve also done a bit of sightseeing while we’ve been here. We went to Maya Bay (where the movie The Beach was filmed) that was pretty cool, and an actual movie set LOL. We also went to a bay called Monkey Bay where we saw wild monkeys and fed them watermelon – now that was probably my highlight. They were so absolutely cute and cuddly the only problem with them was that if we got too close they could potentially bite and give us rabies – well I don’t think so! One of them though, took my hand a couple of times and wanted to jump onto my lap. We also swam at a point called Shark Point where apparently sharks show up although, sadly, we didn’t see any. We saw a plethora of fish though and as the crewmembers of the boat fed them rice in our vicinity we were able to gaze at them and their multitude of colors. Like I’ve said it’s been a wonderful time, but now it is time to go back home and get back into life.

Good bye Phi Phi island, thanks for everything! I'll definitely see you again.