Acropolis

While in greece we studied through the Epistles. I love learning more about Pauls letters. Did you know there is actually possibly four letters written to the Corinthians?? and Ephesians could have possibly been the letter to the church in Laodicia  that is mentioned in Collisions 4:16?? The Epistles are some of my favorite books and I love Paul's take on the world around him and the way he meets people where they are at and understands cultural differences. The greeks at the time of paul were participating in lots of idolatry and idol worship. They even had alters to "the unknown God" (acts 17:23) He then proceeded to tell them about this unknown God. He doesn't just try and push things on them, he really seeks to relate it to their lives and show them why it is necessary to follow Jesus. The book of Galatians is also all about the jewish Christians wanting the Gentile new believers to start following the law. Paul came to say that God is bigger than the mosaic law and he has fulfiled it and set us free. Paul is a character that I have come to really love throughout reading the bible.

Some of the site seeing we did took us up to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and the Temple of the 5 Vestal Virgins. The crowds of tourist and the scaffolding all over the Parthanon took a little away from the beauty of it but it was still neat to see something that Paul would have saw! And he gave a speech on Mars Hill right near the acropolis. We read some scripture in Acts that talks about Paul and his trip to Athens and we toured around checking out the ancient greek architecture. 

.. so interesting to see the huge city of athens outside the walls of these ancient ruins..

lighting up the streets of Athens

Our time in greece has certainly been different than expected. envisions of cute fisherman's towns and Mediterranean costal life danced in my head as I prepared for greece. I've always wanted to go here, but of course my pictures in my head were that of the Santorini island life.. not so much the big city. we were warned of athens and its dangerous dirty street and westernized culture. even though I knew that, i still hoped for more. The more and more I travel though I have come to realize the darkness and mess of the world around us. We may be staying in some of the most beautiful countries, but we see and work in the darkest areas. My visions of greece soon turned into a one star hostel in the middle of the sketchiest part of athens and working on the streets till three am with prostitutes surrounded by drug addicts. its not glamorous. its not beautiful. its ugly. the world is a beautiful place, but a broken place..BUT because our God is a loving God, there is beauty among that brokeness.. there is beauty in the smile every morning from the hotel receptionist and beauty in the serving heart of the dear lady that changed our sheets every morning. There is beauty in the voice of the prostitute, singing to herself as she stand alone in the middle of the street. There is beauty in the breathe of new life I wake to every morning. If we lose sight of this beauty.. of HIS beauty, we become lost, confused, and overwhelmed at how such darkness can exist. 

Since being here we have been serving with a ministry called Nea Zoi (http://neazoi.org/) We worked 2-3 nights a week with 5 of their staff. In the short time we've been with them I've loved getting to know the hearts of the staff members, they are such wonderful people. We usually meet late at night and have a time of prayer and worship and then pack up the car with a table and water and tea and books and pamphlets and material on programs the ministry offers to the girls and stats on std's and prevention. While someone drives the car over we then walk from the outreach center down to a empty market street where the girls work. The ministry we did was with girls trafficked from Nigeria. About 60-80 girls work on this one street. The sad thing is most girls are trafficked by family members such as a distant uncle or relative. To a certain degree the girls know what they are getting into but many think they will be working in nice brothels not living and working on the streets. Others think they are coming to work in hotels as maids and such. These family members that traffic them put the girls under whats called the JuJu curse, a vudu curse. This binds them to the debt they owe their family for getting them here. It put a whole different element into the business, because most girls are raised in a christian home and know God and pray and go to church and can sing all the songs and pray to God every night for safety and to get them out but yet they believe in the power of the curse over the power of God. They are afraid to leave because of the curse. They wont leave or go home until they can pay back all the money owed..which can take a very very long time because they must also pay rent which the family member make really high and impossible. Because of the way the Greek economy is right now theres very few customers and the girls aren't able to make the money to pay the debt back so it takes longer and longer. Its so hard because when you speak with the girls and ask if they want help leaving and want to go back home and get out of this lifestyle they say "yes, but I cant, the curse, I can't leave because of the curse."  :( its so sad because God's love and freedom is so much bigger than this stronghold of a curse on them.

The first night we went I was unsure what to expect. It was scary walking the streets at that hour to get to the street we would be working on. There were drug addicts everywhere, the smell of urine lingering in the air, the streets lined with needles. The very first night we came across a man laying on the ground with a gash in his head and blood pouring out the side as if he has just been beaten. The staff called the police while we hurried inside for our prayer worship time.  After, on our way back out to the street we'd be working on I was hit with a wave of heaviness from past experiences in the Philippines. am I ready to do this again? can I handle it?  I felt unsure of what street prostitution here would look like. The first two nights was more a time of shadowing the ministry, learning how they run things and starting to get to know the girls faces and names. By the third time we went out we had specific people on our hearts. The third night I went out felt different down there..felt extra heavy. There was a lot of sexual activity happening in nearby alleys and I felt useless to the darkness around me. Heres a part I wrote in my journal that night.. 

…it was such an ugly thing it looked so ugly so wrong, turning something meant to so beautiful into something so ugly and dirty,  some thing wasted in a market alley corner. what provoked the guy? what is the void  in his life? then two girls led a man right in front of us up the hill into the bushes and behind us a girl hopped off the back of a bike of a guy she had just serviced. no shame. it was so in the open tonight. we decided we need to pray. I feel we haven't had breakthrough yet. when is it coming Lord? what must we do? pray harder? talk deeper. I feel sometime I don't feel the lords presence. tonight his light shone, even if it only felt small. we began to pray, I was overwhelmed by the lord saying "I AM THE LIGHT.. 100% light.. in my light there is NO darkness. no fear. because my spirit is in you I will not let this darkness enter you.  I prayed for his light to stream down that alley so the darkness would flee…

God placed a song on my heart that night and I then played it on repeat till our next night of ministry :) Its called "Light up the Darkness" by The Bridge Band. Going into our next night of ministry, our fourth night, I felt completely different. I could tell God was at work and that this night we'd see some awesome things. I had such energy and joy and zero tiredness. As a small group of us walked the streets there was such a connection with the girls. They were engaging and starting conversations and asking questions an opening up. We were laughing and joking around, we had awesome times praying over some of the girls, and sharing hearts. We were able to talk to more of them in-depth about their futures and desires and want for getting out of prostitution. We shared about all the classes and help Nea Zoi can offer to them. Usually there are mostly cars driving by scanning and "shopping" over the girls but this particular night there was a whole lot more creepy men on foot. They would hover around as we prayed and just make comments and be distracting and creepy towards us. It was totally satan trying even harder to scare us away but I felt NO fear towards these men and we all would just look at each other and smile saying, bring it on satan, we have the God of light and life on our side :) The shift in the difference of the two nights was such an incredible testimony of God's faithfulness to us and love for our spirits of innocence he protected us time and time again as we walked those dark streets among the addicts and thief's late every night, seeing violence, attempted muggings, lustful eyes, and loneliness, and people held strong by the temporary fix of a drug. My heart went out time and time again to the people we passed and I knew God's heart was doing the same thing. On our fifth and last night of ministry I got to sit and talk with a girl (I'll call her "Josie") she was dressed in more normal clothes, not the skimpy one like the others. You could tell she was over it, over her job, over the streets. We talked about life and love and what she wanted in a perfect man, her dream guy :) I shared with her how God is the perfect boyfriend. He pursues us despite our faults, despite the choices we've made. In talking with her I could tell how much she's blamed herself for her life. She knew she was getting into prostitution but though it would only be for a few months until she paid off the debt to her family. Because they raise the amount so high and out of reach she has been here now for 3 years. She feel bound to it now because she choose it. She said it feels wrong in her spirit to be working on the streets, But she referenced in the bible how we are to keep our covenants and there are consequences to the decisions. Its different than if she had been tricked. But she choose it. We explained how time and time again we all choose wrongly. Thats where God has grace with us. He doesn't want us in a situation that is hurting us, his creation, he cares about our bodies, about us. Though there was no immediate changes that night I pray that we were able to stir us thoughts and getting her thinking more about God's desires for her life. Another girl I had gotten close to ("Nessa") seemed off this night, the previous night she was full and we were laughing together and then on our last night she just seemed sad. She came up to our table to grab a cup of ice tea when I first noticed her change in demeanor, late I noticed her sitting by herself down on the street corner. One of the staff guys stood down there to bodyguard while I sat down and talked with her. She told me how her mom back in Africa is not doing well and she had to send some money. I prayed with her for her mom and talking to the staff later we discussed how sometimes the families back in Africa will call saying they are sick and need money but really they just want the money.. this then cuts into the debt the girls are trying to pay off under this JuJu curse which makes them have to stay even longer. As we learned while we were in S. Africa, family is huge. You support and take care of each other. You don't go back on your word. "Nessa" is so precious to me and she said over and over how she will miss us. It was hard to hug goodbye and watch her walk down the street towards the other girls and a potential customer knowing that she is still going to be on these streets night after night even after we're out of the country. This next month Nea Zoi is on vacation and then they will start Nigerian Outreaches again in the fall. Please pray for these girls during this month off that they will really take to heart what was said and that God will really speak to them over the weeks, that went outreaches come again it may be there time to finally leave the streets. Pray for a breaking of this curse, pray for provisions financially and different jobs for them, and pray for safety and health over these precious girls. There was a scrabble between two of the girls the one night, we don't know what happened but when we came across them there was a man with blood all over him and two very fired up prostitutes. The one girl *Tia was arrested and the other *GeGe, who had allegedly tried to stay out of everything, was starting to get ganging up on by the other girls because she possibly didn't stand up for *Tia, the next night we talked to GeGe and she had what looked like a bite mark on her. She opened up saying "I just try and keep out of everything and keep to myself, i'm quite but i'm not dumb, I don't want friends because they will just turn on me." She has opened up like this to anyone and felt bad for what she may have been through the previous night. The streets are dangerous, they are ugly, and these girls need our thoughts and prayers.. they need freedom. 

(Names have been changed but here are girls close to my heart: Fia (Fia had the brightest and most beautiful smile, you don't see it often, its rare moments that it creeps out, she works hard because she need the money to survive, the look on her face tells of the pain and sadness of what she must do, not want she wants to do) , Josie, Nessa, Hope (says in her free time she like to sit and process in her house and meditate, i'm praying that it in those time the Lord really speaks to her the most), Tia, GeGe

(photos were not taken while on the streets and specific details about time and dates of ministry are not able to be released out of respect for the ministries policies)

Jerusalem House Of Prayer

We stayed at JHOP for our first two weeks in Israel (that was back may 26-June 10). Its located right on the top of the Mount Of Olives! how cool! Down the one side of the mountain was the Garden of Gethsemane and there are beautiful old olive trees everywhere. We enjoyed delicious pita and cucumbers and hummus for breakfast everyday! :) I loved how their prayer room was set up, they had the room on the roof in a glassed-in circle. The view was incredible looking over Jerusalem. It was always so windy at night, I loved it :) :) A constant cool breeze up on the mountain :) One of my favorite thing about Israel, especially being up on the mount of olives, was the wind… there is always this beautiful refreshing wind cascading over your skin, bringing a coolness to the night, dancing around you as you pray out over the city lights. mmhmm [Ruach].. BREATH. WIND. SPIRIT. This place is filled with beautiful hearts who are passionate about Jerusalem and seeing restoration between jews and arabs and seeing the Lord return to restore a New Jerusalem. It was so great to be able to participate in their 24/7 watches. I was so blessed and encouraged by some of the staff I got to know really well, they were so helpful and sweet to us, the Old City was a short bus ride away and we tried to get down there every other day between classes and homework. I helped to lead the 8-10pm prayer/worship set :) its was so fun, I had my lovely Chinese lily rocking out on the djembe and sarah on the keys then I played guitar and sang, though we may not be the most talented I had so much fun just worshipping out to the Lord not worrying how we sounded, the Lord puts songs in our hearts and I believe he delights so much in when we sing them out. A couple times while there our group was hit with some conflicting beliefs touching on the edge of extreme christian zionism.. it provided for good discussion and a time of learning for our team and talking through what exactly the bible says about Jerusalem and Israel and the end times, its something that still confuses me but I'm not sure we'll ever really know all that stuff, I don't think thats the point. As stated by one Israeli in regards to end time theology.. "when that becomes your focus, you lose your focus." The prayer house was filled with people of many nations and generations.. people from france to china, to korea, and Kirghizistan, it was so awesome to fellowship in the same house with so many believers of such different backgrounds. Every friday night then, for Sabbath, or Shabbat, we would have a big feast together :)

Garbage City and the Cave Churches

Back in May when we were in Egypt we toured some old churches started by the coptic christians up in the mountain sides. The churches are built right into the cave and are so beautifully structured with bible verses and pictures carved into the walls. The largest church holds 10,000 people, the other 2,000 and then a smaller one holding 200. On thursday nights they have prayer and healing nights where miraculous healing have taken place, blind seeing and people standing up and walking out of their wheelchairs. According to stories, back in the day the mountain surrounding the churches moved  after the prayer of a very faith filled man Simon the tanner. The people could see the light shine through as the mountain lifted. You can read more about the story of the miracle here. These beautiful cave churches are surrounded by what is called garbage city. The city is made up of walls and walls of trash, a giant slum it looks like from the outside but a business none the less from the inside. All of Cairo's trash gets brought and dumped here and people work all day long sorting through the trash in the bottom of run down buildings. They sort through things that can be recycled and reused. We were told that above in the tops of these buildings the business owners live in luxury. The city is mostly christians and muslims do not work here because of the many pigs roaming around. Many people are born into the life of a garbage collector and few are able to have the money and chance to get out of this lifestyle. We were only able to drive through but I would have loved to meet some people, the city was packed full of trash as well as numerous people out and about, lots of men sitting around smoking hookah as well, a common pastime here. The priests of the churches up on the hill have helped out Garbage city in many ways with building hospitals and school and teaching sanitation.

along the nile

During our time in Egypt we had the chance to take a nice boat ride down the Nile. It was so refreshing from the hot day. We cruised, took photos and just reflected. It so crazy to think of little Moses floated in a basket in that same river. Our contact told us how 70% percent of Egypt revolves around the Nile. Its their life source. Thinking about that, and thinking of the first plague of turning water to blood, it makes sense now the gravity of what that meant. Everything they drank, every form of water, comes first from the Nile. It was a huge show of the Lords power to take away their sole life source. Sitting on the boat looking out on the water I couldn't images it to be completely crimson. Such a crazy thing that would have been to witness. My visions of the Nile were of a gigantic river of water with desert all around it and tall grass reeds. Of course it looked quite different with all the skyscrapers and buildings that are now lining the banks.

We also got to walk through Tahir Square on the way to the Nile. It was crazy to think large protests had recently gone on. Everything seemed mostly back to normal, we passed by one building that had been burned and many of the windows had been broken out. As we drove to these locations I noticed what looked like a deserted city, truth be told it was what they call the "city of the dead" Our contact told us, "as Egyptians, we are ashamed of this." A once giant graveyard that has now become a place for impoverished people, a refugee camp of sorts. The families of the deceased let people live there for really cheap, and they in return help keep guard over the dead. Ideally they should move it out into the desert to make more room in Cairo for homes but in this culture that would never happen. The Arab people have very high respect for the dead.

The Great Pyramids of Giza

In a city where 18 million people dwell, 17 millions cars, and an average of 7 million tourist a year, one would expect a crowed ticket line, bustling markets and an abundance of people fighting for a pictures in front of the pyramids. What we faced was quite the opposite. Since the recent uprisings and tension in Cairo tourism this year is significantly low. The sad thing is its something that brings a significant amount of income and families are now going into poverty from the lack of customers at their shops and market stands. We saw the effects of this went we went to the pyramids. It was so empty and only a few tourist roamed the area. Of course being a team of photographers, this was great, open shots with no annoying people walking through the frame :) :) The day we saw the pyramids started the trend of EPIC-ness that was to follow with all our sightseeing. We were able to get so close and touch and even climb on the huge blocks. I was amazed at the size of each individual square, marveling at the creation of such things and how much work and strength and creativity it must have taken to construct them. To view something that pre-dated Moses' time was super cool :) :) The pyramids are OLD haha. It was a fun time filled with lots of picture-taking and a kiss with a sphinx ;) 

reading till my eyes fall out..

so our teacher for this quarter came up with a “radical” new idea. Instead of spreading the bible reading out over the three months, why don’t we just cram it into one week so we have more time for lectures and seeing sights. yeahhhh. one week. we are currently finishing up reading the whole bible in a week, that is 10-11 hours of reading A DAY. my eyes hurt, my brain is mush, but God’s word is ever so powerful :) sometimes we pace, sometimes we sit, sometimes we stand, sometimes we go to a cafe and read haha, we’ve had to get creative, our eyes are glued to the pages, drawing out new connections and revelations. As difficult and intense as it is, I must say I am enjoying the challenge ;)

we decided it was ok to treat ourselves to come chocolate and coffee one day :) it was crucial to our survival last week haha