Hello Friends, Family, and Readers!
Our first week in Athens has been nothing that we expected but also everything that we had hoped it would be. It’s pretty surreal that just a year ago Jon and I were led to the idea of this trip and dreamt up this whole trip and there was so much uncertainty because of the pandemic that was in full swing at this time last year. This first week we have tried hard to explore our own back yard and the surrounding area with some fun adventures spilled in. Once we arrived we took a day to relax and allow ourselves some time to recover from traveling (I didn’t bounce back as easy as Jon did lol). Then we made the 25-minute walk to the metro stop (we didn’t know that there was a street car stop at the end of our street that would’ve taken us to where we needed to go in much less time and with much less sweat) that would take us to The Plaka, which is just a very aesthetically pleasing neighborhood right below the Acropolis that had many shops that we had fun looking in.
The following day I got really sick and wasn’t feeling well, we concluded that it must’ve been the jet lag and so all day we stayed home and rested. But the next day we went to the Acropolis Museum and studied everything there that we could. Then once we got home we got a call from the family that we are working with while we are here, Bradley and Cleria Dixon, and they invited us to come eat gelato with them. Now this meeting for us was so special because we have been texting back and forth with them for a year and had only spoken to them once over a zoom call, so we jumped at the chance! The conversation was great and the gelato was awesome! We got to meet their three kids and Bradley told us about some of the work that he thought would be good for us. He told us about how on Friday mornings he goes to the National Gardens and meets with a group of Iranian Christian Refugees and a group of Syrians Refugees (which was men only, so I wasn’t able to go to that part) and preforms a certain type of bible study that isn’t knowledge based and centers around asking questions and seeing what the scripture is telling them to do and how they can obey it. He also invited us to go on their prayer walk was they do in the poorest neighborhood in Athens named Victoria and an opportunity to teach English.
We have only gotten to attend the Friday meetings and from what we got to see and listen to a big need for the refugees is to learn English or Greek. I think at this point we need to go out and listen a little bit more and look at our community. We are also learning a lot about our neighborhood which is called Nea Smyrni (I think I’m going to write a whole blog post just about our neighborhood). All in all we are having an amazing time and trying to keep our ears and hearts open to whatever is open to us.
Blessings, Aubrey
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