Around 60 people, including families, gathered together at Porto Astro for a Church-planting Retreat at the end of October. Our theme was Stronger Together. We praise God for a rich time of worship, teaching and fellowship. The retreat included leaders, evangelists and church-planters from…
Professional Development Course
Our P&DTC (Professional & Discipleship Training Center) lessons have begun, and we are more than excited! So many students have shown interest that the seats are full and we’ll be welcoming students to our next round of courses. This course is focused on professional development, and we’ve received very positive feedback so far from the students who are eager to learn and develop in this area.
Darya Found the Truth
*Darya was one of our students in the Farsi literacy class at the Good Samaritan Center. God gave us many opportunities to spend time with her, to pray and encourage her, and share from the Scriptures. She opened her heart to Ghazal, one of our staff members. Through times of prayer together, God ministered to her broken heart and started healing her pain…
Follow-up Journeys by the Acceleration Team
The Acceleration Team has been visiting Ioannina and three surrounding refugee camps almost every month since Operation Joshua 2018. We praise God for the ‘New Life’ Christian community centre which opened its doors in February, and for the ongoing ministry to Greek, Persian, Arabic and French-speaking communities. Please pray with us for the necessary funds to continue renting this coffee shop right in the heart of Ioannina…
Building up the Next Generation of Leaders
Porto Astro is our Educational Training and Social Development Center (ETSDC) dedicated to building up the next generation of leaders – especially those of the Middle East and the refugee community. This rugged piece of land lies just north of Athens in beautiful Skorponeria (“scattered waters”) horseshoe bay, opposite an impressive, rugged rock-faced mountain. Porto Astro was an abandoned overgrown olive orchard with approximately 2,000 wild olive trees of all sizes. Today…
Hope in the twists
At thirty years of age, Tonya * would acknowledge her life has been far from easy. But the constant twists have made her a strong woman, able to overcome even those moments when she wanted to end her life. Today, as a mom to five wonderful children, she is able to say: “Thank God!”. Tonya arrived in Lesvos from Syria in 2018 with four children. There she was sexually abused, with the rapist threatening that if she resisted he would also rape her nine-year-old daughter. This harrowing incident left her pregnant, and within a few months, she was transferred to Athens where she suffered a miscarriage….
Nothing is a coincidence
One of our participants that has been involved in Operation Joshua since the very beginning and has almost never missed a day of distribution couldn’t go out for a couple of days this year. His son called him and asked him to go and repair his guitar because the strings broke. So, our participant found a music store and went there. A lady had the store and she started talking about her problems and about the financial issues she is facing with her store…
It takes only a second!
One of our teams left a New Testament to an old lady and she started crying. A participant asked her why was she crying and she said that her son died two years ago from cancer. He was 32 years old and had a young boy. Our participant felt in his heart to tell her that she was a good mother and none of this was her fault. She started crying even more…
“Do not forget me!”
At the village of Ktimeni in Karditsa, our team met Mr. Thomas, a believer! He showed us his Bible and we shared we were giving NTs in modern Greek. “That’s so much better for the villagers!” he exclaimed. He told us that during the war he was on a balcony giving out cigarettes to the soldiers passing by. After giving 10, he fell off the balcony from an 18m height. He could not walk for 8 months but as soon as he could, he gave thanks to God and that’s when everything changed…
We wish the best for Zoe and her son
A few months ago, Zoe * took her little son and they went abroad. It was a difficult decision she had to make after trying everything she could to find a job. After all, in Greece there was no longer anything to hold her back. The father of her child was never seen again…