A SUMMER IN GREECE

by Karl Turner

For some time now, I have felt God calling me to serve him in Greece. On 29th June I travelled to Greece again, to work with Damianos Papadopoulos (OAC, Greece) in different forms of evangelism.

The trip began with two children's camps, each two weeks long, in Leptokaria, attended by about 160 and 100 children respectively. These were amazing numbers for Greece, as most of the children are from an Orthodox background.

I was a camp counsellor, sharing with others the responsibility for a house containing a number of boys. I learnt a lot more Greek in the process! During the camps I preached several times and did some Gospel presentations using conjuring. Most evenings, I also gave a short Gospel message to the boys in my house.

On the final night of the first camp, three of the children in my house became Christians. During the second camp, eight children came looking for us one evening; five of them took a decision to follow Christ!

In between the two camps, I spent a day training some missionaries in Thessaloniki in the use of the sketchboard. My job was to go out with them, observe, and then identify points where they could improve. This is part of my vision for my future in Greece; I want to "do" the evangelism, but I also want to train other to share the Gospel effectively.

I spent the final part of my time in Greece on another camp, this time for Albanians. Their culture is different from that of the Greeks, so it took me a little time to adjust. I worked with the few children that were there, doing the kind of activities typically found in a Sunday School. I also did a few presentations in the evenings for the adults.