Greek Hospitality

We are ministering to the Greeks, but in a lot of ways, they are ministering to us. I am constantly blown away by their generosity and friendliness. Just in regard to meals - Aryellis invited us into his home for dinner, Tikanis invited us to his home for lunch, and Tollis paid for our dinner one evening. Many times it's not even people we know. After we finished sorting some clothes for refugees and immigrants this morning we went to get coffee. The woman who made coffee for us gave us four free bottles of water "on the house." A man on the metro offered to throw away some of our trash for us. A mechanic offered to help direct us when we looked lost in the middle of Athens. University students bought us coffee when we had conversations with them. The church also tries as much as they can to keep a Greek speaker with us to help us as we're navigating the city.

We have often felt at a loss as to how to repay them. As Americans, deep down each of us has had to struggle with subconscious thoughts that tell us we are only worth our work. We don't want to owe people. We want to "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps." We've realized that we are not very good at simply receiving help and blessings from other people.

We are helping the Greeks, but they are also helping us. We did not expect that. I think that was pride. Pray that God would use both us and the Greeks to be Jesus to people.