We apologies for being so quiet lately…
We have been in Greece for nearly a month now. It was a challenge right from the start as our visas were refused. We had to reapply and had to pay again and then our air-tickets had to be changed and that alone cost a great deal more than we originally would have. Well, the main thing is that the Lord came through for us even when the Consulate said that he was very concerned when he looked through our bank statements.
This was our first outreach that we were supposed to take a group with us but unfortunately they left without us. We felt terrible to let the team go to Greece and Crete without us but realized that with all the opposition, tribulation and spiritual attacks that we were going through that the enemy must be concerned.
Never be afraid to try something new, remember amateurs built the ark and professionals built the titanic.
We found out very quickly that the enemy has a tremendous stronghold over Greece. Jono, myself, the South African team of 18, were part of an international effort through Hellenic Ministries of about 120 people to hand out new testament bibles in modern Greek to 45 000 houses. There was tremendous resistance in all the towns and villages as people and the priests screamed at us, through the bibles at us, one team was even arrested and taken to the police station. Some of our teams were commanded to leave the villages at once by a mayor and others by officials. There were very negative articles in the local news papers and apparently on TV. They called us the phantoms who spread heresies.
I had opportunities to share the truth with people through a translator but I then realized that many are atheists and agnostics and others believe that they have to follow the church rules and to give praise to the Apostles to receive eternal life. They had no clue of what the Bible said.
The number one reason people don't share their faith is that their walk doesn't match their talk - Mark Cahill
Jono was chased by an old lady with a long steel rod down the road and many people cursed us and did not want to accept the "gift" pack. It was sad to find stacks of bibles in the trash-cans and lying in the streets for the cars to run over it.
On the other hand, we were privileged to reach out to very rural areas and villages that were quit isolated from any outside interferences and there were people with integrity who were very glad to have received a bible that they could read in their own language. Some people even cried out of joy, kissed the bible and kept on thanking us. We were travelling intensely daily to reach all the villages and it was a very tiring process to walk great distances in the scorching heat and very high humidity but the Lord gave us strength to endure and to complete the outreach in the south. We met a person in one of the villages that were saved and he longed so much for fellowship. He had NO christian fellowship in 3 years and as we have spend some time with him and testified of the realness of Jesus, he was in tears as he outered that we "kinda blow him away" with these testimonies.
The people from South Africa were amazing and some of them literally carried us on their hands as they were always caring loving and praying for us. A special thanks to Jo'ann who was really a blessing as she had a great part in helping to get our visas and helped with the administration and co-ordination of arranging everything, blessing and caring for us, Renate that was also always caring and looking after our clothes etc. and many others that were always serving and helping and blessing……
We have a couple of days in Athens and we are sleeping on the roof of a building. It is a little bit cooler there at night and we are used to the hard cement as we all were sleeping in tents. We are trying to apply for an extension on our visas and believe to then be going to the north to help at a summer camp and will then most likely go to help at the refugee camps north of Athens. These camps have people from Afghanistan and they feed and love them and have spiritual discussions.
PRAYER POINTS
- Pray that the Lord will intervene in the extension of our visas.
- Thank God for protecting us during the outreaches and that He enabled us to share the Gospel daily to Atheists, Moslems', Hindus, Buddhists' etc. and could visit missionaries and edify and train outreach teams so far away.
- Pray for churches to open there hearts to reach out to a dying world.
- Thank Him for the people who did come to the knowledge of Christ and got saved.
- Pray that all the seed that was planted through sharing and gospel tracts will grow and that the mind of their understanding being enlightened in the knowledge of Him.
- Pray for missionaries for protection, provision and that this will be a time of rest (spiritual, emotional and physical) for them and that they will be refreshed.
- Pray for more Devine appointments and that He will give us more opportunities to preach and to train people while in SA .
- Pray and stand in agreement that the Lord shall provide all our needs and the needs of the missionaries who have sacrificed everything to serve Him…
- Pray that the Lord will guide us for His plan and purpose in 2010
Remember: The last and primary reason people reject what the Bible says is simply because they don't want it to be true!!!!!!!!
Our Banking Details:Account name: Travel Missions
Bank: ABSA Bank
Account Type: Cheque
Account no:
4063772319Branch: Noord Einde
Branch Code: 632005
Swift Code: ABSA ZAJJ
(For outside South Africa)
OUR DETAILS
E-mail address:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Cell phone in Greece:
Len: +30 6958345847
Jono: +30 6980214884
We desire to fulfill the call of Mark 16:15 to "Go onto the entire world and preach the Gospel" and we also desire for you to fulfill that call as well. Your donation will aid us as we preach the Gospel in remote and unreached areas, impact others who will in turn impact others who will impact all generations worldwide with the truth and power of the Gospel. All gifts, great or small, will be appreciated. Please visit our new changed web site, www.travelmissions.org to see some photos of our latest experiences. For those of you that might have missed a few, our old newsletters are also available for viewing on our web site.
Thank you for your prayers and support. (Please always give your details that we may know who to thank and pray for).
Thank you Lord Jesus for given us a reason to live and a reason to die.
In His Service
Len and Jono
