Youth Conference

Last weekend we attended a Youth Conference hosted by the 'Philadelphia' pentecostal church.
It was a great time, with speakers that had come from Canada and South Africa. The church youth band 'Fos' - were rocking the young people and clearly enjoying themselves.
It was refreshing to see Greek young people worshipping together and we were all encouraged by what God is doing in us & in Thessaloniki.

Over the years we have been here, we've had a good connection with these folks. Now things seem to be accelerating as ideas for working closer become reality.

Restoration & Multiplication

After a very good holiday the team took some days to seek the Lord together.

We believe the Lord spoke the above word... After much sowing and standing on the Lord's promises we see that the time has come for increase.

The recent fires in Greece are of course a natural phenomena - this is a forerunner of the Supernatural visitation we are awaiting. This will be seen in that much that has fallen to the ground and died will be miraculously resurrected, thereby bringing a tremendous Spiritual restoration in this nation. In addition every seed sown by our team is going to be Multiplied many times..

We are ready!

Moving on...

This is a quick note to say we are now back from holidays in Turkey. It was a wonderful time.
We are now taking a few days to seek the Lord and will reveal our plans for the enw season in just a few days...
Please bare with us and we will inform you of our next steps in this region.

Have a great September.

We have had a great time with our camps this summer. We were particularly pleased with our kids' camp (now called Discovery Camp) which took place in late June. We started with 7 children aged between 8 and 12 years old (all Greek)... and, at the count up at the end of camp, they were all still there! That is surely the first sign of a successful camp.

The children were full of energy (!) and threw themselves into the games, the swimming pool, one another and just about everything else. We slogged some balls on the 'field of dreams', played dodge-ball and baseball, shared meals and stories together in 'Abraham's tent', had diving competitions into the pool and night-walks in the evenings (which developed into cat and mouse hunts with the aid of walkie talkies - re-living some of Jay's own childhood memories!).


The team - Rachel, Jay, Lynn, Joanna, Thothoris and Tom - did remarkably well and loved their week away with the kids (I speak for us all). Rachel managed to keep hidden the fact that she was three weeks pregnant! Lynn kept an eagle eye on the antics in the pool from the safety of her sun-lounger (reaping the benefits of years of kids' work - so she told us?!). Tom and Thothoris had the kids' up first thing in the morning, running them around the beach to get them as tired as possible before the day began. And Joanna, well Joanna spent hours in the pool being crawled over and jumped on and, when she could, floating around on a bright green doughnut.

I think we need some commendations...




Jason K - best stand up comedian

















Michalis - longest strike















Daniel - spider warrior

















Konstantinos - most committed dive














Alexia - prettiest girl























Zac - melon massacrer















Jason - super-snorkeller...

... no we can't see him either!


These are the children of the future! We were thrilled to have a week away with these kids. We want to nurture them to become sons and daughters of the Kingdom in the years ahead.

Pray for us and for them.

Jay

Since David & Carolyn's wedding a lot has been going on with the team in Greece. Here's some idea of what we've been up to...

At the end of June, Jamie & Rachel ran their annual kids camp. It was a great week, the kids came back full of enthusiasm and so did the leaders. They had 7 kids, with help from Lynn, Joanna, Tom and Theodoris. We will post some pictures shortly and detailed news from the camp leaders!

We remain very connected with the Methodist church who meet opposite our place in the city. They seek to move on in God and the things of the Spirit and we desire to support and encourage them in that.
A few of us have been attending their Sunday morning meeting and Dave spoke yesterday.

We have built some good relationship with a number of those who attend.
Yesterday we had a baptism on the sea-front here in Perea. The beach was packed with people and we had quite a number of on-lookers and some opportunity to share with some of them. We had a time of worship and then after the baptism, Nikos - one of the guys from the Methodist church, with a loud, booming voice preached the gospel to all our spectators sitting nearby.
Here are some photos...

The last few weeks our worship team and theirs have met together to practice and move into a more prophetic style of worship, which is very new to the church in Greece. We can see that God is doing a new thing in this area and we are seeking to move into that. It has been a good start as we learn to work together musically and create a new sound with our various instruments and styles.

Dave W & Jamie visited Albania last week for a missions week and made some good connections with the church out there. They saw a number of guys get saved but I'll let them fill you in at some other point....



Lots going on as usual...

This Saturday Lynn is doing another 'innovative women' get-together. This is specificly aimed at 'single & newly married ladies' - please pray that all those invited show up and it's a really dynamic and creative time.
Also next Monday the Youth Camp starts... keep us in mind!

More pictures

As promised here are a few more photographs from the wedding..

David’s Father is increasingly frail and therefore he was not able to travel to Greece for the wedding… Next week, we ( David & Lynn) celebrate 25years of married bliss! So we will travel to the UK, attend another wedding, visit dad and have a few days away on our own.

Here in Greece, Life is full and encouraging; Doors of opportunity are open and we are experiencing Great grace from the Lord to do the work. We are assisting the Methodist Church this summer in the absence of the pastor who is visiting the USA for 3 months. We have a Childrens camp, a local outreach, a youth camp and probably a visit to Bulgaria in addition to all the day to day events of life.

So enjoy the pictures – will write some more soon…

The wedding of David & Carolyn

Last weekend was the wedding of David Carter & Carolyn, our daughter. It took place in Parthenonas, Halkidiki Greece...about 90 people joined us for a three or four day event..

There was time to relax, an evening cruise - with some diving off the boat to swim; an evening party after a day on the beach and then on Monday - Holy Spirit Day was the wedding itself -

I've posted a wedding picture for you to enjoy - more will follow...

Innovative Women...

After the women's conference in March something happened in the realm of the spirit concerning the women of Greece... Lynn caught on and began to get a vision for something to develop here where the 'strong women of Thessaloniki' could walk into their destiny!




So we organised a ladies lunch and invited a whole number of women we are in contact with, both believers and non-believers. About half of them turned out, which was very encouraging and we had a great time chatting and sharing together.
Lynn was able to communicate the vision she had and we had some music from the girls.

Lynn took the word from Exodus 2 where there is a clear illustration of the Israelite women playing an important role in releasing an oppressed nation!

We believe that the women we know who don't come to church have an important part to play in bringing the 'churched' women out of their religiosity and then they could bring the life of Jesus to these 'non-churched' women...

This is the start of something we want to do on a regular basis. We have visions for workshops, helplines, trips out to believers who are isolated in outer towns in northern Greece to encourage and build them up etc.

We would appreciate it if you prayed for us, that our plans would take off and that their would be a good response from these women!
We think the time is right for women not to be afraid of the challenges of the Kingdom!

There's a wedding theme going on...

Well it was a busy weekend for the guys, who were in Germany for 2 days. They attended the wedding of our very good friends Simon Pfau who was apart of the team for a year, who married the beautiful Kate! It was a fantastic & highly entertaining day and it was really great that the guys could be there to support and bless them!



Meanwhile the ladies stayed behind and got stuck in with preparations for another wedding that's soon to be happening...

Sunday night was our monthly celebration meeting in the city. Despite being a bit thin on the ground, God clearly spoke to us and there was a good time of worship & sharing together.

These next couple of weeks hold a lot in store.. it's a busy time, so please pray for us!
We are looking for a new office, moving David & Carolyn into their new place and hosting an abundance of visitors...


Don't forget Eurovision on Saturday night!
Greece hasn't, we're getting together with some friends to do battle & egg on the best entry ...let me tell you, from what we've heard, it's stiff competition! :)

a tale of driving tests, driving and greeks!

Well, after many years of waiting, I finally passed my driving test…. on the Greek roads! This makes it more special.

The day kicked off to a bad start. I hit the curb a number of times during my practice - I was very nervous! To add to my nerves, I wasn’t sure if a bribe was to be dealt or not – and I wasn’t going to do that!

My instructor and I arrived at the area for my examination and, lo and behold, so had 25 other companies! Hoards of people were gathered around waiting for their exam… and I mean crowds… ironically, the roads were blocked!

Oh the joys of being watched by 50 pairs of eyes as I fumbled through my exam!!!

So the examiners turned up and were split between the companies – we had 2 examiners for our group. We set off… in convoy. I had my whole ‘driving school family’ following me around my designated exam area!

In the car my instructor sat next to me, whilst the examiners sat in the back! There was translation. After 20 minutes, I pulled over from my exam and got out of the car to find my convoy hanging out of their cars behind screaming ‘Congratulations!’ They got out and ran to me. Remember the MANY scenes from ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding!’ Well this was ‘My Big Fat Greek Driving Test!’ – I say no more… I think I’ll leave the rest to your imagination!!!

But I would like to thank my Greek driving school family for their support: George, Katerina, Kizakis and the 30 others who stood by and watched the whole ordeal!!! I’m a good driver… honest?

This has been an incredibly busy time...
Since the Baptism of Petros, below, it feels like we have never had a minute.
New relationships are developing, all of which require time. Some of our long-term friendships are also moving - again this takes more time.

We are also looking forward to the arrival of summer - sunny days are more or less the norm here but very soon the heat will come - in the mean time Greece is absolutely beautiful, the blossom is fantastic, the countryside is so Green - it's amazing & the best time to be here.

For us as a team , we feel that Greece is moving out of winter spiritually and into the spiritual spring season... so we are looking forward to the changes of this spiritual season and all that the Lord wants to give. Soon there will be lots of fresh fruit.

Recently we connected with a group of guys who are hungry for a move of God - together we are meeting to pray, this week into the night and we know that the Lord heard.

The Lord is building a Spiritual house - not a religious one - not an Evangelical, Pentecostal or Charismatic one - not even a new church house, but a Spiritual house that is going to be something new and very different... The Lord is giving us the faith for it.

we appreciate your prayers and your support.. much Love

Saint Petros

This weekend was another Land mark for us - a good friend, Petros - The Rock! was Baptised. We joined the Methodist Church, as they were baptising two of the members of their church. Rachel and Carolyn led some worship (In Greek!) - with the methodist band, David W shared a word with us and to conclude the evening - we headed back to the Barnes' for drinks and snacks. This weekend was a great time to fellowship with other members of the body in Thessaloniki and we look forward to continued relationship with them...

Easter - Greek style..

We've had a really good Easter weekend.. and a great week since...

Good Friday - We went to Halkidiki to relax and grill fish... then in the evening we met as usual in the city for worship & prayer - pushed ahead on developing this evening..

Easter Saturday which is the big day here we met again in the evening for worship & prayer, then at 11.30 went across to the orthodox church to join the 1000's who had gathered - then like real Greeks we carried the light back to our homes and ate soup - the greeks usually eat a speacial soup made from Lamb innards! intestines the lot! We had a milder variety & some veg soup too!

Easter Sunday we joined Greek friends on their land and roasted a lamb.

Easter Monday - good friends who have just suffered a bereavement joined us for the afternoon and evening and then Tuesday we headed for the mountains for a couple of days refreshement - as finish writing, we will be preparing to go into the city for our regular Worship & prayer meeting... We are encouraging people more & more to flow in the Spirit on these occasions and see them as a time to introduce people to this dimension of God's presence amongst us..

That was the week that was!

What a week we've just had. We are getting back into circulation after a fantastic time in the UK and an amazing weekend in Greece..

First, David, Jamie & DW travelled to the UK for our annual time with the brothers who relate to Derek Brown - called "Success in the air"! About 150 guys from all over the world gather for this time.. It was powerful, provocative and challenging. Speakers included - John Crowder "The New Mystic's" - Doug Heck, Horizon's Church, Seattle and Derek. This week we take some days to revue all we heard. It was a powerful confirmation of many things we have heard from the Lord in recent months so we are greatly encouraged.

In addition lots of friendships were renewed and new ones too - very good, like a rich feast.

Friday, we returned to Thessaloniki - One of the churches in the city was holding a women's conference that our girls went to en force! Christine Caine (who is Greek) from Hillsong's was the main speaker with her husband Nick. I have to say it was really good and the guys here managed to sneak in on a couple of open sessions. Again relationship with some friends from Athens were renewed and we plan to visit before too long. Chris & Nick had a very powerful word for the church in attendance. We identified strongly with their message and look forward to pressing in with the leaders of this church in the next few weeks.

Sadly the Mother in law/ Mother/ Grandma of our friends Mike & Maria & their girls went to be with the Lord early Sunday morning - she was a believer which eases the pain a little. Joanna was staying over and called to get Dad to collect her. We had been praying for the Lord to intervene in her situation as she was seriously ill. So today we attended our first Greek funeral to stand together with this family.

So, we look forward to BIG WEEK as it's known here! We will meet with many this week and celebrate the Ressurection by roasting a lamb - but more of that later...

Bulgaria Trip

Last week the 2 Davids took Tom & Daniel (our newest team members) to Bulgaria. David W had an oppotunity to speak at the New Generation church in Sofia and saw a real response to what he shared. Daniel describes it as more of a 'conversation between him and the people...'!!
There was a time of praying for the sick and 5 people gave their lives to Jesus!
David also taught at the bible school and leadership school.



They then went on to visit our good friends Craig & Milena in Plovdiv who continue to do a great work amongst the gypsies.
There was a leaders meeting with the gypsy church and then DW shared again at Craig's home church.

Here's what the guys had to say...

Daniel:
'I found it very interesting to see how the people lived in Bulgaria, both in the city and ghettos where the gypsies live. It was a real eye-opener to go to the church and was very different to my experience of church in Germany. Something that stood out to me while I was there was when one of the guys spoke on seeking first God's kingdom and in doing that blessings will follow. It was very encouraging.'

Tom:
'It was great to go to the New generation church and meet Craig & Milena. The enthusiasm and dedication of both the church and the leaders in both places was great to see. It encouraged my faith seeing their unity and all the work going on there.'

Photos from last friday...

Pray for the young people in Greece!

We are expecting another crowd tonight...

When your expectations are exceeded.

Interesting weekend.

Friday we went into the city to pray and were joined by a group of young people and a couple of others. We had a great time. These young people were a joy to be with and our folk really hit it off with them - especially Joanna. As we took them home the noise in the back of our van was pretty extreme!

Saturday, was a good day - another Sunny day in Greece. It was kali's birthday so the ladies got together & the guys went for Fish & chips - yes we now have a great fish'n chip shop!

Sunday, we had some very good team time in the morning, then went with Kali & family for lunch, then the evening was one of those when everyone calls & says they can't make it - But the Lord had spoken about faithfulness so we went in. 2 of our folk, Gloria & Sylvester, then some of the young people showed up, we met with lots of really interesting folk at the Methodist church. This is a very positive growing relationship.

Also, here in Perea, Jamie & Rachel continue to develop their group and whilst it too has it's up's & downs there are good reasons to be encouraged.

So all in all our expectations were well exceeded.

So today we have celebrated and painted the house!

We have a busy week ahead:

• A new guy joins us Thursday from Germany;
• Much preparation for a busy week in Bulgaria (visiting both Sofia & Plovdiv) next week;
• A number of meetings with other leaders in the city.
• Our usual Friday House of Prayer event and Sunday events...
• Saturday, is the Discovery Club for Children....
• Head to Bulgaria - DW / DC , Tom & Daniel.
  

We'll try and keep the Blog updated!!!

The first weekend in March

Not exactly the night we had expected last night - good though!

David Carter led the meeting; Jamie shared a word, the worship was very good with a strong prophetic flow and DW spoke. A couple of new folks appeared but most of those who came for the opening night were not able to make it. Still it was an anointed time and we saw people moving on. Some of the guys from the Methodist church joined us later.

Friday night was very good - quite prophetic, we are looking to see all that the Lord is speaking fulfilled here. We also went out to see where the people are and found many... so next week we will start to invite people to come along.

Tom Brunson arrived to join the team for a few months - seems to be settling in OK and getting involved....
Watch this space for other news...

This summer, we have 2 camps planned:

Firstly, Discovery Camp will take place at the end of June (25th - 30th) and will be for ages 6-12.

Secondly, we will run a Youth Camp at the end of July (23rd - 28th). This will be for ages 13+

If you would like to apply to come, or if you would simply like more information contact Jamie and Rachel on jbarnes@otenet.gr, or visit our summercamp myspace for some photos and to get a feel of what we do!
Follow this link: www.myspace.com/greeksummercamps

Continue to pray

This picture is of the Archaelogical site just next to where we meet..you can see they are preparing the seating for our great Outdoors church- sometime in the future!

Another good weekend, Jamie had a good meeting in Perea with his folks, we were in the city with our small group - it was good and rewarding.

Next weekend we have our monthly celebration - I will be contacting people in the next few days - in the meantime please pray that the breakthrough continues.

the stars...

Here are some new photos of the carnival fun, from our professional... A big well done to Jamie, Joanna, Kalli, Daniel & Alexia who braved the cold in those thin, silky costumes. (Remember your long johns next year!) Despite the fact that Joanna still can't quite get all the face paint off... you can see from the photos it was all jolly fun. You did a good deed to the general public guys! It's always great to get involved. A good chance to see people out and about and get invited out for coffee! (etc.)

You can't fault the Greeks with their sense of community spirit.

I find it very easy to be cynical about Greece, even after 8 years. You find yourself thinking, "this is useless - how could they ever....?" Recently I have been thinking about the power of WORDS & the tongue. We have to be careful!
God said let there be light and there was light! We have that same power too... and so we create things with what comes out of our mouths!
So I've decided to speak out positively. There are plenty of things that I think are so fantastic about this country, that I now call my home! So I'm going to blank out the rest (as much as I can) and hone in on the good things.
Not only that, but I'm going to speak out propheticly what I want to see happen in this land. Healing, salvation, restoration, freedom etc.
Our words have the power to change things!


Carolyn~