Monday, July 30, 2007

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

Monday, July 16, 2007

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!