Road Trip!

Monument in Berea, Greece dedicated to Paul

Off to Albania we go! Chris Dakas (Albania missionary), Bob Forseth, Pat Bogucki and I. Driving through the Greek country side seeing the different terrain, seeing the gardens the grape vines growing up posts and then across a trellis creating a canopy or roof of leaves, vines and grapes. Something about the countryside inspires me. The same thing happened when I was riding through the Mayan mountains. What the Greek country side is inspiring me to do is have a vegetable garden of my own.

Paul on 3 steps addressing the Bereans

We stopped by the Biblical city of Berea and saw a monument dedicated to Paul in remembrance of his work there. Paul's second missionary journey 50-52 AD, he traveled through several cities in (modern day) Greece. The monument includes three steps that were removed from a salvage dig at a nearby school property. The steps were reputed to have been from the location of the ancient synagogue. The display is made of colorful mosaic tile and displays three panels: the Macedonian man vision, Paul and the address to the Bereans. It got me curious what scripture verse this town was in.  And Pastor Bob read the Acts 17:10-12 scripture with this wonderful voice as we drove though.

Paul with the 3 "original" steps of the synagogue

...On arriving there (Berea), they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians ( They were jealous that Paul had persuaded some Jews to join him and Silas), for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

Pretty neat moment. And looking at the surrounding scripture of Paul's travels to Thessaloniki, to Berea, to Athens, now I know the distances seen the distances by car and plane that Paul traveled. Pretty exciting times! Praise God. Call me a nerd, I don’t care, I love the Lord!!

Having lunch under olive trees!

Had lunch under an olive tree near the tomb of King Philip II, Alexander the Great’s father. Lunch was lovely, in a garden with olive trees, flowers, sun shining and a slight breeze. The olive trees are so beautiful, the two tone greenish gray color, I just love. It was a special fellowship time and the food was good too. Then off to the tomb. The most expensive preserved items in Greece, found under a man made hill. Pretty neat stuff, I like the bright, shining golden oak wreaths that they put on the containers that held the bones of the dead. Another neat thing was that two of the three tombs were preserved that you could walk down some ramps up to the entrance of the tombs. It’s all indoors with low light especially this are so just imagine walking down creaking wooden stairs with in a dim and cool room with declining dirt walls on either side. All the artifacts date back to 317 BC.  We had a crisp cool granite outside, this time under a large maple tree, the sound of the leaves bustling in the wind added to the relaxing feel. Then back on the road to Albania!

Pastor Bob Forseth & Me

Northern Greece hillside is gorgeous! The trees, rocks, hills all reminded me of locations where they film all the biblical movies. I saw herds of sheep, pigs, donkeys, cows and chickens, rows and rows  fruit trees and vegetable farms when we got into Albania. Passport stamp #4! We stopped by the radio station in Korch, Pat and I gave our testimonies that they recorded and will translate and air on the radio in Albania, Northern Greece and Macedonia. About 100,000 listening audience. That was fun- I talked for about 26 minutes :) Praise God, He has done a lot of work in my family and I loved sharing it all!  Hopefully it will encourage listeners that God can begin to change a whole family in a short time (less than 2 years) and to keep praying. The radio ministry gives solar powered radios to people of different faiths, so they can hear testimonies and then a relationship is created then they meet up for a time of fellowship and are led to the lord. They are working on a recording studio too. We met two of the people who run the station Tani and Daniella- very nice. The radio station reminded me of someone I know who has a wonderful singing voice, is amazing on the piano and currently working on a CD. So I asked if they would put a few of his songs on the radio, they were open to it- we'll see :) 

Me and Daniella

We took our time getting up to Triana and Chris is an excellent driver however, once night fell and we had to make our way up and then back down this small mountain, things got a little hairy. The road lasted about 40 minutes and there were countless number of hairpin turns where Chris was probably going under 12 mph, otherwise we would have rolled right off the very steep cliff. It was pretty unnerving, I was tightly holding onto the shoulder strap of my seat belt the whole time. All I saw was the grey of the sky, the black ground and small little glimpses of lights here and there. Pastor Bob was a little uneasy as well. It was so nice to be on level ground again. Chris gave all three of us had our own rooms at the Bed and Breakfast above the Stephen Centere Restaurant-which I'll be working in. Sad to leave the Greek family in Thessaloniki but excited for what I'll be doing at the restaurant!


-9/11 Prayer: Heavenly Father thank you for who you are and what you are doing in our lives. I pray for the surviving loved ones, communities and families of those lost in the events of 9/11/2001. Give them your comfort and your peace, that surpasses all understanding. We praise your name despite circumstance and rest in the sovereignty our creator God who is the beginning and the end and believe the greatest tragedy is not knowing you. Amen.


God Bless,