What's Up in Greece

Sorry that it has been so long since I have written anything on the blog. Since our last post two of our girls had birthdays. Sierra is now 15 and Nadia is 13. We officially have all teenagers in the "house". Actually we only have one in the house and "Uncle John" and "Aunt Jenny" (the dorm parents) have the other two:)

My parents (Whitney's) came for a visit during Nadia's birthday and we had a great time with them. They were able to help out with projects around the house as well be involved with some of the ministries that we are helping.

One of those ministries is with the Gypsies. Alan has been talking with some of the adults at the airport camp and they have been interested in meeting once a week to talk about the Bible. Alan and our friend have been praying for some time to start a church there and now they are seeing the beginning of a small group forming. Please pray for these Gypsies that God will make Himself known to them.
Alan also had the opportunity to attend an Albanian Gypsy wedding. The wedding spanned over a 4 day period and Alan helped out with taking video of the events. When he gets it all put together, we'll post it hear on our blog.

I have been volunteering with an organization called A21 reaching out to women who are trafficked. I have been helping in the safe house. See the "Door of Life" section of the Blog to read more.

Below are a few pictures of our girls. Amber and Sierra have been doing well and the passed their first grading period with flying colors. However, homesickness is setting in as they had a Harvest Fest at the school this past week-end and many of the parents of their fellow students came to participate in the activities. Guess whose parents were missing? This caused some homesickness. The Dorm parents call November the graveyard month because this is when everything starts to pile up school wise and emotion wise. It's the most difficult month to get through before Christmas break. Please pray for the girls that God will give them added strength to complete the first sem. strong.
Nadia is hanging in there without her sister's but is constantly planning for when they will return. December will be a month of a lot of tears and laughter. We will definitely cherish those days!!

Thank you for praying for us. We couldn't be hear without them!

Dakar,Senegal

We have returned from Dakar, Senegal where we took Amber and Sierra to their new school, Dakar Academy. Our partings were not as emotional as I had expected. We were able to be around for a few days after they started their classes and were able to meet their teachers, dorm parents and some of their classmates. We were so impressed with the school's standards and their welcoming spirit. The girls made friends quickly and they were truely enjoying themselves. As we gathered together one last time we exchanged blessings, hugs, laughter, and got a little teary-eyed, but peace flooded over us and we knew that at this momemt in their lives this is where God wanted them. As Nadia, Alan, and I boarded the plane back to Europe we felt their absence, but it didn't truely hit us until we entered a very quiet home back in Greece.

Please pray for our family as we make these new adjustments. Pray for Amber and Sierra as school starts to require more of their attention and study hours. Pray for Nadia as she starts 7th grade this year at a sports school. Pray for Whitney as she prays about how to use her newly aquired free time. Pray for Alan as he and his Greek co-worker launch the "Discipling a Whole Nation" survey's to the Greek pastors of Athen's and Thessaloniki this Fall.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

What a great past couple weeks. We had a great time at the beach as a family before the team of International World Changers came for a week to help us reach out to our church's community. Twenty-six young people and adults from four different States and Germany joined our youth group and church members each day.

In the mornings we had three teams: one was cleaning up garbage and weeds at a park (which was connected to an Orthodox church!), one was painting a tall fence around a local Elementary school yard and one was teaching English to the children inside the Elementary school (used like a summer day-camp). Praise God for the many opportunities to share and show the love of Jesus!

In the evenings we went out each night to a large playground and basket-ball court near our church to host a free festival, which included activities for the little children, teens and adults. They included face-painting, balloon animals, stilts, hula-hoops, cookie-art, hair-wrapping, basketball, street-dancing, crowd-games (parachute games, tug-o-war, water-balloon volley, etc) and lots of free, cold water! It was amazing to us to see how hungry and thankful the people were for our love and kindness. Everynight they would come back, even early, waiting for us to arrive so they could help us unload the equipment from our van! Everynight the numbers increased, as did our relationship with them. The last night we had over 300 attend and stay for the three hours, begging us to come back again. Many received a New Testament, but we hope everyone saw and felt the love of Jesus through us.

We are proud of our three girls for their leadership and hard work during this whole week! We have posted several pictures on our facebook (if you haven't already seen them!). Please pray as we follow up these relationships and plan for continued outreach as a church this fall. Pray for God to speak through His word to their hearts.

This week, we are reconnecting with the Gypsies (Alan) and women in the bars (Whitney), but also focusing on getting the girls ready for their year at Dakar Academy. It is hard to believe we will be leaving for Hungary/Africa in less than 3 weeks! Thank you for praying for us as a family in that regard as well.

Big Week-end!

This past week-end started out with Nadia having a big party and graduation from 6th grade at her school. Watching her with all of her friends I realized she is not a little girl anymore, but a teenager. Where did the years go? Saturday night was a performance from Sierra's dance and music school. All of the schools in the city came together and put on a play featuring ballerinas, muscicians, actors and actresses, singers, and latin dance couples as well as single routines. Sierra has been taking Latin dance since we returned from the States. She was AWESOME! She really does have an ability for dance. I wish we had discovered it sooner. Sunday both Sierra and Nadia were baptized by their Dad. They were baptized in the ocean not far from Thess. they gave their testimonies in church in the morning then we drove out to the beach. We had some visitors who were not Christian and one girl, Nadia's age, couldn't understand why they would get baptized at such an old age. People also asked us if we were giving them a new name, because usually the babies are given their names after they are baptized. I said, "no, they will keep their same name, but they have a new name in Christ which they will know when they get to heaven." Enjoy the photos and videos that we have.

Sierra's Dance Recital and Nadia's 6th grade Graduation

USS Ponce Navy Tour

This past week we had three Navy Ships dock in the Thessaloniki port. This past Saturday we were able to watch the US play rugby against Greece. Greece creamed the Navy guys. On Sunday a few came to our church and worshiped with us and shared their testimonies. On Tuesday a tour was set up for the American missionaries to come and tour one of the ships. The name of this ship, the USS Ponce, is named after Juan Ponce de Leon the famous Spanish explorer who discovered the State of Florida. This ship is designated an LPD, Amphibious Transport Dock, which means that it serves the Marines. In the "well" of the ship there is another boat that is used as the Marine manuver boat. We were very thankful to have had this chance to connect with the military of our country. I must admit we all felt a spirit of patriotism that we aren't allowed to feel very often being in a foreign country.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Spring time has come and getting ready to leave. The flowers are almost in full bloom. Those two statements can’t help but remind us of our three young ladies! They have grown tired of my (Alan) attempt of Tevye’s song “Sunrise, Sunset” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Whitney especially likes the line from his wife that goes, “I don’t remember growing older.., when did they?” (If you haven’t heard the song, you can find it on YouTube!)

These past few months we have become more aware of their needs to prepare for the time that they will leave for college; Amber is only a year away, Sierra is entering high school and Nadia is just a couple years behind! God has been working in our hearts to make a difficult decision: to allow Amber and Sierra to attend a boarding school for other M.K.’s (missionary kids) for the remainder of their high school years. They want this too, mostly because they need to be around other teens that they can relate to and to be in a stronger educational environment to prepare them for college.

After researching out our options, we believe that the best boarding school would be Dakar Academy in Dakar, Senegal. It is closer than the US, half the price of the other options here in Europe and partly owned by our mission organization (UWM). Since our mission has families there, it provides support for them (and us!) in time of need.

This is something we never planned on doing, actually something we promised to ourselves we would never do! One more opportunity in life to relearn the lesson “never say never!” As a result, we have never raised funds for educational needs. However, we have such a peace about this, believing beyond any doubt that this is what God wants for these girls to blossom into the young women He wants them to be.

We intend to raise the needed monthly increase to pay for the following years, but for this year we need to rely on one-time gifts. The school costs for both girls this upcoming year are $14,000. We agree that we should go as a family to take them, which will cost us $5,000 for the five round-trip tickets (Amber and Sierra using their return ticket to come home for Christmas). We hoped to use saved up miles, but there were no dates available. We believe we should be able to use them to purchase future tickets for their travel, returning back after Christmas and then coming back to Greece for the summer.

If you want to help financially, please contact us at awbrown5@yahoo.com or use the response card that will be enclosed with this letter when it arrives by post. Thank you!

Have you ever felt like your life is out of your control? With so many changes happening, and so many new choices and decisions to make, ones that will change your whole existance as you know it, it can be a scary place to be if you don't have faith and trust in the Lord.
God assures us in His Word that as we trust him and acknowledge him in all that we do, he will lead our steps (Proverbs 3:5-6).

This gives me great comfort to know that an all-knowing God is guiding my life. I don't have to be anxious about anything! As long as I trust my life to the Lord, he will give me his peace (Phil. 4:6-7).

I hope that you too will stop and trust the Lord with all the crazy details of your life, and then sit back and enjoy His peace which "surpasses all comprehension".