Today is bittersweet as we close out an incredible week of serving at All4Aid. Each of us had the opportunity to choose our area of service today, and it was amazing to see how God opened opportunities to share with women who came to the center today. Today, we offer just a snapshot of our week. Jobs included handing out towels and helping women access the showers, assisting women who visited the shop for clothing, playing with kids (we made homemade play dough in our hotel rooms last night!), and providing foot rubs in the spa. We each have so many stories to share, too many for one blog post! We each feel honored to have been able to represent Calvary Church this week, being the hands and feet of Jesus. Tomorrow, we plan to debrief in Athens before flying home on Sunday. Thank you all for your continued support…
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Today marked our third day working in the center. Energy levels are a little lower today, and we are are examining different emotions as we experience helping those who endure so much suffering. Feelings have ranged from compassion to confirming to even recognizing the contrasts of life’s circumstances. We grapple with guilt when we are distracted by lost luggage while those we serve have lost seemingly everything. We feel compassion when we spend a few moments braiding a young girl’s hair and pray a silent prayer over her as we do so. We feel conflicted when we offer a foot massage to a woman who’s trekked cross-country to escape persecution and certain death. We also recognize the contrasts of providing respite in a world so torn with war and oppression. It is hard to say no to people when there are limited resources. It is difficult to want to heal…
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While we are actually four days into our trip, today was our first full day working at the All4Aid Center. We spent the first two days traveling to Lesvos, arriving on the island in time for dinner Saturday night. On Sunday, we went to church, worshipping with people from all over the world, including a group of people living in the camp who come from Ethiopia. Then, we spent the afternoon touring a bit of the island, getting to know our host, and preparing for our first day at the center. Today, we received a brief training before dividing up to do various jobs including hospitality, operating the shower room, and spending time with the women and children who come to the center to receive services. A few members of our team helped sort clothes and prepared to open the store tomorrow. We are rejoicing that the center will open…
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On October 6 through 15, a group of six women from Calvary Church are traveling to Lesvos, Greece, to serve with All4Aid, a faith-based organization from Germany that serves refugees. This will be Calvary’s first short-term missions trip back to Lesvos since 2019, when five different teams went to serve with this organization. All4Aid hosts The All4Women Centre on the island of Lesvos, where refugee women and children can access clean showers, wash laundry, utilize the foodbank, and enjoy a moment of respite from life inside the refugee camp. During this 10-day trip, the team will serve refugee women and children who are among thousands to have fled their countries due to war and persecution and are living in Lesvos as they seek asylum to other parts of the world. The team will be there to serve them, spend time with them, and share the love of Jesus with them….
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How is it already our last day with these kids?! We started the day by asking the kids to reflect on what they have learned with us and what they may want to learn from us before we leave. We heard an awesome teaching on Jonah by Nathan, and played water games outside! We ended the day with VeggieTales Jonah and worship songs together! We had an awesome final day of kids camp, but are so sad to say goodbye to the sweet children of Glyfada that we have come to love and cherish over the past week. We had a chance to debrief with Pastor George before heading to our debrief location in beautiful Mati! We are looking forward to a day of rest and reflection of our own before heading back home.
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Quiet ball was the first game of the day- our teams favorite game so far 😌Then we flowed into yoga taught by our fellow yogi Ally Ray.Our team did an English lesson on fruits/foods and we practiced with a fruit salad game. Bingo was a hit for the kids! Again, they are very competitive 😊Alexander Schmidt did a fun teaching in fruits of the spirit and in the community. The kids finished the day with creating crayons with several broken crayons colors. This is a great example of how different parts of the community look different but make one body- the body of Christ. The team finished our day going into Athens to meet up with Pastor George. He had a wonderful message about Acts 17 at the Acropolis – where Paul was when he spoke to the people of Athens. The team is so clearly seeing Gods hand and…
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Wow this week is just flying by!!! Today we started the morning with Red Light, Green Light and Heads Up Seven Up. Red Light Green light got pretty competitive…in general the kids this week are all competitive in most of the games! Next we did an English Lesson in Words of Encouragement by Ally Ray. The kids were able to use this lesson for the next round of carnival games! Danielle Balanda led an amazing lesson on the importance in encouraging others and how together we can lift up our community together. Then we all ended the day building marshmallow-toothpick bridges together in their teams – we got some solid foundations! (…before they started to melt in the Greece heat) The Team got caught up in playing games at the church after the kids went home…we were at the church for an hour and a half playing signs with Liz…
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We finished up our second day at Kids Camp in Glyfada. Today we started our morning with Hot Seat, Simon says and Freeze Tag, where the kids got to know each other more in small groups. Our English lesson today was about community members and places they work including a scavenger hunt throughout the church.Next, we moved into the common thread game while each team created their group flag for the week.Builders and destroyers was the favorite and most competitive of the day!Micah Bagley led an ecology lesson on how the crow, grass, tortoise and red fox are apart of a food chain. When one part is removed then the entire chain struggles- reminding us how important each one of us are in God’s community. Then we finished the day painting rocks and playing more games (the kids had particular favorites that involved running ☺️😮💨)The whole team is having a…
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First day of camp went great 😊We started with the hula hoop game, human knot, and no hands cup stacking. Abby led a great teaching on 1 Corinthians 12 about being one body with many serving parts. We ended the day with making friendship bracelets and splashing around in the pool. (Along with our team getting splashed by the kids 🙂)
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