God’s Kingdom Work In Greece
This sermon was preached at Sherwood Community Friends Church on Sunday, July 12.
You can watch the video with many photos of the trip being displayed by clicking below.
We’re in a series the first half of the summer where we’re telling stories about how Jesus has changed our life and how we see God showing up in divine appointments.
Last week Buster Bray shared his testimony of what his life was like before Jesus, how he met Jesus, and what his life has been like since Jesus. If you haven't had a chance to hear it yet, I recommend you do and you could get to it by going onto our church website.
As you know, I was on a mission trip to Greece for ten days this past June. I led a team of eight from our family of churches partnered with Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends and Friends Southwest into Athens, Greece, to primarily serve alongside a thriving ministry called One Heart and to pray over refugees who have fled Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and beyond.
I want to bring you into the experience we had— not just show you where we went, but help you see what we saw, feel what we felt, and understand why it’s hard to stop thinking about this place and these people.
So buckle up and set your seat backs to upright… We're going to Greece.
WHY GREECE?
Before I walk you through our ten days, you need to understand something about the ground where we were standing.
Greece is one of the most strategically important places in the history of Christianity, and it has been a central hub for the Gospel for two thousand years, but historically relevant for well over 5000 years. And you thought us celebrating the United States' 250th birthday was something!
Much like my team, the Apostle Paul didn't go to Greece by accident. He was called there.
Acts 16:6-8 CSB“They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas.”
[Paul, along with his band of fellow missionaries, were traveling around to all these places in modern day Turkey— just across the Aegean Sea from Greece. They wanted to bring God’s Good News with them, but the Holy Spirit was funneling them to one place for one divine purpose. And then one starry night, Paul drifted asleep.]
Acts 16:9-10 CSB “During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
The next thing he knew, Paul stood in northern Greece in Thessaloniki and Philippi. He stood in southern Greece in Athens and Corinth. He stood at a place called the Areopagus, surrounded by altars to gods the Greeks couldn't even name, and he preached one of the most remarkable sermons in the entire New Testament recorded in Acts chapter 17. He told the Athenians:
Acts 17:26-27CSB"From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."
During our recent Genesis teaching series, we talked about how God scattered the nations across the earth after the Tower of Babel incident, and he placed boundaries on where they would live, for one purpose. As scripture clearly said, it was so they would seek him.
That happened a long, long time ago, but Paul talked about it two thousand years before my team and I were there.
Because of where it’s located, Greece has become, once again, the single place on earth where all the nations are converging, back on that same soil.
Since 2015, over a million refugees have crossed into Greece. Iranians, Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Sudanese, and other countries where people are fleeing war, fleeing religious persecution, fleeing for their lives.
We might think they have a choice, but so many of them do not. In many cases, the choice is stay and die a rather gruesome death or leave with nothing and live. Unfortunately, the live piece poses many challenges for refugees.
And in the middle of displacement, trauma, and loss, something is happening that should make every one of us sit up and pay attention.
Muslims, by the hundreds, are coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Amen!!!!! They are having visions of him and getting real curious about who the man in their vision was. Amen!
Greece is a country that has wrestled for centuries with the tension between an Orthodox state church and genuine Gospel freedom. God is doing something new among the very people the world has cast aside and Greece is the hub where it’s all been happening.
That is the soil our team walked onto.
[Photo: Team at Areopagus]
THE LUKE 10 CALL
Our trip was called a Luke 10 Prayer Trip, and that name comes straight from Scripture.
Luke 10:2 CSB “[Jesus] told them, 'The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.’”
We didn't go to Greece to be heroes or do anything altruistic. We went to pray and praying was our primary mission. We went to ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers, and we went to be present and available if he wanted to use us. He did.
OUR TRIP OVERVIEW
I'm not going to walk you through all the daily details of our trip, but I do want to highlight the important parts.
I could tell you about how we had an amazing experience of hospitality at the Afghan House for dinner with Asefer and her son Ali. Their culture is to be hospitable and they did it so, so well. Did you know that some people just have a God-given gift of hospitality? I liken that to how Linda and Priscilla and their hospitality team take such good care of us with the food and refreshments out there every Sunday and anytime we have an event. It's just done so, so well, right? It’s because they have a God-given gift.
I could tell you the story of how we ate a sheep's head— yes even the eyeballs— but I'll spare you those details. Oh, and yes, this was an elective dining delicacy that we had the option to partake in, not required, but of course I had to try it— and it was actually quite good despite how it looks.
I could tell you the story about how we were overwhelmed by the glorious Veneti Bakery in Omonia Square and delighted in many of their offerings. These were much better than the sheep’s head— just saying!
I’ll tell you about the story of our unfortunate parking ticket and how God showed up at a Greek police station, but let me first give you the shape of what our ministry looked like.
Our primary mission partner that we served alongside was One Heart, a ministry founded and led by a woman named Sahar and her husband Arno. We spent days organizing their hot, stuffy storage room on the fourth floor and supporting their medical clinic, where local and visiting doctors offer completely free or ridiculously low cost medical care, physical therapy, and mental health services to refugees who have no other access to doctors.
Another ministry partner required us to travel about 45 minutes outside Athens to a rural area called Malakasa, where several refugee camps sit clustered together. There's a small ministry there called the Katafyghio (Grk meaning Refuge) which is a collaborative ministry among several international mission agencies coming together to provide a teahouse for refugees to hang out, feel like a human again, receive dignity, and learn about the new culture around them.
These are refugees who have only been in Greece for a matter of days or weeks or a couple months at most. This amazing ministry provides a true refuge for them outside of the hardened prison-like walls of the volatile camp life where people are regularly sexually and physically assaulted.
At Katafyghio, they have the opportunity to learn Greek and English, get their hair cut, and have Bible classes where they are presented the gospel of hope and learn who Jesus is for the very first time.
The men on our team went on a day set aside for the refugee men. The women went on a day set aside for refugee women. We served snacks. We played games. A few Sudanese men unapologetically beat the pants off of me in several rounds of dominoes. We sat with those people who have lost practically everything, been robbed and beaten on their journey, listened to their stories, and we prayed with them.
Honestly, as we prayer walked on the street along the edge of those nearby Malakasa camps [cycle through these photos)], our team described a real heaviness. A darkness. There’s a real spiritual oppression over human lives, and we prayed against those strongholds and principalities specifically, by name.
Father please continue protecting all of them from the evil one and help them know you and be known by you in Jesus Name!
One night, we worshiped with an Iranian congregation where the service is taught in English and then translated into Farsi.
They all shared prayer requests that night, and all of them shared a request for someone they knew to receive God’s salvation. Some requests were for healing. A few for their finances. I don’t think I heard any about their comfort— which they all need, mind you, but person after person asked to pray that someone they loved would come to know Jesus.
I left that night a bit convicted about my own prayer requests and our weekly prayer lists here at our church. With absolutely no shame or guilt— many of our requests are for healing, for relief, for things to get easier— and while there’s certainly nothing wrong with prayer requests asking for that, and scripture confirms we should ask for this, but… but, how many of our requests are ever for someone's soul? What if we also asked prayer for someone’s salvation?
I’ll tell you, God's Spirit has a way of confronting us through the people we go to serve. It was a sobering moment for me to reflect and enhance the reality of my own prayer life.
We spent a day in Ancient Corinth, standing at the Bema seat where the Apostle Paul was actually put on trial as recorded in Acts chapter 18. We stood on the Areopagus in Athens where Paul preached to philosophers. We worshiped with a Greek Evangelical congregation on Sunday. We walked through Biblical and world history that’s not a frozen story locked on the pages in a book, but was the living ground we stood upon.
And God was there with us in every step and every story.
GOD SHOWS UP
I told you about the parking ticket. Here's the story.
Our rental van got ticketed and the license plates were physically removed by Greek authorities one night while we were sleeping. As the driver, I may have inadvertently parked in front of a handicap ramp going up to a sidewalk. In my defense, it was not marked well at all, and it was late at night when we returned back to our Airbnb.
So me and another team member had to go to the police station, pay a 150 Euro fine (expensive parking space huh?!), and act like dumb tourists as a super friendly officer, named George, helped us sort through paperwork to get everything expedited so they wouldn’t keep the plates for 70 days and my drivers license for 60 days. It was frustrating. It cost us time we didn't think we had. But God was doing something we never expected.
While in that police station, we met a man named Dimitris who helped translate for us when he overheard us struggling to communicate. Afterwards, we walked outside with him and had a brief conversation. He said he has faith in God, but he'd never really had anyone walk him through what it means to know Jesus, not just believe in religion.
Dimitris also said he wanted to have Jesus reveal himself to him.
In the middle of an inconvenience we didn't ask for, we got to meet with Dimitris, encourage him, and pray over him. I don't know what will come of it, but it's what God wanted in that particular divine appointment. If it took a 150 euro fine for goofing up a parking spot, so be it. Dimitris was worth it.
My team and I saw how God doesn't waste a delay. Numbers 9:22 describes Israel staying in camp as long as the cloud of God's presence stayed put, and moving the moment it lifted. Sometimes God has us sit in the place we didn't choose, because that's exactly where he's working.
We had moment after moment like that all throughout our trip. We met a family from Barcelona who we encouraged with the love of the Lord. A woman named Liz from California, serving at One Heart for three months, needed a place to stay for a couple nights, right when we were there to help her with that at our Airbnb. There were other random people we crossed paths with in a city of millions, in ways that felt anything but coincidental.
DAVID'S STORY
There was a refugee man I met at One Heart named David.
David is a young Persian man. Last October, he surrendered his life to Jesus. Before that moment, David lived the way a lot of us live, even if we'd never say it out loud. He believed he was the one steering his own life. He was in control— or so he thought and tried. He had a plan, and he was the one executing it.
And then Jesus met David in a real vision where he had all the things and people and circumstances in his life he thought he was controlling come before his eyes. In the next moment, he saw this real vibrant, bright light come toward him from high up in the sky and as it got closer he noticed it was a man. When this man came right in front of him, he realized who it was. Jesus looked at him and said four words that changed David’s life forever:
"Try and control me."
David surrendered his whole life and gave everything he was controlling to the Lord Jesus Christ that day.
The day after I met him, we were going to be hosting a beach picnic with One Heart for their refugee community. We prayed specifically that David would show up, but was told he wasn’t the most reliable person even if he said he would do something. So I didn't know if he'd come. And yet, that Thursday evening, on a beach outside Athens, David walked up. We sat together on the beach and talked for over an hour about his ponderings about God, wrestling with philosophy, and living out his faith.
Like David, some of you have spent years believing you're in control— maybe of your schedule, your health, your family, your future. I want you to hear what Jesus said to David, because he might be saying it to you right now.
Try and control me.
Like David, right now might be your time to surrender your whole life and give everything you’re trying to carry and control to the Lord Jesus Christ.
SAHAR'S STORY
Now I want to tell you about the woman who leads One Heart, because her story is the reason this ministry exists, and I don't think you'll forget it.
Sahar grew up in Iran part of a wealthy family, not particularly religious, although they were Muslim by culture. She was genuinely curious about what other people in the world believed about God. At some point in her life, before any of what I'm about to tell you happened, a woman crossed her path, said only these words: “God wanted me to give this to you”, handed her a copy of the New Testament in Persian, and then was gone. Sahar didn't know it yet, but a seed had just been planted that would take years to break ground.
That woman, perhaps an angel— we don’t know— never got to see what happened next. She may never know this side of eternity what that one act of obedience set in motion. And I want you to sit with that for a second, because most of us will never know either. We plant. God grows. That’s the whole process of God’s kingdom gardening.
1 Corinthians 3:6 CSB Paul said,“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
Sahar had a Christian classmate who brought her to explore the Christian faith at her underground, secret church. Sahar's curiosity eventually caught up with her when one day, on her way home, she was stopped on an Iranian street during a routine check by the authorities. She wasn't dressed in line with the law because of her hijab and she had on some makeup on her face which was unauthorized. So when they searched her bag, they found the Bible, a fake Christian ID that she used to attend church, and a book critical of Islam. She was immediately taken to a detention center. Her father bribed her out. Within days, the family fled the country entirely, to protect Sahar’s life, and in the year 2000, they landed in Athens with nothing.
I mean nothing. No money, no plan, no safety net. A 19 year old woman raised with everything now watching her parents lose all of it because of something she did, and she could not bear to watch them suffer.
The weight of that became unbearable. Sahar attempted to take her own life. Twice. The first time, her two-year-old cousin was knocking on the bathroom door, and she couldn't go through with it in front of a child. She planned the second attempt for a day she'd be completely alone. And right as she was about to follow through, the phone rang.
It was a cousin back home, crying, telling her that someone had woken her up in the night and told her to call because if she didn’t, she would never hear Sahar's voice again.
Sahar picked up the phone. And she broke.
The next day she got on an Athens city bus with no destination, just somewhere she could cry without her parents seeing. And in her own words, she cried out to God on that bus and said, “I just wanted to know who You are. Instead I've lost everything, and I don't even know You yet. Can You at least let me end my life? You won't even let me do that.”
She opened her eyes. Out the window was a church with a cross on the building.
She got off the bus.
She didn't speak Greek. She had no reason to think she'd understand a word. But then she noticed a sign on the door saying the service would be translated into English, which she did know.
She walked in.
Over the following weeks, she studied the Scriptures, looking for a reason to walk away, but she couldn't find one. One Sunday, an older woman sat beside her, asked where she was from, and lit up at the word Iran. That woman ran an English class with fifty Iranian believers in it and needed help. She said Sahar was an answer to her prayers. So Sahar went to check it out and prove her wrong.
Instead, she heard their stories of how they'd come to know Jesus.
That night, alone, she had nowhere left to hide from the decision in front of her. She prayed honestly and desperately: “Jesus, if You're real, help me make this decision. I need Your help.”
And then, she saw him.
In her words, a man walked into the room. She told him to stay back. She said, “I can't breathe. You're holy and I'm a sinner.”
And he said to her, “Sahar, I told you, and I'm telling you again. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
She surrendered everything that night and accepted Jesus as Lord of her life.
Not long after, she met her husband Arno, who is from the Netherlands and Sahar faced an impossible legal situation. Stay in Greece illegally or try to flee to the Netherlands with no papers. If she was caught she’d surely be deported back to Iran, which likely meant death. She prayed and told God she didn't want either of those options. She told God if he wanted her to stay in Athens, he would have to make her legal. So she applied for her residency.
Within twenty-four hours, miraculously, she had a Dutch resident permit in her hands, free of charge, and it had already fully passed through the courts— which for Greece was definitely a miracle. Things typically take forever in the legal system there. I’ve heard it said that in Greece there’s no system, but somehow everything just works. God had answered with unmistakable clarity and Sahar had her legal ability to stay in Greece.
She went to Arno and told him she had a problem. She thought he was thinking they would move together to the Netherlands, but she had promised God that if he made her legal she would stay in Athens. He laughed and told her he'd made the same promise to God months earlier, but he hadn't told her, because he knew how badly she wanted to leave.
Sahar, the one who once couldn't find a reason to stay alive, now runs one of the most significant refugee ministries in Greece. Free medical care. Discipleship. An Iranian church meeting in the same building. Hundreds of refugees from the very nations most resistant to the Gospel, have come through her ministry to find Jesus through a woman who once was exactly where they are.
All it took was one seed. One New Testament handed to a curious young woman who didn't yet believe a word of it.
THE NEXT STEP
As you have recently heard from us, for some time now, Lisa and I have sensed God stirring something in us about Greece. This isn’t just a desire to go back and serve for a week here and there, but a real question about whether God is calling us there long-term. This would be to live among the Iranian, Afghan, Syrian, Sudanese, and broader Islamic refugee community to plant ourselves with them there.
We are currently going through the formal discernment process with Evangelical Friends Mission, our denomination's sending agency, to collaboratively test that calling. A decision on this has not yet been made, and God may very well close the door to that. What we have is a question we are taking seriously, and a process designed to help us, and you as our church to prayerfully discern the answer together.
In August, Lisa and I are returning to Greece, specifically as part of that discernment process. It's a different kind of trip than the one I just walked you through. This one is about clarity. About listening. About asking God directly whether this is the next chapter he's writing for us.
Would you please continue to pray about this with us and for us? Please pray for clarity. Pray that if this is from God, every door would open exactly the way they did for Sahar. And pray that if it isn't, God would make that just as clear.
All of you here, together as our church, have already shown up for us in remarkable ways as we've taken these first steps, and we truly and sincerely appreciate you for it.
Together, let's keep taking the next right step and allowing God to lead us to the destination.
If you are interested in financially supporting the work God is doing through us in the ministry we’re doing in Greece— both for our short-term trips (which we will continue doing) and for the prospect of our long-term calling, you could do that by giving to Sherwood Community Friends Church either online or through a check or cash. Just write in the comments online or note on the check memo that this is for the Garon Greece Missions and our Stewardship team will make sure it gets to the right place.
Would you please prayerfully consider giving to support the work God is doing in Greece through us for this important ministry?
CLOSING
As we close, let’s give Jesus the final word. He said, “the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.” And in a country soaked in two thousand years of Gospel harvest history, surrounded by nations God himself scattered so they would seek him, he is still working.
He worked through a stranger handing over a New Testament.
He worked through a phone call at exactly the right moment.
He worked through a parking ticket and a police station encounter.
He worked through a vision about control and a talk on a beach.
He’s not finished with any of us either. He’s still writing the story.
“The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.” Would you consider being one of Jesus’ workers by committing to at least one of the following: Pray, Give, Go?
If you found value in this, here are some additional articles for you.
