First Days in the City

I arrived in Thessaloniki on Sunday afternoon and even though I had some long layovers, they were all planned and all of my planes were on time (actually I landed about 30 minutes early both in New York and in Athens). Just as soon as I got to my parents’ apartment, we left to go down to the city center for a soccer (football) match between an American volunteer team that is currently working in Thessaloniki and a group of mostly Afghani refugees that my parents teach English to every week. I got to meet a lot of people all at once and it was a nice change from the previous 18 hours that I had spent where I didn’t speak more than 3 words to anybody (basically since I had left New York).

The next three days were spent at the American homeschool in the morning and helping the volunteer team in the evening. On Wednesday evening I got the opportunity to meet with 2 different girls that the volunteers had met while doing cultural surveys the previous nights. The volunteer girls brought me along because even though they were leaving in just a few days, I will be here all summer to potentially follow up with them. Both meetings were great conversations with the first one (with a girl named Electra) being about an hour and a half and the second (with a girl named Ava) being almost two and a half hours. It was an interesting switch from what I’m used to. Usually I go on trips and where I meet people, share the gospel with them, and then leave and go back to my normal life, just hoping that someone will come along that can follow up with them. In church lingo we usually call this “planting a seed.” This time, I got to actually say, “Hey can I get your cell phone number? I’d like to call you and maybe we can get some coffee or you can come to church with me sometime.” I now have the opportunity and even the responsibility to follow up with both of these girls and I will probably have the chance to continue to invest in and minister to them. It’s amazing how I’ve only been here about 3 days and God is already doing some cool things here.

Here are two pictures that I have taken of Thessaloniki so far

Down by the water near the White Tower:
and a view of some of the buildings in Navarinou square:

More to come soon!