Thessaloniki and Phillipi, Greece
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
We're here! We're safe, we're happy and we are having a blast!
On behalf of Global Celebration I want to thank all of the mothers and fathers, spouses and bosses who allowed and made sacrifices for their friends and families to go on this trip with us. Our group this year is just phenomenal and we couldn't be happier!
We arrived into Sofia, Bulgaria, at about 2am this morning after a long 15 hour drive from Greece. This is our first opportunity to connect with the internet, so our apologies to those of you fretting for not having heard from us. We are all safe and well and having a great time.
Greece was absolutely breath taking! We traveled for hours up the coast of Greece yesterday on our way to Sofia overlooking cliffs and mountains and electric blue waters that just kept us all 'ooooo-ing' and 'ahhhhh-ing'. But the most beautiful sight we saw in this stunning landscape were the faces of the little tent dwelling Gypsies residing in the fields and discarded trash piles of Thessaloniki.
An hour after we had landed safely and checked into our hotel rooms we drove out to the port of Thessaloniki. There on the sea side we worshipped and praised preparing for our first Gypsy encounter of the trip. Because the Gypsies don't typically return home to their tents until after 6 pm, we had about an hour to kill before we met them. We spent the time singing and praising and dancing in the sea breeze, enjoying our new friends rejoicing in the Lord.
Hopping back on the bus we headed into the little tent city where these particular Gypsies have resided for 15 years. It seemed to be an empty trash field located behind the landing strips of the airport whose lights could be seen about a mile off.
As our bus pulled into the area the little children ran out to greet us, allowing us to hug and kiss them hello. We walked a long dirt road back to their neighborhood where we saw homes built of tarp and tent material with sheep and goats roaming their living quarters.
We played music and danced with the children as we paraded around their small community. The adults would make their way to the homes we were in front of to protect them, but soon they softened and interacted with us as we played with their children and loved on them with hugs and handshakes.
Soon we had congregated at the end of their 'road' and Mitko, a Gypsy from Pastor Zhorro's church in Sofia preached about the love of Jesus for the Gypsies. One young man came forward for prayer and salvation and was soon followed by another needing prayer for their neck. Word quickly got out that these prayers must be working, because then it was one after another, a lot of prayers for necks that the Lord answered and healed!
By the end of the evening the hard distrustful Gypsies who hung back at the edge of their tents and shied away from our advances in the beginning, were now inviting us into their tents where they ate dinner and posed for our cameras, sharing hugs and kisses.
Pastor Zhorro and Mariana of Sofia, Bulgaria have started this work with this community visiting twice monthly for the past 2 months. The community was typically very hard towards their advances and they were overjoyed at seeing the softened faces and receiving hearts of the adult Gypsies this time.
It got dark very late in Greece, but the darkness signaled our time to leave so we kissed and hugged our new friends goodbye and headed back to the hotel to rest for our long journey to Sofia the next day.
We stayed at a four star hotel with a view of the sea that was just spectacular.
Our 15 hour bus ride included a stop off at Phillipi were we toured the ancient city ruins and got to see Paul's prison. Georgian and Winnie preached about the Paul's visit to Thessaloniki and Phillipi and we continued our seemingly never ending bus ride that took us from cliffs overlooking the crystal blue through to gorgeous vistas of continuous wineries and olive groves and almond trees.
despite the long hours on the bus, the energy level is extremely high with this group and when our Brooklyn ensemble isn't leading us with worship songs, the Gypsy worship team is seranading us with praise songs rivaling the best of the Gypsy Kings!
So now we are in Sofia and in about an hour we will be headed off to the large Gypsy city in Sofia. Such a big change from the small tent city we were in the day before yesterday, but the unstoppable gushable river of love for these Gypsies is the same!
Thank you all again for being so patient as we struggle with internet access. I know it was the prayers of our never ceasing intercessors that enabled this connection. It so happens that for the last couple of days the entire country of Bulgaria has been with out internet connectivity. But just as we arrived last evening their connection finally returned. The hiccup in communication technology has caused some delays with our hotels, nothing serious, just time consuming on our staff - so please pray that things go smoothly despite the technical difficulties.
Thank you all for your prayers and continue to pray for our Gypsy blowout this evening! We will be ministering in the Gypsy community that is home to the Gypsies that have been leading worship on our bus, and they are very excited to see their home town touched and shaken by the love of Christ!!!
On behalf of Global Celebration I want to thank all of the mothers and fathers, spouses and bosses who allowed and made sacrifices for their friends and families to go on this trip with us. Our group this year is just phenomenal and we couldn't be happier!
We arrived into Sofia, Bulgaria, at about 2am this morning after a long 15 hour drive from Greece. This is our first opportunity to connect with the internet, so our apologies to those of you fretting for not having heard from us. We are all safe and well and having a great time.
Greece was absolutely breath taking! We traveled for hours up the coast of Greece yesterday on our way to Sofia overlooking cliffs and mountains and electric blue waters that just kept us all 'ooooo-ing' and 'ahhhhh-ing'. But the most beautiful sight we saw in this stunning landscape were the faces of the little tent dwelling Gypsies residing in the fields and discarded trash piles of Thessaloniki.
An hour after we had landed safely and checked into our hotel rooms we drove out to the port of Thessaloniki. There on the sea side we worshipped and praised preparing for our first Gypsy encounter of the trip. Because the Gypsies don't typically return home to their tents until after 6 pm, we had about an hour to kill before we met them. We spent the time singing and praising and dancing in the sea breeze, enjoying our new friends rejoicing in the Lord.
Hopping back on the bus we headed into the little tent city where these particular Gypsies have resided for 15 years. It seemed to be an empty trash field located behind the landing strips of the airport whose lights could be seen about a mile off.
As our bus pulled into the area the little children ran out to greet us, allowing us to hug and kiss them hello. We walked a long dirt road back to their neighborhood where we saw homes built of tarp and tent material with sheep and goats roaming their living quarters.
We played music and danced with the children as we paraded around their small community. The adults would make their way to the homes we were in front of to protect them, but soon they softened and interacted with us as we played with their children and loved on them with hugs and handshakes.
Soon we had congregated at the end of their 'road' and Mitko, a Gypsy from Pastor Zhorro's church in Sofia preached about the love of Jesus for the Gypsies. One young man came forward for prayer and salvation and was soon followed by another needing prayer for their neck. Word quickly got out that these prayers must be working, because then it was one after another, a lot of prayers for necks that the Lord answered and healed!
By the end of the evening the hard distrustful Gypsies who hung back at the edge of their tents and shied away from our advances in the beginning, were now inviting us into their tents where they ate dinner and posed for our cameras, sharing hugs and kisses.
Pastor Zhorro and Mariana of Sofia, Bulgaria have started this work with this community visiting twice monthly for the past 2 months. The community was typically very hard towards their advances and they were overjoyed at seeing the softened faces and receiving hearts of the adult Gypsies this time.
It got dark very late in Greece, but the darkness signaled our time to leave so we kissed and hugged our new friends goodbye and headed back to the hotel to rest for our long journey to Sofia the next day.
We stayed at a four star hotel with a view of the sea that was just spectacular.
Our 15 hour bus ride included a stop off at Phillipi were we toured the ancient city ruins and got to see Paul's prison. Georgian and Winnie preached about the Paul's visit to Thessaloniki and Phillipi and we continued our seemingly never ending bus ride that took us from cliffs overlooking the crystal blue through to gorgeous vistas of continuous wineries and olive groves and almond trees.
despite the long hours on the bus, the energy level is extremely high with this group and when our Brooklyn ensemble isn't leading us with worship songs, the Gypsy worship team is seranading us with praise songs rivaling the best of the Gypsy Kings!
So now we are in Sofia and in about an hour we will be headed off to the large Gypsy city in Sofia. Such a big change from the small tent city we were in the day before yesterday, but the unstoppable gushable river of love for these Gypsies is the same!
Thank you all again for being so patient as we struggle with internet access. I know it was the prayers of our never ceasing intercessors that enabled this connection. It so happens that for the last couple of days the entire country of Bulgaria has been with out internet connectivity. But just as we arrived last evening their connection finally returned. The hiccup in communication technology has caused some delays with our hotels, nothing serious, just time consuming on our staff - so please pray that things go smoothly despite the technical difficulties.
Thank you all for your prayers and continue to pray for our Gypsy blowout this evening! We will be ministering in the Gypsy community that is home to the Gypsies that have been leading worship on our bus, and they are very excited to see their home town touched and shaken by the love of Christ!!!
