We first heard about Greece from our community group leaders, Gary and Vicki Hostin, about six years ago. Immediately, we were interested and ready to go, but God said wait. We later found out why. During the next two years, Sean had a heart attack, our oldest son Austin took his life, our daughter Katie was diagnosed with a chronic illness, we started fostering our three grandsons, and our other son Dylan decided it was time he move out to adult. It was a rough couple of years and we couldn’t have gotten through any of it without God and our community group. We never stopped wanting to go to Greece but life just kept getting in the way.
Last year Gary and Vicki invited us again and we decided it was time-life was about as calm as it was ever going to get. This team was going to teach marriage workshops and wanted us to tell our story. It was hard to imagine anyone wanting to hear our story halfway across the world but wow, were we wrong! It was amazing to meet all of these strangers who were so kind, understanding and appreciative that we made the trip just to talk to them-strangers no more. God is so amazing! We saw these churches doing so much with so little. We were able to make fast friends with the other members on our team and with them, meet so many people and talk to them about the difference having God in our marriages has made.
We also met a few refugees and heard their stories, helped feed the homeless, and went on a prayer walk. Everyday we saw God’s work, His love and His plans being lived out in a real way. We believe we got more out of the trip than the people that we went to help (and the food, forget about it…amazing! ). In the end, we realized that God originally said wait-not no-but wait. Our story wasn’t ready five years ago and we wouldn’t have had the impact that we were able to have at this moment.
So in God’s timing, not ours, we were finally able to go to Greece to meet people and serve in a way we never imagined. Would we recommend it to others? Absolutely! Do we want to go back? We started talking about coming back before we even left! For two weeks we did life together with strangers who became friends and friends who became family. It was a beautiful experience-life changing really…and if God is calling you to go, then what are you waiting for?