Visitors

I’ve been wondering whether to write anything about visitors or not. There are so many positive things to write about having visitors, but there ARE negatives too. This is what has made me hesitate to write anything. But, as visiting season is over (mostly – we’re looking forward to a visit from our friends the Pratts in July!) I thought now would be a good time to do so.

So, first things first: we LOVE having visitors. We’ve always loved having people in our house and deliberately rent a house big enough for meetings and hospitality and we bought sofa beds and extra beds to accommodate visitors. We’ve loved having people to stay who we’ve never met before and with whom we have become friends; we’ve also (obviously) loved having family and dear friends come to stay. It’s great to share our lives with people and we really enjoying showing people around OUR city – the Clark-side of Athens. It’s such a good opportunity to catch up with people too: phone conversations, skype chats, letters, emails and facebook are all well and good, but face-to-face is definitely best. It’s also the best way to get your head around our lifestyle here – especially when it includes a visit to our church.

As a couple and, I think, as a family we thrive on being in the context of others: we have grown up (both as a couple and as a family) operating within bigger groups – Relay, UCCF in general, church – and have sometimes struggled with the intensity of spending most of our days and weeks just in the company of the five of us.

However, it can be a little time-consuming both preparing for and re-organising post-visitors. It’s a great incentive to clean! (I KNOW we shouldn’t feel we HAVE to clean – but it’s SO much nicer coming to visit a clean and tidy house!) I love the prospect of catering for others but it can be physically quite draining too.

The main downside for us has a few implications – in order not to waffle, I think I’ll bullet-point these... Don’t forget, we LOVE seeing our friends and family, but there is a big BUT:

• Language implications. Most of our visitors have absolutely no Greek. It’s fun to hear the kids teach some basic words and phrases for survival (please, thank you, excuse me…) but it pretty much prevents us from using Greek in the house: our house becomes an anglophonic bubble; the time spent with our LOVELY visitors is all in English – no speaking, listening or thinking in Greek.




• Health implications. We’re quite well most of the time and have settled into the demands of life here quite well. Visitors bring alien bugs. (Special thanks to my niece for bringing a particularly vicious strain of tonsilitis which has been plaguing me ever since! Even in retrospect, though, it was worth it!) The nervous anticipation of having visitors and the excited activity further weakens my immune system so that I am usually laid low for a few days post-visitors.




• Emotional implications. We are committed to being here and building a life and ministry here. We are up for the challenge and are excited about the opportunities and the possibilities. We know that God has called us here; that it is good to be here (even when it’s tough); that we shouldn’t (and don’t) expect it to be easy. BUT, we miss Beeston. We miss our family and our friends. We didn’t leave because we didn’t like our lives in the UK; because we were dissatisfied with our situation; because we had itchy feet to leave. Life in Beeston was good and we have made sacrifices. We feel those often very keenly when we have visitors and, especially, when they leave. I can’t decide how I feel about the airport: it brings visitors but takes them away too and we all feel the taking away even more keenly than the bringing.

All of these bullet points need to be read in the context of ‘We LOVE having visitors’ and, more importantly, in the context of the gospel. In his first letter John writes, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) My key text for this year has been (and I have a sneaking suspicion it will continue to be – so you’ll see this again in future blog entries!) Hebrews 11: 8–10:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign
country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Ok, so we don’t live in a tent, but it’s been an encouragement to look forward to the heavenly city – the NEW WORLD as Joel constantly calls it. I’ve not been very regular in studying (or even reading) the Bible this year – something to pray and pester me about – but I’ve been reminded of these verses time and again and they have caused me to pray.

So, PLEASE come and visit. If you can, bring something from Blighty that we miss. Bring lessons learnt from God to share and any good resources or books! Bring a willingness to muck in and make yourselves at home and know that you are a blessing to us and a reminder to us of the hope that we have for the NEW WORLD.