Reflecting on a year...

June was a month of endings and reflections: Jonathan and I finished our language course and passed well – we’ve been encouraged by our progress and now have to get to grips with actually LEARNING VOCABULARY and SPEAKING FLUENTLY; I finished Harry Potter 1 in Greek and understood most of it; Joel finished at his ‘kindergarten’ (νηπιαγωγείο) and took part in his end of year celebration; Hannah sort of took part in her end of year concert (both described in slightly earlier blog); and we all went to Barcelona for the IFES Debriefing conference.

Our time of Debriefing didn’t begin well as we missed our connecting flight to Barcelona in Milan, due to easyjet delays in Athens. It worked out well though (as it tends to) – we had planned to arrive in Barcelona a day early anyway, so we weren’t late for the conference – and we ended up staying with IFES colleagues Dean and Jo Ingham, their four kids (aged 9 to 14) and their dog. It was great to meet Deano’s family for the first time. They are Australian and have been in Italy for 7 years. We were able to pick their brains a bit about raising a young family overseas in two languages and multiple cultures! It also meant that we arrived in Barcelona mid-morning rather than late evening, so the transfers felt more sane and sociable.

Debriefing itself is a wonderful place to be. The hotel in which we stay serves good buffet-style food (eat as much as you want/can!), has a lovely little outdoor swimming pool and its own playground, and is only 5 minutes walk from a beautiful sandy beach. The kids had LOTS of friends to play with: there were eight 4 to 9 year-olds and five who were 2 and under. The conference programme is fairly relaxed so there is space for leisure and just hanging out together.

This year a team of us from across Europe were planning and running the conference and Jonathan and I were definitely more involved than last year. It was great to meet up with good friends and share reflections of the year, hear good teaching, encourage one another and pray together.

One of the first sessions, ‘Telling Your Story’, was about reflecting on the year and being able to talk about it in a God-centred and God-glorifying way (rather than self-centred/-glorifying). We were encouraged to write our own Psalm of Thanksgiving and Psalm of Lament. It was a GREAT exercise both in reflecting on the Psalms and trying to express experiences and feelings through a Psalmic medium (if you like).

Anyway, my Psalm of Lament remains unfinished and I’m happy to leave it like that. I felt a bit like a spoilt child in some parts – it IS an honest reflection of how I feel! – but it was good to write this stuff down. Laments aren’t always good for public consumption (though obviously some are!). However, I wrote the Psalm of Thanksgiving with a deliberate focus on thanksgiving sometimes in spite of difficulty. I MIGHT well finish the Lament and put it up at a later date. The Psalm of Thanksgiving isn’t very poetic, but it is an accurate reflection of one of my main struggles and why I can and will praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, all you people, praise the Lord!
Praise the One who is Sovereign, He is a Father to His People,
A Gracious Father who cares for his Loved Ones.

I was troubled in my language learning,
Humbled by my inability to speak or understand.
My heart was low and I had little hope of fluency.
Like a huge mountain was the goal of understanding and fluency.
I was barely in the foothills and the climb was always before me.

But the Lord is good and encourages those who falter.
He has set the hope of glory in our hearts so that, though we stumble, we will not fall.
He gave me hope through His People.
Every Sunday as we praised God and heard from His Word
I would read or hear a word or phrase I had learnt
And know that God knew my troubles.
A message to me that He is with me,
That He is Sovereign and will enable me to learn.

Trust in the Lord, all you people.
Trust in the Lord who knows every detail.
He knows your troubles and will help you persevere.
Give thanks to the One who has saved you by grace,
Who has made you for glory and is refining you.
Humble yourselves before the only one who will make all things new,
Who is able to keep you from falling.

Praise the One who is Sovereign. He is a Father to His People,
A Gracious Father who cares for His Loved Ones.
Praise the Lord, all you people, Praise the Lord!

Language acquisition is hard. It's humbling because I want to be more eloquent than I can be, so I have to know my limits and accept that I sound like a ten year-old. It's frustrating because progress is slow and we need to make more time and opportunities to USE our Greek in order to improve. It's disheartening knowing just how much MORE language there is to learn... My exam results reflect my ability: I got 55% for my speaking, 80% for my listening and 85% for my written test - my overall mark was rounded up to 80% because the result is weighted towards the written result. I KNOW the language quite well, but my speech is faltering.

Pray for us, especially as we spend 7 weeks in the UK, that we use our Greek as much as possible, take opportunities to read (I have Harry Potter 2 and Persuasion by Jane Austen in Greek to read!) and study the language whilst we're in Blighty, and make sure the kids are still exposed to the language so that our return to Athens in September isn't too horrible a culture shock. Pray too for our continued humbling and greater motivation to get stuck into the language no matter how disheartening the 'climb' to understading and fluency is. Thanks.

End of Year Celebrations

The school year ended mid-June and we were treated to end of year celebrations – an assembly and a concert at Joel and Hannah’s schools (respectively). There has been good progress over the year for both. In the first instance we really felt like we were throwing them into an unknown deep end that we wouldn’t be able to jump in and rescue them from even if we wanted to. It’s gone from being bewildering and lonely to familiar and quite friendly. It’s still hard work and we’re really not sure how much they take in (or even LISTEN to – I think they’ve learnt to switch off a bit from the Greek and not try to understand), but they are getting there slowly. I'm sorry there are no photos - we are still camera-less at the moment.

Hannah’s school has three year groups with a class for each year. The end of year concert was a whole-school affair, so we got to see children Joel’s age performing too. The concert was held the penultimate Friday evening of term at the local outdoor theatre – a little amphitheatre in the park near H’s school. The theme was something to do with a little girl’s travels underwater and the oldest class performed some songs and dances and skits about that. The lower two classes were split along gender lines and each group dressed up and performed a little dance on a sea-life theme. Hannah and the rest of the girls in her class were crabs. She was really excited about her ‘crab party’. I’d bought some orange clothes on which to sew her little crab picture, which she was very enthusiastic about (she looked like a fan of the Dutch football team!) and we had found a babysitter for Esther (the show started at 1930). Jonathan had stayed behind to put Esther to bed, so Joel, Hannah and I made our way up the hill together. H was all skippy-jumpy and didn’t seem the slightest bit nervous until we got to the theatre. I entrusted Joel in the saving of some seats and took H backstage. All her little friends in orange were happy and smiling but H didn’t want me to leave and clung onto my leg. With the help of Stella (one of her teachers) I extricated myself and left her backstage wailing. I figured that she’d calm down and that there was no way she’d go out and perform if I was still backstage, so this, at least, gave her chance. Ten minutes later, just as Jonathan appeared, the show began. All that time we could hear howling from backstage – some of which, at least, was definitely Hannah. Hannah’s group were on first. She was led on (not quite dragged) at the back and cried throughout the whole performance. She didn’t join in with any of the dance (I’m not sure she would have even if she wasn’t crying – she is her father’s daughter, so far, in that respect) and just stood and howled. It was quite funny and sad at the same time. I was at the front filming it (see it on youtube!), so at least at the end she was able to come straight to me.

I think she did really well just getting up there (I don’t think she knew she had a choice!) and we’re hoping that this won’t have scarred her for next time but rather given her an insight into how painless it could be… We shall see!

Joel’s school is much smaller: just two classes. The assemblies are always separate and this one was in the middle of his final week. We’re really grateful to be able to both go to these sorts of things, even though they are always in the mornings. Frustratingly my video camera battery hadn’t charged properly, so no-one gets to see how well Joel did in his school assembly. With a little coaxing from us (the promise of lunch at McDonald’s!) he agreed to take a fuller part than before. This meant dressing up in the same outfit as the other boys and sitting with his classmates rather than with us. Admittedly, Jonathan had to sit next to him but at least he was at the front. He joined in with most of the singing and none of the dancing (typical Clark male there then); stood in the right place for the recital of the boys’ poem, remembering his verse and speaking slowly and clearly; mostly managed to remember his long poem without reading the whole thing; and even took part in the flower-giving and ice-cream eating at the end (seriously, he wouldn’t have done that a few months ago – his reserve generally outweighing his enthusiasm for ice-cream!). For me, there were two highlights: simply seeing him sitting with his peers and singing along (especially when he and his friend Yezan kept pulling faces at the same point in the chorus of one of the songs – an in-joke) and hearing him speak voluntarily in good, simple Greek. During one of the dancey/sketchy bits the children were all given flowers. Panayiotis didn’t get one and Joel said to his teacher, “Κυρία, ο Παναγιότις δεν έχει ένα λουλούδι” (Kyria, o Panayiotis then echei ena looloothi – Miss, Panayiotis doesn’t have a flower). Slowly, slowly he is becoming more like his English self: not shy to speak…

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.

Just a quick one...

...it's Hannah's birthday today, and we're having a Charlie & Lola party (of sorts) tomorrow. Just wanted to show you the cards we created for her... AND, there will be some video stuff on the privatised youtube thing by the end of the weekend, promise!

The children are nearly off to bed and the day has been full. They went to school (last day of term) as usual this morning, we had card and present opening over a snacky lunch, quiet time (which concluded with the traditional birthday meltdown from Hannah!) and then an early dinner. Presents were dominated by 3 themes:

• Charlie and Lola (surprise, surprise)
• Crafty stuff - they're both really getting into it (as are we!)
• Bags (she IS her mother's daughter and already has more bags then there are days in the week...)

THANKS to all who have sent stuff... We are looking forward to playing with, making stuff with and reading the gifts!

We completely extremely love Charlie and Lola...

We love "Charlie and Lola" in our house - the books and the programme. The combination of retro-styling and well-pitched entertainment makes it an attractive viewing option for all five of us. One of the real bonuses for us is that the characters all talk in English accents. So much of what the children watch contains mostly American accents that to have good English/British entertainment is a luxury. Thanks to Uncle Jez for our Charlie and Lola DVD collection!

Probably like many parents of an older boy and a younger girl, we can see some similarities between Charlie and Lola and our two (we know we have three but, sadly, in this instance Esther doesn’t count…), and it is now one of their favourite things to play, not just watch (especially as they are both able to recite whole chunks of an episode!). There is a particular episode that highlights these similarities and it has an impact on our continuing acclimatisation to life here in Athens:

But I Am An Alligator sees Lola dressed up as an alligator. She goes EVERYWHERE in the alligator costume: the supermarket; the park; the school, even when her outfit produces problems for her. Charlie is completely embarrassed about the whole business. He is nervous on her behalf about what others might think and is sensitive to feelings that she doesn’t actually have. Although Hannah isn’t that keen on dressing up, she is mostly completely herself in any situation (this includes singing on the bus; throwing a mini-tantrum anywhere; asking random people what their names are) and continues to role-play long after everyone else is done (she can be a doggy for AGES). Joel is like Charlie: he’s very straight; he’s self-conscious; he REALLY doesn’t like dressing up; he feels uncomfortable for Hannah in unnecessarily sensitive ways.

For us, the real rub of this particular Charlie and Lola-esque behaviour (not influenced BY the programme – it was all already there) is that the Greek culture is much more showy and demonstrative than British. Today is a national holiday: Καθαρή Δευτέρα (Katharee Deftera) which means Clean Monday. It’s the last full day before LENT and, for the past three weeks, it’s been CARNIVAL time here. This culminated in both kids’ schools having parties on Friday where they were encouraged to dress up. We weren’t completely clear what the form would be at Joel’s school – whether or not the kids were expected to be dressed up (we might have missed a notice!), so he was dressed in a striped top and normal trousers and we took some pirate accessories (eye-patch, dagger, hook) to add if necessary. Jonathan took him. When they got to school Joel happily took his bag and jumper to his pegs but as he passed the doorway to his classroom he saw that EVERYONE was dressed up in FULL fancy dress regalia. He was slightly freaked by the costumes, the general unfamiliarity of everyone being so excited and looking so strange and worried about the Greek dancing that might happen next and decided that he didn’t want to stay (he claims he would have joined in if there had been British dancing!). He came back exhausted and went to bed for a bit. Hannah, unaware of Joel’s plight, went on to school (again with the pirate accessories). Although happy enough to stay (succumbing to the encouragement of her classmates and teacher), she did NOT want to dress up either. Her teacher had explained that there would be spare costumes at school if she decided that she wanted to join in, so we left her knowing that she would at least enjoy the Clown’s Show later. She had a very nice time but didn’t dress up.

Even if you’ve never seen the programme, you can tell by the titles that many strike a chord with us: I Am Not Sleepy And I Will Not Go To Bed, I Like My Hair Completely The Way It Is, I Can Do Anything That’s Everything All On My Own, I Must Take Completely Everything, etc.

We appreciate that our children have individual personalities and that they might not always be able to conform to expectations, BUT if anyone does have any tips on how we might be able to encourage Joel to not be so stressed and bothered in these situations we’d love your input! He’s not shy in a ‘normal’ context at all (in fact, he’s quite bold) – as you may have seen from previous blog entries, he just can’t cope with ‘performance’, whether that is standing before a group of people or dressing up as something other than himself. He prefers to be, as he says, “Just Joel”. We’re thinking of instituting some whole Clark family dressing up silliness (photos to follow!), so if anyone has any costumes they no longer need…

PS honestly, our blogs are like the proverbial London Buses: wait AGES for one…

PPS if you want more info on Charlie and Lola, here are a few links:
http://www.charlieandlola.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/charlieandlola/

More White Stuff

Last month, whilst our friend Susannah was visiting (she who took the new ‘profile’ pic and all but the above photo in this post), we had a lot of snow. Since the snow (for the last three weeks) it has been nothing but blue skies and brilliant sunshine all the way. So, we enjoyed the snow whilst it lasted (two days of snowfall and about three of melting – the snow out of the sun took a surprisingly long time to melt)!

Joel and Jonathan built Micah on our downstairs balcony. Hannah named him. Her ‘namings’ are limited to a handful of significant influences (apologies if you’re not one of them): most of her dolls and toys are called Lucie (only female cousin), Elena (biggest female friend at church), Zoë, Micah (Pratt kids – they live in ‘our house’ in Beeston) or Chloë (friends’ baby who we spent time with over the summer) or after some film character. The dogs are mostly called Monty (Chloë’s family’s dog) or Molly (after the Barlows from Beeston’s lovely dog…). ANYWAY, Hannah has ‘immortalised’ these significant influences in her ‘namings’. This is an indication both of her desire to remember friends in the UK but also her lack of real attachment to many friends here in Athens, yet. So, please pray with us that our kids will feel more and more settled and attached to friendships here. Obviously, we want them to feel MOST attached to heavenly things so we pray that their ‘alien-ness’ will remain in the right way.

Joel and Jonathan with Micah the Snowman

Micah the Snowman the morning after

Micah the Snowman two days later still

Hannah and I built Stevo (named after the real-life Micah’s Dad) in the Plateia (square) up the hill from our house (opposite our local Starbucks, if you’ve been here). There were a lot of people out and about enjoying the snow, especially as most had nowhere to go – all schools and universities and many businesses were closed.

Hannah and I with Stevo the Snowdaddy

Here are some other photos of us in the snow...

Since we've no place to go ... let it snow ...

Outside of the gates of Hannah's School.
Not sure Hannah was prepared for that particular snowfall!

Esther and I, NOT at a Ski Resort - honestly!

STOP PRESS! I've just worked out how to get our youtube videos onto the sidebar. So, click away on the snowman to see more snow footage. You could also go to the youtube site: http://www.youtube.com/clarkenfeld
and see the videos played BIGGER!

You’ll be pleased to know that we’re now back to eating outside in Plateias and enjoying the sunshine!

Balkans Staff Consultation

I went to Belgrade in mid-Feb for the Balkans Staff Consultation. Jonathan had been to the Consultation the previous two years, so it was good for me to go and meet folk. The conference was at a Bible School on the outskirts of Belgrade for the third time in a row.

There were General Secretaries, Staff and Volunteers representing almost every movement in South-East Europe (we missed Albania and Cyprus). It was great to meet people with the same vision even if their backgrounds and situations are quite different. Historically the Balkans region was united under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th Century until the 1830s. All but Greece, Cyprus and Turkey were behind the Iron Curtain until about 20 years ago and many of the national movements were part of Yugoslavia back in the day. Almost all of the countries are dominated by Orthodoxy (excepting Croatia – Catholic and Bosnia, Turkey, and to a greater extent Albania – Muslim). I was struck by the resulting similarities and differences. Some of these were really obvious: the former Yugoslavian states (along with Bulgaria) have sufficient common language to be able to communicate with each other (to the exclusion – not intentional – of Romania, Turkey and Greece). The legacy of communism and the impact of the wars of the last 20 years in many of these states has put these countries in such sharp contrast to places like the UK, and even Greece, where democracy was restored more than 30 years ago.

Ministry in these nations is tough-going and the lovely people I met have been through a lot personally and in their nations. This made me realise that I’m not only a Southern Softie (I'm from the South of England) but also a Western one (a Western Weakling?!)… As I said in the prayer letter, many of these nations are keen to find both foreign and national staff. There are pioneering opportunities as well as established situations. Please pray with us. And, if you’re interested in a post or know someone who is/should be interested, just let me know!