Welcome back to Athens

It's good to be back in Athens, which is both home and not a horrible place to live! Feeling at home is not the same thing as being entirely at ease however, and some things will probably never cease to cause us to realise how different by character, culture and temperament we are. They're usually quite trivial, such as the following incident, which I've put down here to illustrate a little of the cultural gap we try and bridge whenever we leave the house (and often in the house too).

On the way back from school with Hannah I popped into the local supermarket (been there way over 100 times) for onions and bread: goods worth €1.40. €5 paid, €3.60 due in change (I didn't get an E in A-level maths for nothing).

Taking the change from the lady, it briefly crossed my mind that it looked a little light, but pocketed it and then took it out again about 5 seconds later to check. I definitely had the €1.40 rather than the €3.60.

I caught up with the rapidly retreating assistant and explained what had happened.
Me: 'Excuse me, I think you've not given me the correct change.'
Shop assistant: '[Slightly irritably] Why did you do that?'
'Ummm...well you've given me the wrong part of the fiver'
'Surely you've made a mistake?'
'Er, no, I've got the 1.40 here.'
'You've probably got the rest in another pocket?'
'[Remaining very calm] No, just this and my keys.'
'Pfff...well I'll have to get the key for the till then won't I...'
'Thanks very much'.
'...'
'OK, bye!'
'...'

Note how in the entire course of this conversation I managed not to say 'sorry' (which non-English readers should know is how we feel whenever someone else is remotely put out on our account, even if we're not at fault...probably because we're aware of how much wrong we've done in the world. Sorry.).

The joke goes that when the verb 'to be at fault' is taught to primary school kids, it goes like this:
Δεν φταίω (It's not my fault)
Φταις (It's your fault)
Φταί (It's his/her fault)
Δεν φταίμε (It's not our fault)
Φταίτε (It's your fault)
Φταίνε (It's their fault)

Repent and believe the good news, Jesus says. Repentance requires the humility to stop saying 'it's your fault' and accept that actually it's very much mine. 

A slightly wandering train of thought on a plane

I was flying back to England after a wonderful time on Paros, and loving reading this book. 

It’s going slowly. First, I left it in Athens when we went to England. 

Second, I kept trying to read it but found that I was with great people to talk to so did that instead - thank you Team Paros and JJ Wyatt, Ellie Maffett and Will Woolnough in particular.

Third, I found it necessary to have the occasional siesta to keep me going through the late-night card games, the beach evangelism and the volleyball-for-the-gospel. 

It is however quite brilliant. Thank you Tim Vickers for giving it to me.

I’ve just read this section, which comes as part of a chapter exposing the myth that the ancient pagan world was joyous and vigorous, at one with the cosmos and at peace with itself, whilst Christianity was essentially a great big kill-joy, diseased with ‘bloodless antisensualism’, exerting an ‘icy and withering embrace’ on a vibrant pagan culture.

During the Paros beach mission we enjoyed a brilliant series of Bible studies in Mark. This means that fresh in my mind are lots of Markian gospel emphasies. 

So the gospel is good news? The main reason why it is good news of course is that the gospel tells of God’s free gift of life and forgiveness for sinful people - people whose hearts are desperately sick and beyond cure, apart from the Christ who came for such sick people. People who know they are dogs, worthy only of the crumbs under the table. (One of the highlights of studying Mark is having the eye-opening moment that the disciples only experienced after the resurrection, but we are privy to rather earlier: have you still not understood about the bread? Have a read of chapters 5-8 if you’ve no idea what I’m on about). 

The free gift is a cure for the sinfully sick, it’s food for the hungry-for-God, it’s forgiveness for the helplessly sinful rebel; sight for the blind-to-the-Christ is guaranteed, proved and inaugurated by the actually-resurrected King who had suffered and died in our place, drinking for us the cup of wrath that was rightly ours to drink, making possible the ripping of the excluding curtain and opening the way directly into the Holy of Holies.

As I write this I’ve got Chris Martin singing in my ears (thank you Ted & Rachel Watts) of how ‘life goes on, it gets so heavy...in the night the stormy night she closed her eyes, in the night the stormy night away she flies, and dreamed of para- para- paradise’.

The good news that Chris Martin probably hasn’t accepted (he’s definitely heard it) is just so good. We don’t have to dream of it. We don’t have to run away from the storms. We don’t have to escape a world of disappointment and shattered hopes. Jesus came into exactly that world bringing good news, which is ours by repenting of our rebellion and believing the True King. 

No need for fake saints to stand for us. 

No need for the false hope of impressing God with our virtuous lives - who can honestly kid themselves that they are such?

No need to invent rules to make us clean.

No need to fear that following Jesus makes us miss out on the good things - there is nothing we could give up or miss out on in this life that will not be far-outweighed by the glory to come.

All the time there’s this free offer of direct friendship, sonship and blessing, all tied up in the simple act of listening to Jesus, the Son who is loved by the Father and who has all authority to forgive, welcome and bless. And all the time people go on with their self-delusion that they’ll be ok on their own, or that there’s no possibility of any other way to be ok, or that the good news is so ridiculously good and free that it can’t be something for them. And so they turn to the beach to satisfy, or to the saints to mediate grace, or to science to explain their otherwise meaningless existence - though it’s still ultimately meaningless - or to a discredited communism to build the impossible utopia so cruelly promised. 

We’ve been told good news, we’ve believed the doctor’s diagnosis, we know we’re terminally ill, facing wrath and hell, but that the doctor is good and infallibly cures all who come to him knowing they need him, and we’ve begun a life that is anchored in the first resurrection, knowing that no amount of suffering and dying between now and the second resurrection - a resurrection that will be made visible by the Father’s glory and all his holy angels - is too great to make it not worth enduring.

So it’s good news. Not mere information or a mere worldview, but a cosmic declaration of and from and about an eternally good and glorious and gracious and great King, Jesus the Son of Man who suffered and died and rose again.

We live in a world where, like in those early pagan centuries, the vast majority of people are trapped in a dark, joyless, despondency. The gospel of Jesus doesn't stifle light and goodness and freedom and creativity: it reveals all of that. Atheist Delusions was such a brilliant read because it reminded me that the goodness of the good news is good indeed: better than this pagan world thinks, and better even than most Christians know - and that despite protestations to the contrary, modern secularism offers nothing good in its place. 

Paros 2013

It looks like our team for Paros is just about full, and it's far bigger than in previous years so we'll have more options for what we get up to I think. We'll make sure news makes its way off the island while we're there so you can follow progress. I think it will be a combination of twitter (@clarksinathens), this blog and the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ParosSummerTeam) so if you want to be connected there's plenty of choice.

For some (limited) visual interest the screenshot below shows the place we camp (the northern shore of the eastern bay, just outside the main town - follow the bay around from the port [A] to the broadest sandy beach), plus the even nicer beach where we meet people on the beach volley court and in the bar etc. 

If the picture doesn't show up completely you can click it to enlarge, I hope.

The open tabs show what's going on at my desk at the moment.

Spot the difference

I don't know the ins and outs of this set up, so these photos could be misleading (a picture can tell a thousand wrong words) but I think they're indicative of a shocking and frustrating thing.

Greek bureaucracy is infamous, and this snapshot is from the police station that deals with immigrants, which I had to visit today to renew my residency permit to complete the ownership documents for a car we've just bought (proper family car that we can all fit into  - woohoo and thank you for your support in that project).

This is the room that deals with the EU applicants. There were two people in the room waiting and one official serving them. I have to return tomorrow at 6.30am to complete my process. It will cost 23 cents, if it's the same as last time. A lady will sell me that stamp from a separate window. The official barely gave me the time of day and I had to beg his attention three times simply to find out where I need to be tomorrow morning. (I'm still not totally sure where exactly the 'back door' is.


This is the rooms that seemed to be dealing with the rest of the Balkans (including the wife of our local kiosk owner, a friend of ours, who is to the left of the second picture with a dark cardigan over her shoulders) judging by facial features and accents.



This group outside seemed to be mostly Africans. I'm not sure why they weren't inside the building - could be a totally different process, but probably isn't. You can't see but the line stretches a long way behind the barrier, and the official in the white shirt was pretty agitated. I was expecting to see lots of Asians (from Iran across to Bangladesh) but perhaps today wasn't their day, or they're being dealt with at another station.

It is indescribably chaotic and hopeless for those from non-EU countries. And I probably shouldn't have been taking photos at a police station but I didn't see any signs...

What we've been learning about typical Greek students

Between Christmas and Easter I was on two campuses regularly with small groups of our students, getting on with evangelism to strangers, hoping for two things: first, to sow the seed of the word to whomever we could and, second, to grow confidence and skill among the members of IFES Greece.

We anticipated this being a small beginning, and it has been, but here's a couple of observations.

This conversation lasted an hour

Typical Greek unbelievers fall into three broad categories. The largest group could be described as apathetic atheists. This means that the vast majority of our approaches to people are rebuffed immediately with total indifference and unwillingness to engage. It's not surprising: we don't resent them for it. They have no reason whatsoever to engage with us. Apart from the fact that there is an inherent level of suspicion about anyone who wants to talk religion or spirituality of Jesus, it is not in the Greek social make-up to profer interest in strangers. Greeks are warm and close to those with whom they are warm and close, and aren't like the English, with their sense of obligation to be friendly to total strangers. (That's an observation, not a value judgement - there and pros and cons of both types of relationality!)


Another group are the crusading atheists - the communists. They sincerely believe that the USSR is the utopia we should all be aiming for. It was the happiest, most free society that there has ever been - and it's capitalist propaganda that tells otherwise - and Greece needs to become a Marxist state. They are therefore committed - in a friendly, non-violent way - to the removal of God from society. 

This is the entrance to the Law school. Not hard to see what the most visible ideology is.

I have found them to be the easiest to talk with, but they are dedicated to their cause and are reluctant to discuss Jesus specifically. Some of them are still Orthodox, but atheist ones! (Yes, I know, that ought to be oxymoronic. But it seems frequently possible to be vociferously communist and retain a sense of loyalty to Orthodox roots. I think the pattern is that they remain actively communist through their youth, then revert to more 'practicing' Orthodox when they get married and have children, because the baptism of their children becomes a pressing issue. Having said that, it may be that we are at a watershed, and the current generation of Greek young people may be ones to buck that trend and reject Orthodox roots even into their family life).

The final main group are the sincere Orthodox. This is the smallest group by far, and it's also hard to talk with such folks about Jesus because the veil of institutional religiosity is heavy. It may be that some have real, saving faith. It's hard to discern, and it's not our responsibility to do so, but it seems highly unlikely that significant numbers know and trust Christ. It seems theologically tricky to be a 'good Orthodox' and be a real believer, because to be so one needs to accept and trust things that make the gospel an entirely other gospel. (This isn't the place to go into detail on that).

Sorry for the quality. On the left are two lads reading a New Testament we gave them, and on the right one of our members is chatting to the students in the first picture. ALL of the posters and banners are urging a Marxist uprising.

Scattered among these main types are those who have a real hunger for truth. Not many people are offering truth. Our challenges are to keep proclaiming it, to learn the skills to engage with each person we meet, unique and precious as they are, and to gather and mobilise more believers to be active in proclamation and public in good works.

Summer team on Paros (which is a very lovely Greek island)

You can find details about what we'll be doing on this facebook page and on this blog.

Back to the blog

Hello all,

Yet again we've not been blogging, but both Dawn and I have various things in mind to blog about - some weighty, others less so. To try and help restart things here's a photo from today which illustrates three things (at least):

1. It's warm and sunny in Athens. Winter sort of set in, and we had the heating on for a while, but it seems to have fizzled out somewhat. This is a good thing because the oil for the heating has rocketed in price.

2. Building work has re-started on the kids' new school building. There has been no progress since before Christmas, which I guess is down to cash flow.

3. There are owls on the perspex fencing, because the owl is the symbol of Athina, the patron goddess of Athens. 

We really hope they finish soon as we want Joel to have at least his final year of primary school in a shiny new building.



Watch out for updates (on the blog, not the building).