Schools, ceremonies and 'holy' water...

So, Hannah started school with hardly a hitch. Her school is up the hill towards the uni, set in its own grounds with a good-sized, well-equipped playground.

Day One: a highly organised operation by the staff at her nursery school saw children whisked away from their parents, a lot of crying but real cold-turkey stuff. Hannah howled. At hometime she was happy and said she'd enjoyed herself and was happy to go back tomorrow.

Day Two: Hannah decided she didn't want to go, but we explained that she had to. Hannah a little melancholy on the journey. Hannah cried a little, but in a resigned sort of way and was fine when I collected her, introduced me to one of her teachers, Vaso, whom she hugged as we left.

Day Three: H was happy to go, but still cried on parting with Jonathan - no howling, just sad. Much better than the first two days though.

Days Four and Five: She still cried, but was happily talking about friends she'd made when we collected her.

Monday, Week Two, Day Six: NO CRYING! She happily had her photo taken with Stella, another of her teachers (see pic!) and has been happy to go since then!

We have no idea how her language will develop, and are resisting asking her questions about Greek.


Joel's school is the ground floor of an apartment block. It's a little closer to our house and is only for those who will start 'big school' (which you do the calendar year you turn six) in the next two years - so currently has children born in 2002 and 2003. Yesterday we registered him without an problem and were told to return for 0930 tomorrow. We left assuming that today was Day One, which was sort of true...

Day One(ish):
So, Joel and I arrived and were ushered into the playground at the back of the building where one of the classroom tables was laid with a tablecloth, icon, bowl of water, a hand-sized crucifix and bunch of basil. The priest was standing nearby and many of the parents were nodding greetings or kissing him or each other.

When we were all gathered the priest encouraged the children to come closer (Joel wasn't interested at all and asked some interesting questions about why he was there!). He began his prayer, singing and speaking and whenever he crossed himself almost all of the adults and most of the kids joined in. It was clear that some were very familiar with Orthodox practice and some not so much. There were 3 boys completely ignoring the whole ceremony, playing quite loudly without intervention from their mothers. Joel and I prayed together quietly during part of this ceremony. At the end, he took the bunch of basil, dipped it in the water and held it, with the crucifix, sprinkling the kids heads and holding the crucifix for them to kiss.

Not ACTUALLY the priest who performed the ceremony! Ours was younger and not surrounded by country side, but you get the idea!

After the ceremony the Headteacher explained what would happen over the next few days (some of which I understood, but I stayed for clarification at the end anyway!) and today was just ceremony day. Having hyped Joel (and myself) up for today being Day One, it wasn't.

Day One (Two - Wed) starts tomorrow with a 2½ hour stint from 8am.
Day Two (Three - Thurs) is the same.
Day Three (Four - Fri) the school is closed for the national elections this weekend - see future post.
Day Three Take Two (Four - Mon) ditto.
Day Three Take Three (Four - Tues) when Joel will go in for the full 0800-1230 day.

Religious ceremonies will always be a part of the kids' schooling. This will be a good way to engage with spiritual issues with the kids, their friends and the parents, as well as a chance to talk more with our Greek Christian friends about their approaches and thoughts. Pray for us, that we'll be wise in these conversations.

It's good to be home

Birthday balloons! Esther was 1 whilst we were in England.

We've been back in Athens since Sunday night after 7 weeks of rather hectic Englanding. We thought we ought to blog a bit to catch you up. People were right to urge us not to travel around too much, and we intended to take that advice, but a combination of our natural instincts and some unforeseen circumstances meant we didn't. The other thing was that it was a long time to be away from home, and we reckon that next summer we'll have quite a different time of it.

Without going into reams of detail here's a quick summary of what we did:

The first week back (from 10 July) was Dawn and kids in Sussex with her family while I went to the IFES World Assembly near Toronto, Canada. This was a great privilege. The highlights were definitely seeing representatives of some of the newest movements, particularly those in the Middle East and North Africa, report on how things have started in their countries in recent years. What most struck me (not for the first time with IFES) was how God has worked through the faithful witness of normal people in tough places to save people and establish a witness for himself in many universities where there was previously nothing. This is a great encouragement for us in Greece! I think it's worth noting that Western Europe is still one of the most unfruitful places for the gospel on the globe, even compared to some Muslim countries. We ought to still be praying for workers to be sent into this most convenient (for UK believers at least!) of harvest fields.

Anyway, this is already looking less brief than intended. Mid-July to mid-August we were in Beeston with a week in the south east in the middle. People from Beeston Free ('home' church) provided us with homes and car and we had a great time catching up with the church family as a whole and many of our friends there. (The downside of a summer visit is that you miss some people away on their holidays of course, but such is life.) The week in the south east included three days in London (friends at Oak Hill one day, tourism the next, a funeral third) and time with Dawn's parents and sister and brother in law.

Hannah, Lucie (niece) and Joel, exploring at the Natural History Museum

We packed up from our final Beeston home mid August (oh - it was lovely to visit our friends the Pratts in our Thorndyke Close house: several people asked us about this and it was good. Reckon they've improved the place actually. There are even strawberries growing.) to go to Liverpool (my little bro and other friends) and Cheshire for a long weekend including a day trip to York before heading south west to see old uni friends and be in the right part of the country for IFES orientation at Monkton Coombe, Bath. Crazily, we managed to squeeze almost 24 hours at the UCCF Relay 1 conference at Quinta, Shropshire, into this. This 300 mile round trip was so worthwhile though: an opportunity to see the old place again, be part of Relay again, AND talk to the group about IFES in general, year-teams in Europe and our plans for Athens specifically. We hope to have a team here soon (i.e. next September) so we have sown the seeds in 60 potential minds! We also celebrated Esther's 1st (ever) birthday at the IFES conference (see pictures below below). The final act was a Clark family weekend in a youth hostel in Milton Keynes (as my parents are waiting to move into a new home) for dad's birthday.

Outside one of our favourite places: Café Concerto, York.

Those are the bare facts - what of our reflections this side of the scooting around? Well, seven weeks away from Athens was a bit long in some ways. It was lovely to be in England, and we enjoyed it from day one, despite the miserable summer at the start. However, from the off we were really encouraged that it felt as though we were away from home, and so it's good to be back. We were also encouraged by the people we saw - we are so glad for the friends, family and church we were blessed with before heading here in January. Finally, although there have been the occasional moment of melancholy this week (and despite having to put toilet paper in the bin again), we're glad to be back, looking forward to getting back into Greek, and anticipating spending more time with students this year.

We'll post again soon, with news on new school stuff for Joel and Hannah. We'll also try and get some more photos up. Our camera needs replacing so we hardly used it this summer and have to borrow other people's pictures.

The birthday girl - she has the family gormless look off to a tee!

'Super' Joel (he prefers 'Special' Joel!) in birthday party mode!

It's true, Hannah ate all the party rings (or at least licked a lot of them!)...

Happy Birthday to you ... (sing along!)

Thanks to Tim for shielding the candle.

Thanks to Lily for the birthday photos!

..STOP PRESS.....STOP PRESS.....STOP PRESS..

Esther Clark moves! She has been shuffling along on her lovely little bottom for most of the afternoon and enjoying the 'freedom' that provides! So glad that we don't have to think about Esther-proofing the house until our return in September (we fly to England tomorrow)...

..STOP PRESS.....STOP PRESS.....STOP PRESS..

Update on the kids

A few words about the kids and their prayer requests. Esther first, easy—she’s doing very well, coping with the heat, and continues to be one of the world’s easiest babies! She has 7 teeth, is known as the hvsuch koritsavki 'quiet baby girl' in church, remains sedentary (just learning to spin on her bottom, so we haven't had to Esther-proof the house yet!) and has a ready smile for anyone who looks at her! We pray that she'll shine like a star in the universe as she holds out the word of life (Phil 2:15-16).

Esther has seven teeth!

Hannah is bold, lively and strong-willed (I don't know where she gets it from!). Honestly, sometimes she's so an untamed, unrestrained and ungospelled version of me. That said, she's a lovely girl! She's bright and funny and affectionate, loves running around, drawing/colouring, and playing with the other two. We pray that she will continue to grow in grace and self-control!

Joel and Hannah on their sand-vehicles!

Joel is mild with occasional outbursts, friendly and inquisitive. Like Hannah he is strong-willed (but in a more passive-aggressive way) and is a bit of a mini-Jonathan. He's really good company. He's just started to learn to read and write and is at that stage where he has a real thirst for knowledge and understanding. We're really enjoying his progress. He loves surfing the net (facebook and the cbeebies website mostly!), reading (especially his new atlas) and spelling his name (especially on an unsupervised computer!). Joel is earnest in questions about God, so we pray that this interest will grow into understanding and that the Lord will open his eyes to the truth.

Joel (and Grandad, Gran and Hannah) outside his new school.

Hannah and Joel both start ‘school’ in September. We had thought they would be at the same place, but it turns out Joel is too old! This discovery was made the DAY AFTER registration for ‘proper school’ closed. We’re disappointed that they won’t have each other as they venture into the exposure of total Greek AND school culture, but we know that God is sovereign and he cares for them. We've pretty much made a decision about which of the 2 local schools Joel should go to, and need to register him on our return. We’ve had to CUT SHORT OUR VISIT TO UK as a result (We fly back September 2 instead of 11).

Hannah outside her new school.

We enjoyed being part of the Qerinov Scoleivo (Summer School) Holiday Club at church. Over 50 kids came, including 20+ from the neighbourhood! The theme was Kovntra sto Reuvma (Against The Flow) and we learnt about different characters from the Bible who did that. It was really good for the kids to go to something that was almost completely in Greek (there was a team from the US helping with some of the activities) – good practice for school and Sunday School come September.

All the kids, be-t-shirted (?!), at the Holiday Bible School.

Please pray for the kids as we spend some quality time in the UK and then return to Greece. It might be a bigger re-adjustment for them than for us, especially as school starts. Thanks. We’ve been continually struck by God’s Sovereignty (especially in relation to domestic and family affairs) and know that His plan is perfect.

IFES Debriefing

We spent the second week of June in Calafell, just outside Barcelona. We'd never been to Spain before and Jonathan was encouraged that, although he could speak no Spanish, he would have been able to say all that he needed to (to Spanish staff etc) if we had been in Greece!

Being on any conference with 3 small children limits one’s involvement(!) but we were able to spend some quality time with our IFES colleagues and with each other.

The highlights:
For the kids

• the Hay family (Brussels), Luke is 5 and Daniel 3. Joel and Hannah spent quality time with them!
• The beach AND the swimming pool where both grew in confidence in swimming and sand-something making (a boat!)

For us

• being able to relax and enjoy great company - good chats with colleagues
• good food (in abundance!)
• a great Eurovision-style fun evening on the beach
  
• and just being witness to God’s work through faithful workers.

I was particularly encouraged to meet some Relay Homestarters (1 year with UCCF, 1 with a different IFES movement) and see that programme in reality.

The setting, a hotel near the beach, was very comfortable and relaxing, and we (from Athens) enjoyed the relatively cool temperatures (top 20s) and sea breeze! Athens felt even hotter on our return!

We will see many of these guys again at IFES Orientation in late August—Team Leaders and those staying on for a second year.

The Beginning...

So here we are, in Blogsville, in Athens. Welcome!

For a wee while this is definitely going to be experimental. Jonathan and I might choose to express ourselves in different ways (and different fonts). I've been struck, through facebook, about how much I like to hear from people. So, here's an opportunity for you to do that.

We'll be attaching photos (mostly of people - if you want to see the scenery, come and visit!) and telling you a bit about what's going on in (mostly) sunny Athens.

Would love to hear from you.

And here are some photos of our children...

Hannah and Joel enjoying their smoothies (or at least their smoothy moustaches!)

Esther being 9 months and very lovely!

A miracle: All 3 photogenic at the same time!