IT Russia in Athens

Every time you enter a new situation, every time you visit a new place, every time you encounter a new culture: you enter with assumptions. It is inevitable, you have expectations. When you are living in the moment, you experience reality. Culture shock comes from the clash of your expectations versus the reality you encounter.

Our team did some pre-trip orientation to try and help us cope with this inevitable culture shock. Stacie has been here before, as well as being an experienced and well traveled missionary has extensive resources to draw upon in helping her cope. Peter has also been a missionary for a very long time, but has done so mostly in the former Soviet bloc as well as several other places in the world, He is also well equipped to deal with this initial shock.

Some things are subtle, like adjusting to a wonderful new food like Souvlaki. This is a pita sandwich with meat, lettuce, tomato, and dressing. New meaning for facial expressions, simply raising your eyebrows may tell someone asking you a question ‘no.’ similarly, when beginning your nod for yes, if you tilt your head back first, you are saying no. So, after you drop your chin and repeat the action, you are saying ‘no, yes, no, yes…’ Others are quite pronounced, like pushing past a man who is high on drugs while you snake your way through a crowded immigrant neighborhood market, like I did today. For the most part however, the Greeks have been very warm, and English speakers abound.

Yesterday

Yesterday we met up with Emma from Lost Coin and she graciously lead us on a prayer walk around downtown Athens. She took us to some well known areas some simply for having a large immigrant population, others known for drug dealing as well as using, and still some others for the scores of legal brothels and corners where you will find working girls -even in broad daylight. Before we entered each neighborhood, Emma gave us a bit of info, history, or a few specific names to focus our prayers. A place that really stuck out to me was a hotel that features mostly underage minors. Lost Coin does holistic street ministry in the areas that we walked today. They try to help with girls who are stuck in a deadly cycle of trying to pay off a debt for being brought to Greece, sometimes as high as $80,000. Some girls are coaxed into being brought here only to get here and end up as human sex slaves being trafficked by criminal elements. Oftentimes, Lost Coin may encounter a girl once or twice, only to never see or hear about them again.

The government here in Greece views prostitution as inevitable, so they try to regulate it. They require girls to obtain licenses, and girls found without face penalty fines. If a girl is found without proper identification or visas, they could be deported. Greece is lax in enforcing deportation, and often tells the deportee that they have to leave under their own power. So, the deportees don’t always listen.

There are three main types of places that one may encounter a prostitute… a bar, where she may be peddling drinks in the hopes of securing a few customers for later that night. There are hotels, where the girls will wait out front advertising themselves. And brothels, the brothels are pushing the bar-style prostitutes out of business. The reality is that brothels are simply more efficient in providing customers.

Lost Coin works with any prostitutes they can get in contact with, but the main groups are as follows. Greeks: mostly drawn in by poverty, or married young (16 or younger) and divorced after they became adults. The Greeks are the minority compared to all the other ethnic groups combined. Albanians: A large number of Albanian women are trafficked into Greece with the promise of a better life, sometimes with the criminal going as far as professing love, or even marriage to get them to go to Greece. These Albanians mostly come from villages and are not educated. Once they arrive in Greece, they belong to a ring of traffickers. Nigerians: Similar to Albanians, however, the Nigerian women currently are the fastest growing group of women in Athens. Former Soviet Bloc: Girls from this region may be from Moscow, Ukraine, Moldovia, ect. Some are here on their own accord, and Emma recounted one girl who works to pay for her education. Some are trafficked.

The Lost Coin team has been on vacation for the past month, and this coming week is the re-start of their outreach ministries. The outreaches consist of teams of volunteers who distribute water, snacks, cookies, and coffee along with Christian literature and information about Lost Coin and how to contact them if they want to talk more or have a specific need, like: help being rescued from traffickers. The ideal breakdown of an outreach team is 2 guys and 2 girls. The girls do the actual outreach; make the contact with the women, while the guys are there to cover the outreach in prayer and to provide security for the girls on the team. The guys do not go into brothels, and do not approach the women. Each team will focus on a different neighborhood. On the Monday night outreaches the volunteers all meet at 7:30 for prep, worship, and prayer. By 8:15 they are beginning to make their contacts and usually remain out until about 10:00pm. A contact can be as brief as simply offering water, being refused, and moving on… or for girls that they has established a previous contact with, it may last 15-20 minutes. The teams take notes on girls they make contacts with and after the outreach is over, they meet to debrief and pray for the contacts made and girls encountered. Thursday’s consist of an outreach to transvestite prostitutes and other neighborhoods that aren’t as active until late at night. Thursday night outreach is similar, but starts at 11:00pm, and ends as early as 2:00am.

After our prayer walk, we went to Lost Coins office to talk about the ministry more, and Susan from the Athens Refugee Center met us for our formal onsite orientation. Helping Hands is a non-profit Greek organization that is one in the same as IT/Athens. We will be working in the refugee center this week helping with their tea room times, where refugees can come and have a hot cup of tea, and are offered a sack of food. The ARC hopes to be a full service stop on this exit ramp of the refugee highway. They are involved with refugees in many ways ranging from the tea house, to clothing giveaways, English and Greek classes, shower ministries, and even formal Bible teaching and training. Many refugees from Muslim countries have never been allowed to ask questions about Christianity, and so many are interested in learning about it from the team that runs the ARC. This is a place of constant opportunity, to meet all the needs of a person. The refugee can come and be fed, watered, clothed, cleaned, and can also hear about the living water, and living food that Jesus offers.

My head is spinning from all the information that I have tried to absorb, I feel like my eyes have been opened to a whole world that exists beneath the surface of daily life in this world. People I passed on the streets of Athens yesterday were not just people. They are God’s children who he loves, and longs to be with forever. Some are hurting, some are under the fog of drugs, some have been displaced from their homes, some are the criminals that profit from human exploitation; but God is willing that none would perish. He is giving Lost Coin and Helping Hands daily opportunities to meet their physical and spiritual needs.

Today we worked in the refugee center doing a tea room. There were people from all over who come to this place for a hot cup of tea, a place to relax and even take a hot shower. I will post a complete entry about that when we have one! Keep checking back, we will post when we can... The internet is not as 'free' at the hotel as we had thought it would be. Until then... This is for you Lance Michael Corley.


**THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED 09Sept2006 0001... Details: Changed Susan's name from Susie to Susan.**