The Greek trip blessing all began with Brad being invited to teach for a week-long intensive course at the Greek Bible College near Athens. Here is my man in action, along with Jeff Baldwin, our friend and Brad's interpreter for the week.
These are all Brad's students for the week, along with the fam and Jeff Baldwin, who also happens to be the Academic Dean for the Greek Bible College.
I love this shot here on the campus. Brad and Victoria are talking with Mrs. Helen, who was the unofficial Green Family Coordinator while we were there. She loved on us, spoiled us, and kept us abreast of things all week...she was SUCH a blessing!!
The kids snagged this shot...LOTS of compact cars in Greece. Point of interest about this type of car is that they are so small that they do not have to parallel park in such parking spaces...they can just pull in straight to the curb!
The primary religion in Greece is Greek Orthodox, and this Greek Orthodox Church is just down the street from the Greek Bible College. Only 0.3% of the population is evangelical.
Inside, Greek Orthodox Churches are very ornate, as is this one, with many icons and other decor...
Our dear friend Myrto, whom we met in Cambridge, treated us to English tea one afternoon at her place, and Victoria helped her prepare the whole affair, even going to the bakery with her. Myrto is a complete delight, and served our tea on china she brought back from Cambridge, and served us baklava and other irresistable Greek pastries. We laughed and reminisced of our days in Cambridge...pure joy...
One of our fondest memories is eating dinner and spending the evening with the Mark Doebler family. Mark is Dean of Students and a professor at the Greek Bible College, and does an outstanding job leading worship there as well. His daughter Christina and Victoria are the same age and really hit it off...
While the girls were playing with the hamster...
the boys were outside having a massive Nerf gun fight. My boys felt right at home...next to Caleb is Phillip Doebler and the blonde on the right in the white t-shirt is his brother Stephan. They were great guys, and really made the boys feel welcome. I learned that Greek and American 10-yr-olds and 12-yr-olds are VERY much the same...
Half of Catarina Doebler, Mark's wife, is seen in this photo...she prepared a FEAST for us, and was such a joy to get to know...did I mention she prepared FOUR different desserts for us?!?
Here's the adult half of the table, along with the two youngest Doebler boys...their family of seven seemed quite normal to us, but is not the norm at all in Greece, where the average number of children per family is 1.2...
