The weather’s heating up in Athens, and this week the 17 students and staff who have been visiting from Texas will be wrapping up their ministry on campus. It’s been wonderful having them here. Inside our most recent letter [below in pdf format], you’ll find such fun stories as:

On Mars Hill with the Summer Project
Speaking in 6 Languages at once!
And much, much more!

click on the photo to download the newsletter

Thanks for praying!

Man, you people sure can pray! As of yesterday evening, we are officially tangled in the World Wide Web again! OTE [”Oh-Tay” for all you Little Rascals] had our internet raring to go in under 20 days! After waiting 3 months for our last internet company [Boo, Vodafone!!!], we didn’t think it could be so easy.

We will be a little less cyber-scarce now. To prove it, we’ll give you the reader a little photo love. We’ve been hosting a summer team here from UT, TX State and UTSA for 10 days now, and we thought you’d like to see a few pictures from the summer so far. Enjoy!

You may have noticed that we have been slow to update our blog, and have been impossible to reach on our phone. Where have we been?

Were we captured by pirates? Have we switched to communicating in only in Greek, forgetting out all our English-speaking relationships?

The answer actually is quite simple. We’ve been forced into internet exile. Our home internet, which took months to set up, worked for two months, and at the beginning of February it went kaput. For months we’ve been working with our internet company to get back online, but to no avail. Without home internet, we have no VOIP internet telephone, and our internet use is limited to checking and answering email mostly.

Greece is still slow adapting to this new-fangled “internet”, and new connections can take months to be activated, so we were slow to switch companies. We figured, surely it couldn’t take longer than a month to fix our internet. We figured wrong. After three months with no solution, we are in the process of switching companies to the big, bad [formerly government-owned] monopoly, OTE [pronounced, “Oh-Tay”]. We are told by OTE that it will be twenty days until our internet connection is, well, connected. By all other accounts, however, we could still be waiting months.

We ask that you continue to be patient with us as we work out these communication issues. We really DO want to talk to you. We also ask that you pray for OTE to set our internet up within the 20 working days they promise. When dealing with the souls of Greek college students, we know that the internet is a small thing in light of eternity, but having this connection would allow us to stay better connected to you, our loved ones, so we appreciate your prayers.

This month Catherine explains how Easter in Greece sometimes happens a little later than in America, we keep March Madness going well into April, and we make a few friends by means of some creative photographs! Read it all and more by clicking the picture below, or just click here.

Happy Reading, and Happy Easter!

[image courtesy of www.greecetravel.com, a great guide for travel information in Greece]

Last Monday, March 10, was the first day of Orthodox Lent, or Σαρακοστή, called Clean Monday [Κάθαρα Δευτέρη]. On this day, Greeks go to open areas around Athens and fly kites. It’s really a beautiful thing to see. On Clean Monday Greeks clean their house of everything they will fast from for Lent, hence the name “Clean” Monday.

Ironically, Clean Monday was anything but clean. Beginning on Clean Monday, there have been numerous strikes: subways, buses, but most importantly trash pickup. For over a week now, trash has been accumulating in the streets of Athens as the trash workers refuse to pickup trash until their demands are met.

We braved the stench and documented this wonderful event for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy. [If you really want to get the effect, view the slide show below next to an open dumpster!]

Update: The smell made it all the way to England. BBC report on strikes.

We’ve been away from internet-land for a while lately, since the internet in our home has been down for over a MONTH! Never to fear, though. We’re getting caught up whenever we can get our hands on a wi-fi connection.

We emailed and USPS-ed our February newsletter weeks ago, back when it was still February, but we never put it here on our website. So here it is! Inside you’ll find fun information about our church, my friend Kostas, and snow. Enjoy!

click on the photo above, or click here to download it.

The semester is ending this week, and exams begin for students next week. It’s hard to believe we’re through with our first semester in Athens! We’re days away from packing our things and heading to our staff conference with other staff from Europe and the surrounding area.

You can download our most recent newsletter in pdf format by clicking here, or click on the photo below.

Thanks for praying!

If you would like to receive our newsletters in your email inbox every month, please send an email to us: Catherine, Paul.

We wish you a Merry Christmas from Greece! We have so many things to be thankful for this Christmas! We finally have internet set up in our home, so we have been able to talk to our families today, and we can update you here!

If you read our December newsletter, you heard a little about Christmas in Greece. I wanted to take a moment and let you know a little more about how they do Christmas here.

For example, rather than Santa Claus coming into the chimney, Saint Vasilis climbs onto your balcony, and (we presume) into your home to give gifts.

Saint Vasilis, the patron saint of sailors, whose feast day is celebrated on January 1, was known for helping the poor by giving out loaves of bread with money hidden inside. So every New Years Day, Greeks give one another a loaf of bread with a coin inside to celebrate the new year.

While Greeks celebrate Christmas on December 25 just like us, Christmas is a day for gathering with family and celebrating the birth of the Savior. However, they wait until Saint Vasilis day on Jan 1 to actually open presents. So Catherine and I got a jump on all the Greeks today by opening presents on Christmas!

We’ve been very thankful for the fact that Greeks hang lights for Christmas, as it has made it feel a little bit like home. In Syntagma square [a huge plaza across from the Greek Parliament building ], there has been a huge Christmas tree and winter carnival going on for the last few weeks. Beautiful!

So, from the bottom of our hearts, we wish you a Merry Christmas, or as they say in Greek, “Καλά Χριστούγεννα” [”Kala Christougenna”] and a “Χρόνια Πολλά” [”Chronia Polla”], or Merry Christmas and many more!

image from stratikis.gr

It’s been a busy month filled with holiday celebrations, time with new friends, and even a little travel. Below you’ll find our most recent newsletter in pdf format. Download it by clicking on the picture below, or by clicking here.