General Ministries: Greece Update
May 10th, 2012

Read the latest update from Fotis Romeos on AMG ministry in Greece during these tough times.  Please remember to pray for the country of Greece and specifically our brothers and sisters serving there. 

The weather is beautiful and the work of the Lord so fulfilling in spite of the dark clouds of Greek economy.  We just finished the hosting of our first full semester of an educational program at CVC, a long term vision which the Lord allowed us to experience by hosting a precious class of people along with their professors from Spring Arbor University in Michigan. What a wonderful three months have been.

We are living in some of the most critical times of our history as we will be having elections in Greece this coming weekend. There will also be elections in France, Italy (local ones) Serbia, Kosovo and Armenia, This is a crucial time of the economy in our entire region and all decisions made will affect the life of millions of people for the years to come. We feel that the Lord has placed us here for time such as this.

This Saturday we will be hosting, at the CVC, the Greek National Missions Conference.  We are anticipating hundreds of people to pray learn and finally participate in what the Lord is doing all over the world.  Pray for the National Missions Conference taking place at CVC on May 12 and at Thessaloniki Evangelical Church on May 19. We do not believe that our responsibility in the Great Commission should be diminished because of the Greek financial crisis... It is a matter of our heart and our love for what the Lord is doing around the world as this is fired by His spirit and not dictated by circumstances...

I am listening right now the Filipino youth group which  are having a weekend retreat next door singing at CVC cafeteria “How Great Thou Art” I cannot explain the feelings to “sit” on a miracle that the Lord has done for allowing us to see the development of Cosmovision Center in the recent years.  Another church planting program is going on in different part of the CVC tonight...We never get bored following what the Lord is doing in our midst....

Let me share about one of the highlights of this summer which will be a special camp for Polish children.  We will be hosting this camp on the second week of July at the CVC. This is a huge step of faith as there is a great need and we feel we should serve. These are precious children, about 40 to 50 of them, coming from immigrant families, several of whom have lost their jobs. We would like to provide a few days out of the streets of Athens embracing them with the love of the Gospel. Children’s program at CVC is always a special blessing for many young lives. 

We look forward to a very challenging summer as we will be having an overwhelming program of events, outreaches, educational trips, short term teams and summer camps.

Prayer and Praises

• Pray for the elections in Greece and the outcome.
• Praise the Lord for this blessed winter at CVC
• Pray for the Polish Children’s Camp at the CVC this summer.
• Pray for our many evangelistic programs this summer.
• Pray for the preaching and teaching ministry of Fotis.    
• Pray for physical strength for all the team members of our ministry

We are all grateful for your participation in our lives and ministry. Your love, prayers and support have been a constant reminder of His love.  We feel that we are not alone in this blessed spiritual race.  We are all having a vital part in advancing His kingdom looking forward to the glorious day of His coming!

-Fotis Romeos

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General Ministries: Greece Update
April 10th, 2012

Read the most recent update from Fotis Romeos. Please join us in praying for Greece and our co-workers serving during this tragic and difficult time. 

I spent the entire day walking in downtown Athens... I wanted to share the feelings of people as they were riding on the metro, walking in the streets, working in the main market, gathering outside of Parliament in Syntagma square.  The people of Greece have been shocked by the public suicide of a 77 year old retired pharmacist yesterday morning, in the most central place of Athens, in front of Parliament. He did not make any previous announcement.  He paid all his bills, wrote a little note, took his gun and placed a bullet in his head.

Ι cannot forget the misery I could clearly see on the faces of common people, going to the doctor with great apprehension since the pharmacists are on strike, visiting their grandchildren with empty hands, going to work knowing that this may be their last day, going shopping and finding many stores closed, in sync with their empty pockets.

I feel that we share some of the responsibility of pulling the “trigger”, for all those 2,000 people who have committed suicide since 2008, by not having cried louder to the Lord, by not having been more vocal in sharing the hope of the Gospel, and by not having being more mobilized in acts of encouragement and support for thousands of fellow citizens who suffer in our country.

This year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of AMG’s presence in Greece and we feel that the needs are the same as in the beginning of this ministry in 1942.  As I was praying in the streets of Athens, the Lord laid upon my heart the burden of starting an urgent campaign of hope for the country of Greece.   I do not know the details of this action at the moment, but in time we will be able to share with you all the details, with the strong appeal to stand with us in this great spiritual battle.  We are thinking of creating a network of hope among people who like to work together, focused on the crisis in Greece.  We would like to organize a distribution of weekly "Bundles of Hope" to families and individuals in need, in cooperation with local churches, as well as operating advice and encouragement lines of hope for common business people who suffer severely.  We cannot cover all the needs of people but we could contribute food for their “daily bread”, along with the message of hope we all find in the Word of God.

Please pray for us, as the miserable situation around us is becoming tragic, dramatic, and desperate.

• Pray for our coworkers as they all feel the tremendous pressure of our economy.
• Pray for wisdom as we have to restructure the overall schedule in order to respond more fruitful to the current need.
• Pray for St. Luke’s hospital as the challenges are becoming greater since the Greek government is not able to respond in its financial obligations.
• Pray for the coming up elections which will be taking place probably in May the 6th.
• Pray for our publications and especial of the Greek edition of Upper Room devotional guide which goes in many homes all over Greece bringing the message of hope.

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General Ministries: Greek Friday
March 23rd, 2012

The economic situation has not improved in Greece leaving many people still without jobs and without hope.  Read the latest update from Fotis Romeos and please continue to pray! 

Greece finally received a huge bailout of more than 130 billion Euros from European Union involving a “haircut” of our national debt!  Unfortunately, that does not bring any good news to the common people as part of the agreement is a huge cut off of salaries, firing of thousands of people working for the Greek government, reduce of the retirement plans of elderly people, reduce of salaries in the private sector, and drastic increase of all kinds of direct or indirect taxation.

We see unusual strikes on the hospitals as many doctors have not been paid for months so common people cannot receive proper medical services due to lack of basic medical supplies!  The psychology of people is in the lowest possible point as the economy forecast is rather dark for the following months and years.  In this environment we will be having elections within the next 40 to 50 days...

Due to the overall situation in Greece we had to postpone the gathering of our annual missions conference which has been taking place for the last 30 years in the Bible camp of Leptokaria every June, which brings together people from all over Greece. The reason is that traveling expenses is something that common people cannot afford any more. The price of gasoline is close to $12 USD per gallon!  Instead we will be having two daily missionary events one in Athens area May 12 and one in Thessalonica May 19 with the same program. We aim to mobilize more young people in cooperation of local churches.
In other words we do need prayer for our country and ministry in Greece!

• Pray as God’s people keep sharing their faith with their friends and relatives.
• We do need to rent a huge tent to accommodate about 500 people for our mission conference. We are missing about $1.500 USD and we would appreciate your prayers so God may provide for this urgent need.
• We just published a book in title “Experiencing the Crisis... Is there a Hope” This is a cooperative effort of 15 evangelical leaders speaking about the crisis in Greece and giving the biblical prospective. It is a great apologetic and evangelistic book which demonstrates the unity of God’s people from various denominations, please pray that the Lord may use it.
• We praise the Lord for the full semester we are having at CVC in the Center of New Testament Studies program. The Lord is working in the lives of our students and we rejoice for this huge encouragement during these difficult days.
• Pray for a special group made up primarily of former Muslims. There will be about 10 to 12 precious brothers we will be hosting at CVC this weekend for a discipleship program.
• Praise the Lord for several baptismal services we had at CVC the previous days for people who came to know the Lord at our local unique Indian -Pakistani church  

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General Ministries: Greek Friday
March 9th, 2012

Read this week’s Greece update from our own Fotis Romeos.  Thank you for continuing to pray and support our dear brothers and sisters in Greece.

I have been back to Greece after a short but a blessed trip to the US landing on the challenging problems of our country. I would like to share with you a part of a report written by one of the US students we host at CVC this semester:

Greece is more than an economic crisis. These people each have a face, a story, a family. Now,before you write me off for sounding too cheesy, hear me out.

Being in Greece at this vital time has allowed me to see past my narrow perspective of what this country was going through. No longer am I skewed by the media’s interpretation of what was going on. I have spoken with a husband who lost his family’s business that they had owned for six generations.

I have talked to a wife and mother whose pay had been cut in half and who was working forty plus hours a week simply trying to help keep a roof over her kids’ heads.

It didn’t take long for me to discover this was no longer “Greece’s” problem, but was becoming personal. It was no longer a nation in crisis, but a majority of people who had been slighted by a few.

In indeed this is a problem of real people we live with and we are called to minister to. Having 1.5 million unemployed people in a small country of 11 million is too much...At the same time we are so glad to see the change of attitude among the people regarding the reception of the Gospel. We heard the news that a public hospital ordered 6,000 New Testament from Gideon's ministry in order to share with their staff and patients. For the last 10 years they could not convince this same hospital to accept the NTs...

• Keep praying for the people on Greece.
• Today is the very crucial decision making about the official “haircut” of Greek dept. Pray that this Eurogroup may have the right decision.
• Pray for many people who seek immigration out of Greece that they may be led to the right country.
• Pray for our ministries as we have to face severe taxation challenges of our ministry properties.
• Praise the Lord for the 8 former Muslim people who were baptized at CVC few days ago!

Thank you so much for your love which was expressed so vividly during my recent visit in the US. I would appreciate your prayers as I have been fighting with a flu and have to be on bed for several days. We do know that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle but we keep pressing on knowing that we have His victory!

Posted by Karen Farney in Greece   |  0 Comment(s)  |  Leave a Comment

General Ministries: Greek Friday
February 3rd, 2012

There are at least three challenges we all face in Greece this week:  

First the dramatic negotiations with the loan givers of Greece primarily from the private sector in order to save our bank system.

Second the severe weather, very strong cold, which made the lives of 20,000 homeless very tragic and the millions of people who cannot afford to buy heating oil more dramatic.

Third the attempt of the government to pass a special amendment in order to release from prison thousands of criminals –thank the Lord did not pass- in order to make space to “accommodate” people who own big amounts of money from taxes!

The atmosphere in the market place is rather depressing as firing of employees is a daily routine and the cutoff of salaries is drastic in all levels. There are millions of people who really face challenges without being unemployed. On the other hand we do not see any decrease on prices either on grocery stores or in the gas stations. There is a huge wave against politicians from every party.

Especially I would like to ask you to pray this week:

• For God’s peace on the hearts of the people so we may not have social uprisings.
• For all those among our churches who care for the homeless and the unemployed offering daily meals and other services.
• For the Greek government as they face the most difficult and severe moments in our history since the Modern Greek independence in 1821.
• For the pastors and teachers of Greek churches who have the responsibility to share the truth in love encouraging people from the Word of God.
• For our first full semester at the International Center of New Testament Studies, Spiros Zodhiates. A wonderful class has started our first full semester journey coming from Spring Arbor University in MI.
• Pray for traveling mercies for my coming up trip to the USA this coming week.

We are very grateful for God’s presence in our midst. He may allow us to go through this tragic crisis in order to increase our faith and dependence on Him.

Till next time.

Fotis Romeos

"Rejoice in the Lord always…" Phil 4:4

Posted by Karen Farney in Greece   |  0 Comment(s)  |  Leave a Comment