My time on outreach to Greece was an incredible experience. We were in Athens for 12 weeks working with a refugee and homeless ministry.  Most of the refugees were from Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. During the week, we would teach English, serve dinner, and have a Bible study with them. It was an opportunity to meet a physical, as well as spiritual, need in their lives. I had never done anything like this before, so as you can imagine, it was quite the experience!

I say the word “experience” because that’s exactly the word I felt God wanted to teach me through my time in Greece. See, my time there wasn’t exactly fun, or a “vacation” to Europe. I faced a lot of personal challenges along the way. It was a very difficult time for me, to be perfectly honest. It’s easy to face outreach with expectations of what you think things will b e like, or what you want things to be like.  Expectations are our way of keeping the focus on ourselves, and not on God. An expectation focuses on ME-what I do or do not like. But an experience can be good or bad, easy or challenging, familiar or foreign…but in EVERY situation (especially outreach) it allows God the opportunity to teach us whatever he wants, however he wants to do it!

The experience of outreach is just that-an opportunity to grow, change, and be challenged through every situation. When life is easy and familiar… why change?  Outreach is the perfect opportunity to step out, learn, grow, and be changed!

-Melanie, USA