Corinth!!

We were in Corinth/Loutraki for about 3.5 weeks and this was by far a little kiss from Jesus in between the two more difficult parts of outreach (Thessaloniki and Athens). The place we were staying at was an actual house and was really relaxing. While we were in Corinth, our daily schedule looked like this: We would wake up at 7-9 depending on how late we were out the night before, then we would have an hour of quiet time and half an hour to an hour of worship. After that, we would go into Corinth from 10:30- 2, we would have a rest time/ chore time until 5 or 6 and then we went to the church that we were partnering with and do worship and ministry with the people of the church from 5 or 6pm until whenever we ended up leaving, which would usually be around 10 or 11pm. 

We had some really good times while we were in Corinth and saw about 5 salvation while we were there. 

The first week we were in Corinth, it was raining pretty much the whole time, so we had to figure out a new method of ministry as we hadn’t really encountered rain in Greece before that. During this time, we did cafe ministry. There were loads of cafes all over Corinth’s main square, so we would pick one and then ask Jesus to give us words for people, then we’d write them down and give them to whoever we felt we were supposed to give them to. The next couple of weeks, it was pretty clear, though very cold, so we could go out and do street ministry again. We found that Dream Interpretation didn’t really work in Corinth as it was a much smaller, much more conservative town than Thessaloniki, so we found it much easier to just walk up to people and start a conversation with them. 

The second week, we broke up into groups to go around the city and my group met up with a group of kids who were about 12-15 years old. They were all very interested in what we had to say, primarily because we were Americans, but I ended up steering the conversation towards Jesus by asking the girls (there were about 5 of them around me) if any of them had any dreams that they wanted to know the meaning of. One of them said yes, so she told me her dream, and I interpreted it for her, and ended up telling her about how God wanted to have a relationship with her and really loved her. After talking to all of them for a while, I could tell that at least that girl was ready to say yes to Jesus. (YAY!) So I asked them if they would like to have that relationship with Jesus and 3 of the 5 girls (All 12 years old) said yes. So they did a repeat-after-me prayer, and afterwards were so excited because they said they felt peaceful and joyful all at the same time. I followed up with telling them to go home and read John 15 and read a little bit of it to them. One of the girls said “That is so beautiful!” and had such a wide-eyed, awestruck look on her face. They were so excited and so amazed to hear of Jesus’ love for them and that He wants to speak with them. They could not believe that God wanted/could speak to them, and it was so awesome to see them come to that realization. That night, we also saw 2 other young adult girls give their lives to Jesus. 

We had 5 salvations in Corinth and were able to speak life into so many people. It’s not even really about how many people will pray the prayer with us (though we LOVE and desire to see souls come into the kingdom) but how many people we were able to plant seeds in and love on. It was so good! We felt like one of the main things that God wanted us to do in our time in Corinth was to do ministry with the church. We felt like there was a big emphasis from the Lord to really build up and encourage the church to prophesy, worship, and continue where we would leave off. Our main contact, Yiannis, was absolutely amazing and is still one of our favoritest peoples ever!! :D We got to really bless him and love on him and he’s seriously one of the most holy people I have ever met. His dedication to the Lord was/is so inspiring.

One of my favorite moments in Corinth was when we were once again walking around, asking Jesus who He wanted us to talk to or pray for and Taylor when I saw an old homeless lady who was laying on the ground begging for money. She couldn’t speak English and we couldn’t speak Greek,  but we basically signed to her asking if we could pray for her and she nodded her head vigorously. Almost immediately when we started praying for her, she started weeping. We were just praying for God to encounter her heart and for general healing, as we figured maybe there was something wrong with her back since she was laying down. She calmed down and we finished praying for her, gave her some money, got up to leave, and walked away a few feet to tell our friend what had happened. While we were standing there we looked back at her and she was still laying there, bawling her eyes out. We immediately went back to her and tried to figure out why she was crying so much. She had her hand on her neck and was feeling around it and crying, so I asked her if I could put my hand there, and I felt that she had a good sized tumor on her neck, so we started praying for healing and as we were praying I literally felt the tumor shrink under my fingers. It was the craziest thing EVER. She started saying “Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord” in Greek and was feeling around her chest too as if to say she had had more tumors that were now gone! I asked her if she could sit up as well, because I believe she couldn’t, or at least couldn’t easily sit up before and she did so with ease. I was so filled with joy and her tears just kept coming. I gave her a huge hug and held her and kept praying for her for a few more minutes and then had to say goodbye. I was so amazed not only at how God had moved despite there being no intelligible words spoken between us, but also at the fact that He used Taylor and I to bring healing to this old homeless woman who probably no one pays attention to and impacted her heart so greatly that she was crying the whole time. It was a powerful moment that I will never forget! 

Our time in Corinth was absolutely amazing and we loved every minute of it! 

We’re in Athens now and have been for the last 4.5 weeks and only have about a week left of outreach, which is so crazy! I’ll be sending out another update very soon about our time here in Athens, which has been incredible!! I love you all so much and I can’t wait to see you all when I get home!

Keep praying for us that: 

-We would be healthy and safe 

-God would continue to increase our unity as a team

-We would see more salvations and changed lives

-We would be able to connect those that have given their lives to Jesus and we have developed relationships with with a good group of Christian people to fellowship with (be it a church or just a group of friends).

-We would be intentional in passing on what we have learned in the past 5.5 months to those who are able to continue it here in Greece that live here, speak the language, and love Jesus. 

-Financial provision as we move on the next season of our lives as missionaries or just in normal lives at home 

-Peace and reassurance as we get ready to transition from DTS life to life back at home

Thanks guys, God bless!

Rachelle