Athens Trip – March 2010, Day 1 & 2

We had a really good trip from Tulsa to Athens, with the exception of the ungodly start time, 4:15AM! Our first flight departed Tulsa at 6:00AM for Detroit. We had the perfect visit there too, only 35 minutes. We raced from one side of the airport to the other, leaving enough time to grab coffee and jumped on the plane headed to JFK (New York).

Once we landed at JFK, Jamie turned on his phone to receive about a dozen text messages informing us that the Greek public transportation was on strike, including the airport, meaning we would not be able to land or enter Greece. The major thing that was forgotten is that although we left on Thursday, we would not arrive into Athens until Friday, thus the trip was still on. We departed NY at 4:10PM and landed in Athens (ATH) around 9:30AM on Friday.

We were meet by our American friend Jonathan, and took the metro train from the airport to Syntagma Square, the location of our airport. We checked in, dropped off our luggage, and headed straight to Holargos to visit with our friend Kostas. Kostas is the director of athletics for his municipality and has become a good friend. We set up events for Sunday through Thursday, including eating lunch with him (and maybe his family) on Sunday.

Later that Friday evening, we had the opportunity to go to a refugee center. There are some people who have started a work there reaching out to Muslims. They feed them, provide food for them, and share with them. Last year alone 70 people were born again. On Friday night we were able to see a group of men receive certificates and share their stories, it was awesome.



We ended the night having dinner with a group of 20 world changers from Oklahoma (Nowata) and Alabama. They will have 80 people total once they all arrive, which will give the local team here much support. Although we had been told that they would be largely working with us in our neighborhood, they will now be doing something different. All in all, it was a good day and we are excited to see what will come of our trip!