Tiger Athletic Missions Experience Blog

Day 6 Blog
Beau Billings (Gr./Mansfield, Texas)
Rachel Morrison (Jr./Nederland, Texas)

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Wednesday was an uplifting, busy, and eye-opening day for the ETBU Cross Country and Track & Field teams, as they served on the TAME trip in Athens, Greece.  One group was allowed to attend an Iranian church service, where they were able to serve over 75 Iranian refugees lunch.  This was truly a remarkable experience with the American college students serving and loving the Iranian people in the name of Jesus, while the situation between the United States and Iran has escalated the last few days.  Thank you again for your prayers and continued support of our student-athletes and TAME trips.  On Thursday, the team will travel to Corinth to walk in the steps of the Apostle Paul for the day. 
 
Graduate student Beau Billings from Mansfield, Texas and Junior Rachel Morrison from Nederland, Texas shared their reflections from Wednesday.
 
Beau Billings
 
"Today my group was assigned to attend a local church service of Iranian refugees.  The leader of the church greeted us when we arrived and explained to us what our task would be for the day and a little information about the church. They have different classes, such as teaching women to use sewing machines, a younger group of kids for bible study, a large group for meals on Monday, all which share the Gospel. After the explanation, he told us a story about one refugee that was fleeing and they all had to fit on a boat. He had a baby boy with him and during the commotion to fit 50 plus people on the boat, the baby fell into the water. He started praying to God that the baby could be found, and he jumped in and miraculously found the baby, but it was unconscious. He then prayed again to bring life back into the baby and the baby started to breath. This story was a good starting point for our group and it showed the true power of God and the type of people we were serving and how appreciative they are.
 
At the church with the refugees three of us met a man and through Google translate, we discovered he was from Serbia and came to Greece. I found out that Farsi is technically Persian and that the language looks so elegant, reading from right to left instead of what we think is normal.  After we are done with our work at the church, we made our way to the refugee camp.  As we arrived at the refugee camp, we prayed for the people and ourselves to allow God to open our hearts and eyes into the world we are about to see.
 
As we entered the camp, we handed over our passports to the guards at the front and as we made our way through the camp, there were kids playing, running and even biking through the streets. The housing is unimaginable, two families per one storage unit or cargo shipping container.  As we meet the family, it is clear through the story of the wife's life, that she has been through a lot to say the least. In listening to her and how she is going about her life and how joyful she is, with how little she wants, it was amazing to see her pure love for her children.  I will always treasure my belongings and have a new outlook on what I need versus what I want. The night then came to a close with some dancing and dinner, kindly provided by the leaders at Street Lights."
 
Rachel Morrison

"We began the day by splitting into three different groups.  One group headed to the refugee camp, while the other two returned to the local elementary schools.  My group went to the kindergarten classroom that we had been working on for the past two days.  Today, the local children returned from Christmas break, so we were able to meet the teachers and students of the classroom.  It was nice to finally put a face to all the children's names we had been seeing throughout the classroom and the kids were very unsure of us as they told us their names and what country they were from.  One of the coolest things about this class was that nearly every child was of a different nationality, with over 60 countries represented. There were children from Albania, Afghanistan, Georgia, and many other countries. The kids quickly warmed up to us once we headed outside for a game of duck, duck, goose. It later turned into a game of tag and chasing the kids around the courtyard.  While we could not understand the kids, their smiles and laughter said it all. One of my favorite moments from the school came when a young boy with autism spoke his first ever phrase. The shock and joy on the teacher's face was priceless and something I will never forget.
 
We ended the day with a scavenger hunt that took us throughout Kypseli. It began with a walk to one of the highest points of Kypseli that included a beautiful, panoramic view of Athens.  It then took us to many different spots in the area where we had to complete different tasks such as taking a picture or video.  The hunt ended at Street Lights where the points were tallied and the winning team was given a bag of chocolates. Overall, today was one of my favorite days and one that I will cherish forever."