Greece Team #3

Today began with a tour of the Greek Bible College, where we are staying, and we learned about its history. Their library is the largest theological library in all of Greece, with over 20,000 books and room for more!

We met with Pastor Emmanuel and his wife Bethany today in the Pangrati neighborhood, which is close to the center of Athens and the University of Athens. It is an area known for artists, young families, college students and intellectuals. Their church was started a few years ago as a church plant to preach the gospel to that community. Many of the 80,000 people in their neighborhood claim to be atheist or have no interest in religion, but many are seeking spirituality. Because this is the first non-Orthodox community of faith in their area, Emmanuel and Bethany are intentional about building relationships with people in the area first.

In order to build bridges in the community, the church has a dual-purpose building – on Sundays it is set up for church and can seat up to 35 people, but the rest of the week it is a multi-purpose community center. They host art workshops, kid’s programs, game and movie nights, and offer a safe, quiet space for people to study or work. We will return to Pangrati on Friday to help them with some work projects and then help with game night!

- Jill