Last night Operation Joshua 5 closed with fanfare as we met as a group to celebrate the completion of our task. Seven days and 126,800 Bibles later, we are both relieved and excited to be finished. Today the team will be driving three hours to Thessaloniki where we will catch our flight to Athens. We are looking forward to having some rest and recuperation there during the next few days, as well as times of sharing stories with one another about our individual experiences of the trip and the ways that God has been stretching us through our time here. I think it's safe to say that we are collectively encouraged to have heard some testimonies of the immediate impact of the Bible distribution, and to know that in spite of any negative reception we may have experienced in the villages, many of the Bibles that were given have already begun to bear good fruit! We are so thankful that God has been with us every day, drawing us to fuller dependence on his provision, and reminding us of his grace.
*PS- Yesterday afternoon Jonathon Macris did a live segment with a local television station to talk about Operation Joshua! This is amazing because it will let the people of the Alexandroupoli area know why they've received the bags and explain the significance of having access to God's word. The segment will be re-broadcasted this morning at 9 am, and will hopefully spark a curiosity in viewers to delve further into the word they've been given! Please keep praying that hearts would be open to the messages of truth that they've received. Woop woop!

Kalimara (Good morning)!
Today we ventured into Alexandropoli delivering Bibles to the whole city.  Some of us were in the heart of the city while others entered into the Gypsy villages in the outskirts.  Quite the disparity in housing situations and amount of Bibles needed.  In the centre of the city there are large apartment buildings, some which take up to 30 Bibles each! In the Gypsy villages we had people all around, and sometimes children hanging off our door handles.  Despite being slightly intimidating with the amount of people surrounding our car, it was refreshing to see the receptivity of the Gypsy people.  Today is only a half day of distributing as everyone is to be back shortly to have church service and then free time.  The weather the last two days has been around and over the 40 degree mark and not cooling as much at night so some of us have been fighting off exhaustion.  However its been a blessing that different people have been struggling on different days.  Because of all the people that have come to Operation Joshua this year, we are down to the last of the Bibles so we may be done distributing early and have some time to rest before we head back to Athens.  Pray for continued unity and strength for the team and continued health.  We have been blessed so far to have good health which we thank God for.  Thank you for your prayers and support:)
Team Greece 2012

Wow! Can't believe Day 2 is already over! If you were wondering why there was no post yesterday. . .let me fill you in. . . We awoke on Day 1 to find out that it was designated to be our Muslim village day.  Our team quickly learned the meaning of the term "greek time" as our departure time became later and later.  The Hellenic Ministries team worked for hours to determine which car each of the 250+ people here was to be in and seemed to encounter difficulty after difficulty.  As we waited, there was an amazing time of worship, prayer and speakers.  It seemed as if God was preparing our hearts to enter the Turkish/ Muslim villages.  Finally at 2:00pm (original departure time was 9:00am) we were all ready to go! Little did we know that this day was going to be an "off-road" day! Our villages were in the most mountainous areas of Xanthi, Rhodopi and Evros.  Some hair-pin turns, goat path trails, accidentally finding the Bulgarian border and treacherous cliffs later we managed to reach the villages.  We were amazed by how receptive and gentle spirited the Turkish people were.  One car had 4 villages where everyone accepted the Bible! Awesome! And unheard of even in Greek villages!! Arriving back at 11:30 pm last night we crawled right into bed so we could begin again this morning! Today was an encouraging day of less hairy driving and delightful Greek and Turkish villages.  Some team members were even given frappe and tiramisu as thanks for the gift of the Bibles.  If you are reading this between now and tomorrow morning our time, if you could pray for the visit of the Bishop to the camp.  The Bishop of Alexandroupoli is to be at our camp at 8:30am tomorrow morning (11:30pm July 19 Alberta time) and we need to cover this visit with prayer as he comes to share with us his heart for this area.
There are many more stories than this but those will have to wait:)
Joelle

YAY! Our team has made it through 26 hours of flights, layovers, and driving. Only a little while longer and we will be at the mission spot at the town of Alexandroupolis, Greece!

We started our journey on July 14. We left the Calgary airport at 9:20pm, from there flew to Heathrow, London; from Heathrow to Athens, Greece; from Athens to Thessaloniki. In between flights, team members did some shopping, quick site seeing, and sleeping. There was one point of the the trip that much patience was required when some confussion on whether or not our lugage and supplies for the mission got sent on to Thessaloniki when it only needed to reach Athens, but God answered our prayers and all worked out in time.

Tonight we are staying in a hotel in Thessaloniki. We need a good nights rest as we leave in the morning. It will take us 3 hours to reach our destination. The temperature is to reach around 38 - feels like between 40 and 45. Today we reached the highest temperature Anthens and its surrounds has in decade (or so I was told by a man working at the hotel). A super hot high of 45.

Thank you for all your prayers. God is definately with us and is going before us. Good night everyone!

*This is picture of the Operation Joshua Team 5 in the Calgary airport all excited to start our adventure for Jesus!*

                                 GREECE TEAM 2012

This is the Greece team for 2012 Operation Joshua! Starting in the back left corner is Christi, Tammy, Bethany, Wanda, Colin, Joelle, Ellen, Wilma, Chris, Les, Bev, Leanne, and Anna. The 13 of us are leaving on the 14th of July, thank you for your prayer and support.

-Bethany