Big First Day in Greece!

 Friday, April 14

Big first day in Greece! 

Slept in. Carolyn took Dad and Mom their coffee in bed.

Carolyn took this picture this morning of Dad and Mom eating breakfast on the balcony. I said, “So cute!” Mom said that’s the word many people describe them as saying, “Oh you’re so cute!”

Carolyn read the verses from Proverbs 16: 

Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.

A man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps.

Dad said, “That’s my verse.”

Carolyn just told me that yesterday on the plane after we got our food, Mom told her a story she’s never heard before. When Mom was seventeen on her solo trip to California, she didn’t know she was supposed to order her food before they took off. So after she was on the plane, a lady sitting beside her opened up a box with a big chicken dinner and shared it with Mom!

Carolyn just showed me her hat she bought last July here in Greece. She said, “Enos bought it for me because he was worried about me in the sun. He really liked the hat.” When Dad saw her wearing it at The Land, he asked, “Did you buy that all in one store?” LOL 

Carolyn drove us to Daniel and Amber's apartment. She was making a big meal for the evening.

Carolyn drove us to the Acropolis. We parked. Dad wanted some icecream. Across the stree was a human size ice cream cone. Carolyn thought that meant it had icecream. So Dad got his icecream!

Had a 15 minute walk just to get to the Acropolis entrance. It was a bit of an interesting walk trying to find our way with the GPS until we asked a friendly man who showed us the way!

We took pictures in front of Mars Hill where there was a plaque written in Greek of Apostle Paul’s sermon found in Acts 17.

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

Then Carolyn and Mom sat on a bench while Dad and I climbed the stairs to stand on top of Mars Hill. Dad had told me he's going to preach a two hour sermon up there. That didn't happen!

When we came back down and were ready to climb up to the Acropolis, Mom got up off the bench and said, “Here goes!”

We climbed the whole way to the top with Mom's walker. The staff men could not believe they let us through the entrance with the walker. They wondered why we didn't take the elevator. We told them they had told us at the entrance that the elevator is not running today. They were so concerned. Mom prayed that she could go down on the elevator. The staff man finally came back saying they worked it out for Mom to go down on the elevator.

Mom said when the man said this, she was so surprised and so relieved.

One time on the way up, Dad slipped off a four inch edge. When he asked the lady who helped him get up, “Are you an angel?” she said, “I might be,” and then in her broken Enlish, she said something about coming from being blessed at a church.

Came back to Daniel and Amber for supper. She made Ghormeh Saabzi, a Persian food. A couple Iranian friends had come over to help her make it. It was delicious! And the salad had Feta cheese. Amber said Greece takes pride in their Feta cheese and it’s illegal to make it from anything other than sheep or goat milk!

We went to an Orthodox church to listen to a Byzantine Choir and follow a candlelit procession through the streets. Lucas was tired so Amber and I left early to go home on the Metro. Carolyn and Dad and Mom had fun driving and watching a procession and seeing the Acropolis at night.

Mom just said tonight after we were debriefing about our day, “The Lord was gracious. Thank you for your mercies.”

Tonight, my feet are sore.