Sevasti church visit

This past Sunday, August 14th, I visited along with our Macedonian Outreach co-worker Pandelis and a few others, a sweet little congregation in the town of Sevasti near Katerini, Greece. This church was built by Greek refugees from Turkey in 1924. The congregation is rather small since many of its people moved to the city or left the country for economic reasons. Sweet memories flooded my mind as I thought back as a little child coming with my uncle Paul, the evangelist when he would come to this town to teach, preach and encourage fellow refugees who had come from Turkey and who had lost many family members in the early 1920s in Turkey. How blessed I feel seeing these precious believers who stayed firm in their faith having gone through so much in Turkey and then again during the civil war in Greece in the 40s. After church Pandelis and I visited their retired pastor who in his 90s, having lost his wife only a couple of months ago and a recent accident, can still praise God and give us encouragement when we went to encourage him. Experiences like this make me want to work even harder to the glory of God!