NMSI Triennial Retreat: Greece

While our time in Bulgaria was structured and involved many meetings and formal learning opportunities (such as workshops), our time in Greece was unstructured and filled with chances to enjoy beautiful hiking trails, swim in the Aegean Sea, and relax after morning devos and worship. A lot of times the relaxing involved spending time chatting with or praying with other NMSI missionaries.

Here is Gloria, the missionary that I worked with in Honduras in 2002. It was fun to see pictures of her family members and hear about how they have committed their lives to Christ and are serving him wholeheartedly! Her ministry has flourished since I was there--that's so good to hear! I cried when she prayed for me and my future ministry!




Travis and Emily are future missionaries to Bulgaria and another family that I enjoyed connecting with! (This is actually a picture of them in Bulgaria!)

This is my small group for morning devos in Bulgaria...Jaime (Thailand), Craig (Mozambique, later Zimbabwe), Jessica (Kenya), and me! They are a very sweet and insightful group! We spent some time translating Thessalonians---as if we were writing it to a five year old---and studying it before traveling through Thessaloniki, Greece!

Shane (future missionary to Kenya) and Helen (former missionary to Kenya, working at the CGO developing the HIVHope program) are standing on the beach near our hotel in this picture. Later that week they got engaged! It was a beautiful story that (mostly) took place on the hiking trails near the hotel!

Here are a few of the views from hiking trails near the hotel, which ran along cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea. Each trail was marked with a tritan to show you where to go (look on the tree). Rumor has it that if you look into the distance across the "ocean" you can see Mount Olympus as well (I didn't have a very good picture of that).

One day I went on a six mile hike with Jamin and Kelly (former missionaries to Malawi, now working at the CGO, preparing to leave for Turkey)

We joked that we'd hiked all the way to the USA when we saw this sign!

One of the other things I enjoyed about Greece was the opportunity to play with cute missionary kids! Here are some future missionaries to China and Turkey!

Have you ever tried to make a "sand angel"? (like a snow angel)

In Greece we ventured into town less often (it was farther away from us and cost more to get to), but this is one cute cafe that I ate at one day! I'm a big fan of taking pictures of kids and landscapes.

Here's another cute one that I walked by...

Lastly, another beautiful view from the outdoor dining area at the hotel

There was so much beauty in Greece! Beauty of seeing missionaries serve each other. Beauty of the sea. Beauty of the trees. Beauty of plants and vines clinging to everything. Beauty of vulnerability. Beauty of prayer. Beauty of rest. Beauty of reconnection. Beauty of the anticipation of reunion...just three more years until the next Triennial!