pt 6 City wall and ruins

these top photos are on top of the city, on the remnants of the city wall

random cute girl feeding the birds

our lunch spot overlooking the city and ocean

Everywhere you look there are ruins that have been dug up, right in the middle of the city. Loks like they built right around them or on top of them. 

old prison

the old amphitheater(forum)

forum toilets

they believe this is the market that Apostle Paul would have walked through on his visit to the Thessalonians

pt5

Zoe church.

They started this church less than a year ago. It is in English, translated to Greek, live. Most people in Thess are Greek Orthodox, like 95% of them, so finding members usually requires finding non Greeks or those open to hearing the gospel. It was a great service. they do the same songs that we do, just every other verse is sung in Greek. It was so beautiful. Our host Phil was also preaching on this particular Sunday (they rotate) and he was absolutely amazing. They meet in a movie theatre and 20 minutes after service is the first nightly movie showing, so everyone pitches in and quickly tears down the stage and curtains and stuff, and as we're leaving people are showing up with tickets in hand.

Cabinets

I'm going to interrupt this Greece thread with pictures of my cabinets. :)

before

after

 

Now we just need new appliances and counter tops to complete the remodel! One of these days...

Pt 4 Bulgaria

One day they took us across the border to Bulgaria. They wanted to show us some villages where alot of the girls are taken from. It's a very poor area and you can see why these girls would believe just about any lie just to get out of here and into the big cities of Greece. However, it's an absolutely beautiful landscape with snow capped mountains and rolling green hills.

This is a train station where some members of A21 waited all day for a girl who was supposed to  show up but never did, she was recaptured before she could make it there.

stork nest

schoolhouse - note that it's empty in the middle of the day

they use donkeys to pull carts for transportation

we saw lots of stray dogs during the week

We only spent a few hours here and had lunch in the nearest city, before heading back to Greece. 

pt 3

our hotel balcony

a boat in the Aegean Sea

Teri and I on top of the city

some group pics I stole from our host - Teri is eating meat off a sword

they put fries in their gyros

a typical street in Thessaloniki

a beautiful window outside our "Mexican" restaurant we went to one day for lunch. I'm positive their "salsa" was ketchup

it was very cool to be walking the streets of the Thessalonians

still to come.. Bulgaria day trip, Zoe church, city ruins, city wall and more group shots

pt 2 of... alot

The majority of this trip was educational. They wanted to fill us in on the trafficking problem and what they are doing to stop it. I will go into more detail about what we learned on another day. It's still hard to talk about. Especially after seeing the faces of some of the rescued girls and hearing the horrific stories. However on one day we did do an outreach to the cab drivers in the city. We broke up into about 15 groups of 4 and hit every major cab stand in the city. We handed out fliers and keychains with the hotline phone number on it. They were very receptive, for the most part, and confessed to seeing stuff that should be reported.

the whole group of volunteers

our interpreter talking to a cab driver

part of the group

Cindy and I. We had duct tape to represent the girls without a voice

I also got to plaster the city with as many bumper stickers as possible. That was fun

our shirts said - be her freedom, with the hotline number on the back