BE THE BRANCH
Open Doors
How the Shutdown in Greece Multiplied the Church
S
outheast volunteer Charles McKibben first visited Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel (AMG), Southeast’s Mission Partner in Greece,
in early 2016. On his last day, they made the hourlong trip from the Athens area to the southern tip of Greece. His hosts explained that he would not see an evangelical church that day. At the time, there were only 350 evangelical churches, with 30,000 members, in all of Greece. The country’s 11 million people are overwhelmingly Orthodox, and evangelical small groups or home churches were not easily started.
Nevertheless, the dream of AMG and the Greek Evangelical Alliance (GEA) was to plant churches throughout the area. Recognizing the size of this task, the leaders committed to rely on the Father for unprecedented opportunity rather than their own plans or strength. Prayerfully, they pleaded for a way to see the people around them have opportunity to connect to Jesus.
One Million Refugees Shortly after Charles’ visit, the circumstances began to change when one million refugees started pouring into Greece. AMG and GEA began offering meals, water, and tea to refugees when they arrived in the Athens port. Continued on next page
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