Καλαμος

I think this may be the hardest blog to write, because I can not fully express what happened in my life while I was at Καλαμος. I went with the intention of helping with the games the teenagers would be doing at the camp but God had a bigger plan for my life.
The camp is in Καλαμος up in the mountains. The best part of the camp is that you really do stay in tents. As you walk up the side of the mountain there are concrete slabs with a nice sturdy tent on each one. The area where we had worship every morning was probably one of the best views in all of Greece. As you sit and look from the top of the mountain at night all you can see is the lights from the city on the other mountain; and in between is the sea. Can you imagine this picture? At the foot of the mountains is the sea and all the beaches; it was incredible!
Now a little about the camp and the kids. There was about 100 people including the staff and I was the only one who didn't know Greek; so you can already imagine how who things went. Well this holds true for the first few days anyway. I was so lost and I had no idea what was going to happen next. I just followed along with the group. The good thing is that some of the teenagers knew how to speak English but not many of the youngers one and that is the ones I had in my tent. So after about two days at this camp I didn't think I was going to make it any longer. I was frustrated and annoyed because I could not understand a thing that was going on. One night I was at the meeting with the other leaders and I of course had no clue what was being said and I just got up and left because I could not stand to hear another word of Greek. I went to a quiet place and spent time with God. I was not happy and I started asking Him why He sent me here and why He would not let me understand the language. I questioned God on many things about my trip and my stay in Greece and pleaded for answers and some direction. I felt like I was at the end of my rope and I was just about to let go when God in all His wonder came to take my hand and lower me from my rope. He didn't set me down on the ground but instead He has been carrying me in the past couple days. He has been holding me tight and using everybody around me to open up my heart to the plan He has for me.
On Monday we took the kids to another camp where we spent the day with the people there. I soon found out that this camp was an English speaking camp and that I would be able to understand what the people were saying. You can not begin to imagine how excited I was to hear all the people speaking and being able to understand what they were saying. I was just sitting there taking it all in when God started knocking on the door to my heart. He was wanting to tell me something but I had to stop long enough to listen. I had to sit back in the mist of all the excitement that was going on around me and focus on God. I went under the main tent and opened up my Bible to Jonah. I was reading about how Jonah was called to Nineveh. God says in Jonah 1:1&2 "The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." God had a plan for Jonah but as we all know Jonah was scared and ran from the Lord. In verse 3 the Bible tells us "But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed fro Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord."
This is very important because this is what I was ready to do. I was ready to just go home and run away from the call of God in my life. The entire summer has been fairly easy and I know now it was because I was surrounded with Americans and we spoke English. This week was very different because I truly was thrown into the Greek culture and was living among the Greek people. I was immersed in the Greek language and there was no way that everything could me translated. I was afraid just like Jonah and was ready to run as far away from Greece as he was from Nineveh. I was ready to turn my back and act like God was not speaking to me.
As I was reading the book of Jonah the leader from the camp was speaking to the kids, but I continued to read because at this point he was speaking in Greek so there was no reason for me to even pay attention. Then in English he called a young man from Seattle to come up and give a few words, and this is what he talked about.
He started by saying "What am I doing here? Why am I "wasting" my time here in Greece? Why am I not going to school and getting a great job back at home?" These are some questions that his friends keep asking him and his answer was simple. He said because this is where God has called me to be and I'm being obedient to Him. He noted the fact that God does not call everyone to a foreign country to serve; but when He does call someone He wants them to serve with all their heart and to not be afraid becuase He is your strength. God will not call you and not take care of you. The next point he made was from the book of Jonah. Now what does that tell you. I had just read to last of Jonah when he pointed out what happened to Jonah when he ran from the Lord; 1:17-2:1-10. In summary Jonah was swallowed up by a huge fish and was inside for three days and three nights.
God showed me at that point Greece is where He wants me to be and that it may not be easy all the time; but when is life always easy. When do you go through every day and not have some kind of struggle of some sort? From that moment on the people began to glow and the spirit of God was pouring into my heart. Then that night at the meeting I began to understand some of the Greek words and the language became so beautiful to me. I was longing to hear more of it when just the night before I could have screamed if I heard another word.
God will always give us the peace and comfort we need, and also the strength to pursue His calling for our life. God is beyond explaination.
He is love!