Athens Church Planting and Refugee Aid

Mir* is a refugee from the Middle East, planting churches across Europe and periodically returning to his homeland to serve churches there. We have co-labored in Athens with Mir for over eight years, watching God use him to push forward His kingdom. Mir shares the gospel in Athens with refugees from his homeland. When they become believers, they take their newfound faith and move on to other nations across Europe. Currently, Mir’s ministry extends into nine countries.

After several trips to one European location to meet with and train believers, he met a group of local pastors. One of those pastors saw what Mir was doing and began asking questions about his ministry. As Mir shared about his work, the pastor was amazed and humbled. The local pastor asked Mir to train him. Later this month, Mir and I will train a network of churches to multiply disciples and send believers to the nations. What an amazing way God is using this former Muslim to share the love of Jesus across Europe!

Because of your sacrificial generosity and consistent intercession, our team shares the good news, disciples, and plants churches among former refugees turned European citizens. Thank you for being a valuable partner in this ministry.

Please join us in prayer:

• Pray for two new Central Asian church networks. Our church planter from the region recently traveled back to encourage and train church leaders. Pray for the safety of these believers and a great movement of God in this challenging location.
• Pray for another Central Asian national partner traveling to the Middle East to work with church leaders and share the gospel with his family; he is making this trip at significant personal risk.
• Ask God’s blessing on the European training with Mir. Pray for wisdom as we communicate biblical truths about discipleship and the Great Commission to these pastors.

Thank you for joining us in addressing the world’s greatest problem: lostness. Your gifts and prayers for our team enable us to reach refugees in Athens and beyond with the good news. You are a co-laborer with us in the gospel!

*Name changed for security

Thank you so much for your generosity to this ministry and those God calls us to reach in Athens and beyond. Your prayers and sacrificial giving undergird ministry to refugees living in camps, parks, and on the streets by providing basic necessities. Your gifts also support local and refugee believers who make disciples and plant churches among hard-to-reach refugees and local Greeks from Orthodox backgrounds.

Opportunities abound. Greece is home to roughly 250,000 refugees. As the primary entry point into the European Union (EU), immigrants arrive in large numbers from North Africa and the Middle East (NAME), Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Central Asia. Whether they come with large families or alone, with the hope of reuniting with their families, these refugees desperately need hope. That’s where your partnership makes a difference!

The United Nations, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide housing in 30 refugee camps across Greece. We currently work in four camps. These camps, however, serve merely as entry points for these refugees. Many seek asylum in or immigrate to other countries in the EU, while others remain permanently in Greece or eventually return to their homelands when conditions improve.

Investing in eternity. We aim to impact the world for Christ by investing in refugees who come to Greece on their journey to other locations. We have five national partners who speak numerous languages and reach out to refugees of the same languages. When refugees hear the gospel in their own language, the huge obstacles of language and cultural differences immediately erode. This God they are hearing about knows their language and customs!

These national partners work directly with existing churches. For example, your generosity provides roughly 100 food bags a month given out by Urdu-speaking, Arabic-speaking, and Kituba-speaking churches. Recipients receive more than food; they receive the Bread of Life. As a result, many are coming to faith in Christ. Small groups for evangelism and discipleship develop, and churches are formed.

As refugees move on, they bring their newfound faith with them, literally to the ends of the earth. We have started at least seven churches in three EU countries working with Northern Africa and Middle Eastern (NAME) peoples who moved there after being ministered to here in Greece. God is using your gifts to this ministry around the world.

There are no “chance” meetings. Several years ago, one of our national partners heard a familiar language as he walked down the street. He stopped and introduced himself to Adel*, one of the men talking who was from North Africa. A friendship developed, and our national partner shared the gospel. Adel became a believer and grew quickly in his faith through regular discipleship. He began training in church planting and heard God’s call to return to his homeland. Despite dangerous conditions, Adel followed God’s call and returned to his homeland. He has already planted two churches and led many people to Christ. Your investment in this project enabled Adel to find Christ and bring others into the kingdom as well.

Please join us in prayer.

• Pray for the unity of the team. With many different cultures, languages, and backgrounds, our unity is in Christ alone.
• Ask God to send pastors who are willing to remain with church plants because refugees are constantly moving to find permanent homes.
• Pray for jobs, especially for bi-vocational pastors, so they can remain as pastors yet provide for their families.
• Please pray for seekers in new people groups we have not been able to reach with the gospel.
• Ask the Lord to help us as we develop digital strategies to reach local refugees, including YouTube, Instagram, and other electronic approaches to reach, teach, and train.

We are so thankful for you, our partners, who make this project possible. Your sacrificial gifts and intercession are truly transforming lives as we partner together to solve the world’s greatest problem, lostness.

*Name changed for security

Because of your steadfast generosity, ministry in Athens is growing! We are reaching new people groups in the city and beyond.
Our team persevered through COVID, personnel changes, and several ministry obstacles. In unity and partnership with you, we continue to proclaim that God is our refuge and strength; we have seen God’s mighty hand at work. Praise the Lord with us!

• A Greek church and a church of South Asian refugees were planted through the work of our national partners.
• A church with refugees from a South Asian country is training and supporting people in their homeland.
• A committed group of Africans meets regularly for Bible study and English language classes.
• An established African church grew and meets regularly in homes and at the training center.
• Refugees and migrants whom we have trained are now planting churches outside of Greece.
• Church leaders from multiple people groups are learning to help others in their communities through trauma healing and counseling.
• Food bags are distributed monthly for refugees and migrants.
• Electric fans were made available to refugees for the hot Greek summer.
• Housing is being provided for two Middle Eastern refugee families.
• A community center to serve Greeks is opening this year in an Athens suburb.

Your giving allows this ministry to extend beyond the borders of Greece. For instance, an Arab believer living outside Greece shared about the saving grace of Jesus with his family who lives in Athens. His family became believers!
Shortly after through his local church, he heard about our ministry in Greece and connected with our church leaders. He asked us to visit his family and disciple them. After several visits, his family asked us to baptize them in the sea. We were able to facilitate their baptism, and everyone was blessed by seeing God’s faithfulness.

Thank you for your prayers and faithfulness to support what God is doing here in Athens! Your generosity is truly changing lives!

Because of your support, even amid the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen the Lord do amazing this year!

• We established a new training center in the center of the city. Every day, believers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, the Congo, Burkina Faso and more gather for discipleship training, church gathering, English lessons, Greek lessons, or fellowship!
• We started an outreach to the “street workers” in our area, showing them the love of Christ through meals and clothing.
• Five Kurdish brothers are housed in an apartment that you help provide where they are able to gather for church with other believers from the refugee camp. Their landlord is an evangelical Greek widow who has taken them in as sons.
• Over 200 believers have been trained in discipleship and leadership development.
• During the height of the Covid-19 crisis, our team hosted more than 30 weekly Zoom discipleship gatherings reaching back into the Middle East and up into northern Europe simultaneously!
• Now that Covid-19 restrictions are lifting here, baptisms are taking place on the islands and mainland.
• Our local Afghan local partner recently shared: “If coronavirus keeps going, God will plant many new churches! My disciples are studying and doing homework every day. I tell them to share Jesus five times a week online with a friend, and they study two-to-three hours a day in the Bible, they are thirsty for more! I have seven leaders now do their own Zoom training with their disciples, too.”
• We also took advantage of lockdown to develop more online tools for discipleship in nine different languages–and more to come!

I want to close this update with a quick story: A Pakistani man came to faith a few months ago and was baptized soon after! He is a faithful brother to this day, meeting weekly for discipleship and church. He has begun to share with his family back in Pakistan about how God has changed his life, which could easily cut him off from his family and home village. He is also faithfully sharing among other South Asian Muslims living in our city. It is no small thing for a Pakistani Muslim to come to faith in Jesus! But then for him to begin sharing immediately with family and neighbors is another thing altogether! Please pray for this brother as he continues to grow in his knowledge and obedience to the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers and generous gifts supporting the work God is doing here in Athens and, literally, around the world through the believers who have gone out from this ministry. The opportunity to speak hope and truth into broken lives is as great as ever, and our great God is supplying that need through faithful supporters like you.

We are increasing the goal amount of our project to reflect the needs for the next three years. Please pray about your continued involvement. We are blessed by your partnership and thrilled to share just a taste of what God is doing here to transform lives.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and gifts to this project. Without your investment, our work in Athens would not be possible.  This project is designed to place the right people in the right places to “love loud” among refugees who are hurting and lost. Through your generosity, we’ve provided the following items over the past 12 months:

• More than 1,000 grocery bags full of essentials
• Electric bills paid for struggling refugee families
• More than 50 refugees housed in temporary apartments to escape a difficult camp situation
• Wood for heating homes in the winter
• New tents, as the UN-provided tents are beginning to rip and tear
• Clothes, blankets and shoes
• Prescription eyeglasses
• Much-needed medicine

Along with meeting humanitarian needs, our main priority is to boldly share the gospel, disciple new believers and train leaders to plant to churches among refugees. We have discovered an obvious strategy: Put Muslim background believers in the forefront of “loving loud” and advancing the kingdom. God has raised up five local leaders who were one-time refugees in Greece. They are now part of our team because of your prayers and gifts. Each has Greek residency and has chosen to stay here to minister among Pakistanis, Iranians, Afghans, Africans, Iraqi, Syrians, Greeks and many others. In 2019, these brothers:

• Shared the gospel more than 6,000 times
• Led 350 new believers to the Lord
• Baptized 221 believers
• Planted 35 new churches
• Trained and sent new leaders to plant churches in six northern European countries
• Used technology to plant churches in four Middle Eastern and South Asian countries

Thank you for your generosity that makes this kingdom work possible. God is at work through these brothers, and your gifts enable them to do this work without having to worry about food or shelter.

Give now to continue helping reach refugees with the love of Christ.