geographer who knows very little about a wide range of subjects) that there is nothing new under the

sun! The nations need to turn in repentance to the Lord of all, and his church needs to live and speak faithfully while we wait for his return, loving and supporting one another as best we can, offering light and hope to those around, and making the most of Gods patience. Jonathan & Dawn, Joel, Hannah, Esther & Ruth
NEWSFLASH (as Esther announced the other day to let us know that Ruth had climbed into the fireplace and emptied it all over the lounge) After months (getting on for years) of neglect, we have started to use our blog again. It continues to be mostly reflections on living for Jesus (cross-culturally in Athens) and our call to live as citizens of heaven who look forward to Gods city.

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Greece is the Word!

May 2012
Emailclarksinathens@gmail.com blogclarksinathens@blogspot.com clarksinathens

June

July

Aug

Sept

6 10 17-26 2-9 10-24 9-19 27ish 5-8 10 18 18-24 25-27 6

Titus 3 at 2nd Evangelical (our church) Diary Titus 3 on Aegina Debriefing (plus mini-break in Berlin) All at church camp helping with the youngsters Jonathan with team on Paros Dawn and kids staying at Kalamos Holiday on Corfu Visit youth camp at Sounio Fly to England Wedding in Bucks Staff conference Clark family weekend Return to Athens

The gaps in the diary will mostly be in Beeston (Aug) and Sussex (Sept). As you may notice, were in England for a shorter time this year. Next year were planning a longer stay, and plan to do that on a three-yearly cycle. UFM and IFES partner to support student ministry in Europe UFM: 145 Faringdon Rd, Swindon, SN1 5DL UK Tel: +44 (0)1793 610515 IFES: 5 Blue Boar St, Oxford, OX1 4EE Tel: +44 (0)1865 263777

Dear friends, The failure of recent elections to install a government means uncertainty continues for Greece, and the next elections in a few weeks are far from guaranteed to make things any clearer. What the future holds, with much at stake, is front and centre. All sorts of people are thinking about leaving, Greeks and immigrants alike. We had lunch with Albanian friends on Sunday and their daughter, now at university in Athens, was adamant that it would be better to live in Albania where, though much poorer, there is not the insecurity of collapse. Weve been doing plenty of thinking too about the future of our work, and there are parallels and contrasts. Just as the country has been in recession, in some ways so too has student ministry. For the past few years weve seen a decreasing number of believing students arriving at university (or at least, arriving and identifying with the IFES groups). This, together with a low-level of confidence in the Scriptures and the spoken gospel means that many Christian students seem to be in retreat from the front-line of living and speaking for Jesus. Unlike with recession and political vacuum, however, we can be confident as to where the seeds of recovery lie. That doesnt mean that its easy to get the seeds planted, but seeds are what we are about. As we were often taught in our Beeston days (and very happily reminded of by a supporter last week), seeds are growy things. Growing is what seeds do best! This year has been deliberately more about language learning (again) and so theres been less seed-sowing than wed have liked, but it has given us opportunity to reflect deeply on the needs and opportunities. We think were heading into next year with good ideas and some keen co-labourers. As for Greecewell, so much is said and written about what will happen or needs to happen. I think (speaking as [contd on back page]

Evangelism conference in Hungary I took some students to the IFES

European Evangelism Conference in mid-April. Thank you for your support of this. It was a good conference, and I found it personally helpful. The nine students with me enjoyed it and were helped by it. We had good opportunities for serious conversation about their part in IFES work in Greece, and Id say that at least seven of them left the conference genuinely committed to doing what they can, with us, to get things established here. Heres a flavour of what our students thought:
It is really encouraging to know that there are a lot other people like you fighting for their beliefs...I hope that this conference will be only the beginning of what God wants for Greece! I have been to many conferences but this was really special for me!...I was greatly equipped for our future ministries in our schools! I felt like I was 'feasting' spiritually, all day long.

Car After five years of being happy not to own a car, it seems that
the time may be right to get one. Living centrally, with good public transport links, enough bicycles for most of us and cheap taxis has made it easy enough to get around the city. But as the need for better contact with students and churches beyond Athens increases and family life and work around the city expands we are seriously considering buying a car. We are grateful for the generosity of a brother who is lending his car until September, and then there are a couple of options for buying one. It is with some reluctance that we make this step: buying a car is relatively expensive; its not cheap to run a car here; finding parking in our neighbourhood is a challenge; and were still not sure if it is a truly justifiable use of the resources were given. Please feel free to advise us or ask questions. Watch this space

Titus and future openings

I did some work on teaching Titus for something before Christmas and asked our pastor if I could develop it at church here. He asked me to do a series of three sermons. This has been a great encouragement to me. My work was checked for bad Greek and heresy before I preached. No heresy was spotted, and not as many language errors as Id expected, so this is good news. I think Im on the boring side still, but the opportunity to teach regularly in Greek is excellent for us, and we trust that the Spirit will use it as he wishes! It has opened up the possibility of doing this more regularly next year, possibly with us taking a break from teaching Sunday School for a while. It has also strengthened my conviction that the needs for the gospel are straightforward, here and everywhere: the gospel needs to be preached and the church, holding fast to that message (and no other), needs to live well in the world, proclaiming that message (and no other) and adorning it with good works that we love to do because of Gods grace lavished on us. That is (at least part of) the message of Titus, and as Paul says, its a trustworthy saying that needs insisting on! I also have the opportunity to preach one of the three on the nearby island of Aegina, where there is a summer congregation only, on 10 June.

Saturday morning cartoons, anyone? We are growing some impressive couch-potatoes...

The Springtime Birthday Girls! Ruth completed the set when she turned 2 and is now considering potty-training...

Summer in Greece

We have a team coming mid-July to reach young holidayers on Paros again. This year its just me leading the team, as Dawn and the kids will stay for the entire church kids camp north of Athens (with me helping just for the first week of that). Wed love your prayers for both opportunities - evangelism among internationals on the campsite at the beach, evangelism and discipleship among churchy kids on the campsite in the hills. We can (and would love to) take more team members to Paros. If youre interested, contact me (or go to www.ifesgreece.com).