Greek Islands

After about ten days, we split up into our smaller teams to go to our three destinations. We had 12 on our team - a family with three kids, 5 single girls, a single guy named Brian and me. We took an overnight ferry to Kos and found a house to take over. Brian and I had to sleep in the kitchen so it made sense for us to get the job of breakfast prep.

It didn’t work out for us to do any street outreaches on Kos. They had just had elections and the military were everywhere. We were forbidden to create crowds in case someone tried to stir up trouble. Our team leader met the minister of culture and he seemed interested in what we wanted to do but the Greek Orthodox bishop put the kibosh on it. We ended up doing a lot of prayer and practice and what is called personal evangelism – just going out two by two to talk to people about God.

We had a day off coming up so Brian and I decided to do one of my favorite things – rent mopeds to ride around the island. Unfortunately, Brian had diabetes and when the day came, he was not feeling well. So off I went by myself.

There’s just nothing quite like a moped to go exploring a Greek island. You’re not in a car so you’re out in the open air but you’re not on a motorcycle, which scare me. You can stop and park on a whim just about anywhere and it’s great on gas.

When I explore, I want to go as far as I possibly can to see as much as I can. I went from all the way in the northeast where we were staying in Kos Town, all the way to the very southwestern tip. I went down the middle of the island and came back around the eastern side. If there’s one thing I don’t like on my explorations, it’s coming back the same way. Unfortunately on Kos, there wasn’t a road all the way around so I had to backtrack at some points. But I was happy with my adventure.

A couple days later, I was heading back to Piraeus. Laura was on school break so she was flying down to spend some time together in Mykonos. Her boss’s house where we were staying was up the hill from the main town. It was in a bit of a barren spot but it was a good-sized, walled-in, whitewashed compound with a nice pool. Unfortunately, it was too cold to swim.

Laura’s boss and her friend were staying at the main house but there was a smaller structure called the Pigeon House at the other end of the pool where we had our own private living space. We briefly looked around town and decided to rent a moped the next day to explore the island.

The next day Laura woke up sick…in Greece…again. She had flu-like symptoms and all she wanted to do was stay in bed. Since there wasn’t much I could do, true to form (with her permission), I left her to rent the moped and went off to explore by myself…again.

Mykonos did have a road all the way around so I didn’t have to backtrack. The next day, Laura was feeling better so we took the moped to the other side of the island where we hung out on one of the beaches. We also explored the main town more that evening. 

When we returned to Pireaus, the teams were back and Laura had to leave. Once again, I abandoned her at a vulnerable moment. She had a night flight back to London and she had to take a bus to get to the airport. If I had gone with her, it would have been so late by the time I came back that the buses would have been running at reduced capacity and I may have not have even been able to get back until the next morning. So I put Laura on a foreign bus, in a foreign country, by herself, trusting she would make it. She made it okay but once again, I had chosen my comfort over caring for her.

Calling to other countries was much more difficult in the days before cell phones. I had to go to a special phone shop and it was a different system than I was used to and it cost quite a bit. But I called Laura in London to make sure she made it okay and to apologize for abandoning her once again. She graciously forgave me…again.

Kos Team with our ferry Kamiros

Ready to hot rod

Mykonos


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