True stories of refugees whose lives were transformed by Jesus Christ through the Helping Hands ministry in Athens, Greece.  You can order from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Westbow Publishing.

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Ilir's Story

Ilir’s Testimony

I was born in Albania in 1970, and grew up under the communist regime.  It was forbidden to talk about God, but I always wondered who created us as I looked at the stars above my mom’s village.  I could look at a watch or a car and understand that somebody made them for a purpose.  But who made me?  And for what purpose did I exist?  I asked my mom about these things when I was still very young.  She never responded directly, but would say that I would figure it out some day.

When I graduated from high school, I applied to the university but was denied because my father was not a member of the communist party.  So I went to work as a mechanic on large trucks for several years before I went into the army to fulfill my military obligation.  They chose me to be a member of the Special Forces, and at the beginning of the revolution we were commanded to break up the escalating demonstrations.  One night I received orders to prepare my men for a demonstration the next morning, but this time we were told to bring our guns and use them if necessary.  These orders went against the constitution and my conscience, so I decided that I would leave before they had a chance to court-martial me for disobeying orders.  I told my men that I was leaving and that they were free to do what they felt was right.

I knew that I had to flee the country, so I went with a friend to Greece.  I worked in Greece for almost four years.  During that time, a Greek Orthodox man told me about Jesus, but I wasn’t really interested.  After making some money, I returned to Albania where I thought I could build a business under the new democratic system.  I started selling cars with my brother and sister, but the business failed after my brother wrecked some cars and pocketed some of our profits.  Without money in my pocket, I started noticing that many of the people I thought were my friends didn’t want to hang around with me anymore.  They didn’t really care about me—they cared about my money.  In that desperate situation, I cried out to God.  Why did God allow this to happen to me?  I was a good person. 

One day, I noticed a new booklet in my parent’s house.  It was the book of Genesis.  For the first time in my life, I read about creation and found answers to the questions I had asked since my childhood.  God created the world, and He made me.  But why?  I found answers to that question when I went to put the booklet back and there, next to it, was a New Testament.  I started reading the Gospels, but was confused by some things.  The next day happened to be a Sunday, so I decided to go to the Catholic church (the only church in town).  I listened as the priest preached about salvation, and I asked him afterwards to explain some things to me.  He told me to come back on Tuesday to play soccer with him.  He spelled out the way of salvation through the book of John and gave me a copy to read on my own.  Looking back, I truly believe that he was born-again.

Because of my failed business and the poor economy in Albania, I decided it was time to return to Greece.  The first time I tried, the police caught me and sent me back.  I was still reading the book of John at that time, and I challenged the Lord to show me His power by bringing me safely back to Athens.  After seven days and nights of walking over the mountains, including many miracles and acts of God, I arrived in Athens.  I determined to find a church and learn more about God.  Of course, the day after I arrived in Athens happened to be a Sunday.  I met an old friend from Albania in the street, and he asked me to join him for the afternoon.  I went with him and it turned out to be a Bible study.  Leading the Bible study was Scott McCracken, who later became my Team Leader when I joined the International Teams missionaries in Athens.

After six months of studying the Bible, I committed my life to Christ and was baptized.  Around that time, Scott also told me about the soup kitchen they were running for refugees and invited me to come help if I had any free time.  So I went, enjoyed it, and soon discovered one of my gifts in helping to organize the volunteers.  I also learned that I had the gift of evangelism as I shared with many of the people who came.

Over the next couple years I grew in the Lord, and God fanned the fire in my heart to serve Him and make Him known among the nations.  Along with continuing to help at the soup kitchen, I started sharing the gospel with other Albanians I met, and began leading a Bible Study for new believers.  It was my heart to encourage them to share the good news with others. 

In 1997, I began asking the Lord what He wanted me to do with my life.  One night in September, the Lord responded in a dream.  I saw a bright light and a man telling me, “Get up, my son.”  I woke up and saw that my window was open.  I knew I had closed it the night before, so my first thought was that a thief was in the house.  I checked around and saw no one, so I closed the window and went back to sleep.  Again, I saw a bright light and the man saying, “Get up!”  I woke again and the window was open again.  This time, I heard footsteps in the room, but no one was there.  So I crawled under the bed, covered myself with my blanket, and began praying, “Lord, here I am.  If you want to take my life, take it.”  But he told me, “Get up and go read your Bible.”  My Bible was open on my desk.  I read the page quickly, slammed the book shut, and then jumped back in bed because I was scared.  But the Lord wouldn’t leave me alone.  “Get up and go read!”  And I heard the Bible open again.  I went to my desk and read more carefully this time, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15).  I thought, “Lord, this is not for me.  Forget it.  Find somebody else.”  It was four in the morning and I went to sleep.  The next morning I got up to do my normal morning devotions and the Bible was open again, this time to the book of Jonah.  As I read that story for the first time, I realized that He was going to have me serve Him whether I wanted to or not.  I could choose to obey, or I could choose to go through the fish first. 

The next day, I told Scott McCracken about my dream, and he told me that he had also been praying about asking me to come work with the team full-time.  So after I applied and was accepted to International Teams, and after God provided for my support, I officially joined the team in May of 1998.

It is not easy to be an Albanian in Greece.  There is a lot of prejudice against us.  But I believe that God has called me to remain here to tell refugees about Jesus.  Since I was a refugee, I understand their need to find true Hope.

"D's" Story

‘I was born into a Muslim family. All through my childhood I had religious instruction by my devout elder brothers. The oldest had 3 spirits passed on to him by his instructor and was in possession of dark powers!

At the age of 17 I was initiated into the spiritist muslim mystic sect of the ‘Dervishes’. I used to stay on my knees whole nights memorising the Koran and I was not allowed to sleep before the sun came out.

I left my country in the late 90s to come to Europe. Passing through Turkey, I came for the first time across a Christian church with a cross on it. The cross startled me, and I did not know why. I was drawn to it and felt as if the cross was planted in my heart and I could not uproot it. I carried the cross in me and I did not know why and what was its significance. I was a Muslim.

A friend that was travelling with me came to Christ in Turkey, but I was encased and could not make a move towards Christ neither in my mind nor my heart.

In year 2000 I came to Greece and worked hard for a while hoping to go further into northern Europe. It wasn’t long before someone stole all the money I had collected and killed all my dreams.

My answer was to commit an armed robbery. This, I thought, would correct the injustice.

I was caught and thrown into prison. Rage consumed my nights and days until one night Jesus appeared to me in a dream. He stood gracefully before me and said, ‘I will give you just wages!’

In 2002 I was moved into another prison. I suffered extreme stress and anxiety.

There Jesus came to me again in a dream. His countenance was so beautiful and all about Him was brilliance of light. When I woke up all my stress, malice and hatred was gone. I marvelled, but still read the Koran and could not come to Jesus.

In year 2004 I was moved to a prison in Athens.

I read the Koran day and night but nothing could fill my void. One morning the dreaded decision arrived. Deportation! Due to my criminal record, not only would I never have the right to apply for asylum but now I was to be sent back to Iran. The consequences were grave and I went mad with despair at the prospect.

That night I called upon Mohamed, Allah, the prophets, spirits, and Jesus.

‘If anyone is there, come and speak to me.

If you are God, my God, if you love me, if you want me, come and speak to me.’

No one answered me, but Jesus came a third time in my dream.

He was beautiful and brilliant, like the light of the sun.

He spoke to me in Greek and said three times, ‘Be patient a little longer’.

I woke up next morning feeling as a new born baby at my mother’s arms. I could not understand what had happened to me. My stress was gone and I was full of inexplicable peace. I knew that God was with me and I was not going to be deported.

I was released indeed and I was not deported!

My heart was drawn closer and closer to Jesus.

And yet there was still something that grabbed me at times from within and I could not fight it. The spirit of Islam was in me.

It took me ten years to come to Christ, there were strongholds binding me.

Then while I was serving my last sentence for not having legal papers, God completed His work in me. I started attending a Greek fellowship and I started to drink of God. I got baptized.

When I went through the waters of baptism I felt as if God put His stamp on me and I was freed completely from the spirit of Islam.

And last year, on Easter day, He came to me and said, ‘I died for you. You are my beloved son. If only you know how much you are loved.’

I will never forget it as long as I live.’

"Mh"--Called and Sent out by the Lord of the Harvest

"Mh" is a remarkable young man who until several years ago owned a restaurant and enjoyed a prosperous life in Iran. By 2003 he had become so discouraged by the political and economic situation in his homeland that he and his wife of eleven months set out on the “refugee highway” in search of freedom and a better life.

"Mh" and his bride traveled together to Turkey but were unable to find a smuggler who could take them any further. The young disillusioned Muslim found it necessary to send his wife back to Iran to live with her family until he could find a way to emigrate to Canada. They agreed that as soon as he was settled and able to buy an airplane ticket for his wife, she would join him in the west.

"Mh" eventually crossed the mountainous border between Turkey and Greece on foot during the night. After his arrival in Athens, he intended to hire a smuggler to sneak him into Norway and then on to the “promised land” of Canada. But God had other plans for his life. . . .

After spending three months in a refugee camp, he found his way to the ministry center of Helping Hands where he received a Bible and heard the gospel for the first time in his life. He began coming to the Persian Christian Fellowship where he heard messages about the Son of God who died for his sins and experienced the love of Christ in the lives of believers he met there. After several months of seeking and examining the Good News that he had been taught all his life to reject, "Mh" received Jesus Christ as his Savior.

      In the past eighteen months, this young believer has remained amazingly cheerful and solid in his faith in spite of a series of agonizing trials. In the early part of 2004, he underwent surgery to remove a cyst from his tailbone. During the ensuing months, he suffered a number of complications and infections. A year after the surgery, the cyst seems to be growing back, and it is very painful for "Mh" to sit in class or on the bus. Partway through the time-consuming and patience-demanding process of applying for a visa to emigrate to Canada, his wife informed him that she had decided to divorce him and never wanted to see him again because he had become a Christian!

      In spite of these and other heartbreaking setbacks, "Mh" completed the six-month Athens Intensive Ministry School and graduated from the Greek Bible Institute in June, 2006. He serves as the founding pastor of the Persian Christian Community, where more than 50 former Muslims have come to faith in Jesus Christ in the past year. This past summer, like the Apostle Paul’s testimony in Philippians 3, "Mh" shared that even after losing everything that he had valued in his life in Iran, he is convinced that when he came to know Jesus Christ he gained something infinitely greater than marriage, home, business and family.

      After graduation from AIMS, "Mh" continued his studies at the Greek Bible Institute in addition to classes at the ARC. He has a deep hunger for the word of God a vision to return to Iran in God’s timing to open a Bible school. And the BEE International staff in Greece have the incredible joy of teaching the Scriptures and sharing our lives with a young believer like "Mh", who has truly “counted the cost of discipleship” and whom I believe God is going to continue to use in a mighty way here in Athens and eventually as an ambassador for Christ to his own people back in Iran. 

(editor's note:  since this story was first recorded some years ago, "Mh" has immigrated to Canada, married a beautiful Canadian "preacher's kid", and returned with his bride to an Islamic country where he is sharing the Good News with others)

"B" 's Story ("Without Words")

WITHOUT WORDS...................

“B” is a tall, noble Afghan woman with fine features and a face that portrays a most fine personality.

I first met her a couple of weeks before Christmas.

It was at 5 o’clock, one Sunday afternoon when she appeared at the little bible study for Iranian and Afghan women that I lead, at Helping Hands.

On introduction she buried her head into her arms on the table in front of her and just wept before us.

We found out through my translator on Sundays, that she had very high levels of sugar in her blood and was full of fear as to what will happen to her three children if she became ill enough to be hospitalised.

We prayed for her.

She was quiet and although she and her children carried visibly a deep and angry sorrow, she kept to herself.

She was not willing to be known.

Next Sunday she is back again.

We are studying the various names of God revealed in the Old Testament.

Today we are talking about El Elyon, God Most High.

I watch her from the corner of my eye. I feel that she is drinking the words. Later in the evening, during the Persian Fellowship meeting, I find myself sitting next to her and I feel again that her spirit is drinking the words quietly.

At the end of the evening she is in great agitation. Her blood sugar levels have reached 3.5 mg and she is not at all well. We decide with Jimmy to take her to a hospital as she is in danger of becoming comatose if the sugar levels go any higher.

We arrive at the casualty ward of a hospital that is on night duty.

The emergencies of the night are packed like sardines in a tin can, and we are given an appointment ticket with the number 186!

The night is young....

I realise that the wait is going to be long and we decide that Jimmy should go home and catch some sleep as the next day Nea Zoi has outreach in the downtown brothels.

Suddenly a young lady approaches me and ask if I would like her appointment ticket as she has decided to wait no longer.

Her ticket is number 96!

Aha! It is the Lord!

Within a few minutes it is our turn to be called and the doctor hands me a long list of 101 tests that need to be done in order to round up a diagnosis.

I approach the hospital cashier and the lady responsible asks me if I have medical insurance.

'I have none madam.'

She lifts her face to look at me and after a long gaze, amidst groans, quarrels, smells, arguments of desperate patients, desperate relatives and desperate cashiers, against any hospital rules, she stamps the prescriptions and hands them back to me!

‘You will not pay anything tonight madam...’

Aha! The Lord is here! He has come before us!

My hair stands on end and my heart is filled with anticipation.

The night is pregnant...

It is past midnight.

As we have to wait over 3 hours for the test results, I ask her if she would like to go for a walk outside around the  block, as walking is said to help bring down sugar levels.

We walk arm in arm and I feel deep down in my spirit her sorrow and God’s longing to make Himself known to her.

But there are no more than 30 words between us. I barely speak Farsi and she barely speaks English.

We are in need of an interpreter.

We are hardly out of the reach of the hospital, when under the bright and crisp winter sky, she decides to open her heart and reveal her story.

“..... My husband.....very good engineer....20 years together....communist…. every day angry.....then changes….very happy...loving….I ask him why…..he tells me  on 25th December his Afhgan friend explains about Christmas…..2006 he reads book from India.....about Jesus.....

...... My husband loves Jesus.....read Book every day.....every month goes Kabul.....meet 30 university people.....they talk about Jesus.......in secret......

......two of them disappear....... the rest disperse........

......My husband.....has four brothers......they are Taliban.....they hate Book.....his mother 90 years hates the Book.....everyday they shout...... ‘this Book out of house’......

....One day.....April 2007 .....four brothers kill my husband with their hands......at home......my children watch him  die..............

…His family say that I gave him the Book….they hate me….I sell my rings and come through Iran to Turkey and to Greek island Kos….our boat breaks…..the police fish me and my children out of the water….the police cry…….”

April 2007, Kantahar, stronghold of the Taliban, is watered by the blood of a faithful martyr.

Unknown to men, known unto God.

She weeps quietly under the starry sky and I weep with her, praying the words and longings that are rising in my spirit.

Our hearts are poured out to one another, all that is to be known is known without being said and our friendship is sealed for life.

Hearts speak their own language and the interpreter is the Holy Spirit.

‘...You are my sister..., I want your God be my God...'

We are standing on a pavement and despite the language barrier, we both know, unmistakably that our lives as women have met and that we have met Jesus right there on the bench of a bus stop in downtown Athens.

It is 3 o’clock in the morning. 

She is back at Helping Hands in a few days, asking which name of God she missed last Sunday!

I take her to our small office and as there is hardly any vocabulary between us I try to help her find, in a Farsi Bible, the appropriate passage from Genesis 16.

     She reads aloud.

....'Woman, where are you coming from and where are you going? Go back and face your life... I know your mistress...I know your misfortune... I know the child you are carrying...I have a name for him and a future... EL ROI  the God who sees! '

Her face lights up.

'Very nice, very nice,' she says.

I turn her to the 91 Psalm.

She reads the first couple of verses and looks up incredulously. Then she reads a couple more and looks up incredulously. Then a few more.

 As long as I live I will not forget her look, it is the look of a starved man who has just discovered an enormous cream cake and is savouring the first cherry on the top of the cream!!!!

Or even of a man born blind who opens his eyes for the first time and sees a world lit up by the warm light of the sun!!

I point her to Psalm 42.   'As the deer pants for the waters so my soul longs for You...'

'Very, very nice...'

She begins to weep.

Psalm 43.   'Why are disquieted oh my soul, hope thou in God ’.

She is like a thirsty land drinking the long longed for rain, in front of my eyes.

Psalm 23.  'The Lord is my shepherd...'

She lifts up the Book to her lips and kisses the page in her tears.

'I understand...I understand these words!'

It is an open heaven for Bani and the Holy Spirit is explaining to her the scriptures!

I cannot speak Farsi and she cannot speak more than 30 English words!

The following days, every time she comes to Helping Hands, we shut ourselves in the little office and I try to help her find in a Farsi Bible scriptures that come up in my heart.

Psalm 37. 'Do not fret about the evildoer....cease from anger....'

  'I was angry when I come to Greece, because my husband dies..... I hit my children......'

John 8.  'Woman where are your accusers...neither do I condemn you...'

She weeps and hugs the Book...

And the week days follow, there follow other scriptures.

Isaiah 61.  'the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good tidings to the poor...'

Isaiah 53   '...He was wounded for our transgressions...'

'Is this Jesus'?

The crucifixion from the last chapters of John.

'I believe... I believe...I see...'

John 3.  Nicodemus and the need of a second birth.

'I believe...I want...Jesus my God... Your God ...my God...my eyes open...'

And so this dear woman, in a jam-cramped-cluttered-full of interruptions office, lays hold of Gods salvation, without hardly any words of explanation, hardly any conventional evangelism!  I watch her being led through all the stages of a new birth by the precious Holy Spirit alone!

She makes me understand that she wants, on Sunday morning worship, (she has been coming with us the last two weeks), to stand in the front and say to everybody, 'I believe, I believe, I believe’! When I point to her the scripture in Romans 10, 9, ’If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth...', she laughs,  'like me’, she says!  She is radiant.

On Sundy mornings ,at the fellowship we attend, she weeps at the beauty of the songs.  She brings another young Afgan family with her ‘who want Jesus too’ and another Afgan widow with a 14 year old girl who came to the Lord two weeks ago! “B” ‘s two daughters have ‘also taken Jesus’.

Two Saturdays ago at her own request, together with two other Afghan men, she went through the waters of baptism!

“B”... a widow from Kantahar, without a covering, bereaved of a beloved husband, bereaved of protection, bereaved of family, ( her own mother would not give her shelter for fear of reprisals from the Taliban), bereaved of country, bereaved of dreams; a woman refugee in crowded Athens, is beaming. Jesus Christ has revealed Himself to her and she is taken up with His beauty.  And this is but the beginning of her journey.

Our God is a Spirit. He is free to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants with whoever He wants. No existence that has been created by Him can limit him. He is not limited by words because by His Spirit He can explain the depths of God to the spirit of man. His word is not bound to human explanation and does not need human defending.

It is humbling but utterly true.

Our dear brothers and sisters, it is becoming clearer than the sun that we are swimming in a ministry that has come from God and has not to do with us.

We are reaping a harvest that we have not sown!

I wonder whose endless tears of intercession, the blood of which martyrs has reached the throne of God and has released these floods of grace, borne in His Sacred Heart for these people from the foundation of the world? It is a humbling and breath-taking question.

In front of our eyes and in our generation the Lord is breaking the spirit of Islam, as he has done earlier with the spirit of communism. The Lord is gathering the 'travail of His soul' and He is satisfied. And we are intoxicated with just tasting a glimpse of His great joy. 

 Please uphold this ministry in your prayers.  There is a ripe and vast harvest. Ask the Lord of the harvest to sent labourers.

Could we ask you to continue to pray for us; we seem to need God more than ever before.

 I long so much to speak Farsi quickly.  “B” is my teacher. Will you pray that I will be given the grace I need to learn a new language at this stage of my life?

And will you remember to pray for this dear woman, “B”?

That the Lord will heal both her and her little boy from diabetes, that her two older daughters, 9 and 14 will be healed from their sorrow and memories, that He will be establish her socially and  spiritually in a Christian community and that she ‘will be fashioned as a corner pillar fit for His palace’.

Eddy's Story

I was born in Cameroon and my mom died when I was just a child, and my dad died many years later .We were a big family and things seldom ran smoothly.  I was really missing my mother, which created a vacuum in my young heart and mind, which turned into real pain and I soon began pondering the whole question of my existence.

I obtained in those early days a vague understanding of who He really was.  He, however, did not want me to remain in ignorance .My deep thoughts and reflections always put me in a position that constantly made me inquire into religious affairs.  I started seeing dreams and visions of Biblical proportions that I did not understand at the time.  Now I do.

When I reached school-going age, the vacuum in my heart grew ever larger.  I attended a Christian primary school where I learned the elementary things of God, and the foundation of my faith in Jesus Christ was built and I began to understand more of Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Many things happened that made me realize that God had many things in store for me including sharing His Good News with others.  For a long time I wondered why I was the only one in such a large family who had some enlightenment in the things pertaining to God.  Perhaps my innate yearning and longing for answers to some basic life questions played a big role.  I remember some people being religious and believing in God in their own ways and traditions.  One thing I know for sure is that God created each one of us with a vacuum that only He can fill, if people invite Him into their lives.  If we pause for just a moment (even as children) to seek Him, He will reach out to us.  No one exactly introduced me to God.  He reached out to me because I sought Him as a child.

   

My experience with God in my early years helped me in no small way.  But my relationship with God began to wane when I started going to a public school.  I became stubborn and did my own thing.  I was largely influenced by my non-Christian friends.  But the seed of God’s Word remained in me.  Church became a boring routine fraught with ritualistic liturgies.  My rebellion resulted in me becoming more distressed and empty. The vacuum I had experienced before returned and grew even larger. But God still had me in mind.

I was preparing for university and at the same time I was preparing for broken-heartedness.  My dad was a coffee farmer and when global coffee prices fell, my country was hard-hit as over eighty percent of the people in Cameroon base their livelihood on agriculture.  This global market failure triggered an economic crisis the scale of which we had never seen before.  Life was never the same again for us.  Consequently, people could not care for their basic needs, let alone afford a college education in a big family like mine.

God, however, had plans I did not know of.  I found an administrative job and while there, a door of business opportunity opened and I made a fortune.  The manner in which this happened convinced me without any shadow of a doubt that this was a direct intervention from God.  Even though I had drifted far from God, He still held me close.  My sense of God’s active presence in my life began to return slowly but surely.  It was hard, but I determined not to forget my God.

   

As things increasingly became unbearable in Cameroon, popular unrest ensued.  There were students rioting and other political upheavals of all sorts.  I was frightened and my insecurity grew as lawlessness and corruption became the order of the day. I thought I was going to lose even the little I had saved if I continued in the system. Many people carried the same conviction and began to leave the country. I was part of this mass exodus.

   

Since I was financially equipped, it was not as difficult to make plans to leave the country. I therefore set out to acquire the appropriate paperwork.  I met a middleman who said he would facilitate things and make it happen in no time.  Little did I know that he was using my money for his own ends.  He too wanted to take flight.  I nearly melted with grief and anguish, and thought I would tear him in pieces if I caught him.  This fellow vanished with my passport and money worth thousands of U.S. dollars.

Instead of turning to God, I resorted to mediums for assistance in the recovery of the cash.  What a mistake that was!  Thank God this is a dead practice in my life today.  Finally, I remembered God again and stopped all traditional and legal pursuits against this person whose trace I could not even find.

   

Then God blessed me again .My business partner unexpectedly dispatched someone to rescue me financially without her knowing my plight.  This was another direct intervention from God. My travel plans were therefore only hindered and not permanently thwarted.

Quickly, I hastened to obtain any readily available visa I could lay hands on.  This time I was successful and obtained a Russian student visa.  I left for Russia with very limited cash in my pocket.  While in Russia, I quickly discovered life as a student would be unbearable.  There was nothing to do to replenish your pocket with cash if you ran out of funds.  With the fear of the Russian cold which was fast approaching, I hurriedly made plans to leave. Russia in the first place was not my final destination. Finally, in September of 1997, I left Russia after nearly four months.

   

I arrived in Greece in the same year and wanted to continue with my studies.  I thought I would find a job and go to school at the same time.  However, things were not that easy. I soon discovered I had to learn the language, which was very difficult. Thus, I settled for menial jobs in order to survive.  Without any real sense of direction, I almost despaired. As a matter of fact I was dejected after just a little while in hard circumstances.

Suddenly, my sense of God revived again in me a new spirit.  I prayed and implored God on a regular basis.  Soon I made some Christian friends who decided to help me get started with life afresh. I was later introduced to a church with whom I fellowshipped for seven years.  While there I took some basic Christian training courses for one year.  My Biblical view of God became clearer  and Jesus Christ truly became my Lord and Saviour.  As my spiritual hunger increased, I decided to go a step further.  I enrolled in a Bible School and successfully finished my one year training course (1999-2000).

   

It was in this Bible School that I first heard about Helping Hands. Even though I was touched by what I heard about this organization and wanted to join and be a part of it, I did not do so immediately.  Many years passed and I decided to finally put an end to procrastination in 2003.

   

When I first came to Greece, I had dreams and aspirations nobody could talk me out of. I tried hard to create a world of my fantasies. But the more I tried, the more frustration I felt.  I even enrolled in the university to boost my standing. I thought I could satisfy a restless part of me by simply acquiring more knowledge.  This effort too failed. It is clear I needed wisdom from God and not a mundane knowledge that usually puffs up (THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH EDUCATION!!!!!!!).  Without letting God at the forefront of my life, I had made plans which did not really reflect the plans He had for me.

When God begins to fill the hollow in our hearts, we begin to feel fulfillment.  My interaction with refugees who come to Helping Hands and are almost “hoping against hope” reminds me of my own state without God.  Sharing the love of Christ with other Christians and with people that have hardly heard of the love of God ushers in a joy indescribable.  Many times we fail because we do not allow God to mould us into the shape that best fits us.

I want to be like the Apostle Paul who boldly confessed he was lacked on many occasions. These were not I started volunteering for this body and have been there ever since with some intermittent breaks which came in because I have had to work in some summers.only physical or material lack. At times he would desire more of God in order to grasp certain spiritual truths into the things that pertain to Him.  Even though life is not easy to live, it is worth living it for God.

   

I would like to thank the entire staff of International Teams in Athens who have been a good example for my emulation. My gratitude is extended as well to all those who have made invaluable inputs into my life in this country. Thanks be to God and to Jesus Christ our Saviour.

EDDY  

Dr. Joseph

(Testimony shared at church Summer 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters, kalimera sas and good morning!

I am reading my message to you this morning so that I do not talk for too long a time.

God’s plans are always mysterious, we plan one thing but He acts according to His plan. Also, some times we get struck by situations that are very, very difficult and almost impossible to understand, but again God has His own plan for us, showing His light and blessing upon us in a very different way. This is the case with me, a blessing in disguise, if the Islamic terrorist Taliban had not issued a death verdict against me I most probably would never have received the blessing of our Lord Jesus’ promise of salvation.

I am greatly honored and blessed to be here as your new brother in the Lord Jesus’ name. I very much want to thank my brothers Kent Morley and Scott McCracken along with my sisters Myrna and Vicki for being the bridge between me and God. My special thanks also to brother Fotis and sister Mary for this honor to be able to proclaim to you, my brothers and sisters in Gods’ beloved family, that I am a new-born Christian and this is a day filled with grace.

Brothers and sisters, my story of landing in Greece is so grievous and long that to be told accurately it would probably need to be written in a novel by someone like Dostoevsky or Tolstoi.

I have been in forced exile here for a year and a half. During this time my wife and two small children; 2.5 & 4.5 years old are forced to survive in extremely inhumane conditions. They are chased and followed everywhere by the Taliban, the great force of evil in Pakistan. The Taliban has attempted several times to bomb my family, but they have somehow, with the help of God, been able to escape.

Back in Pakistan I had an excellent job along with a private practice in my own hospital, but for opposing the Taliban’s inhumane barbarism I have had to pay a very high personal cost. Dear brothers and sisters I would like to request your help and that you pray for Gods’ intervention in getting my wife and children here as soon as possible. For a long time they have had to stay in an underground room in horrible conditions.

I thank you very much for your attention and sympathies

Your brother in Jesus’ name

Joseph

(Baptism testimony--October 2010)

Good morning, dear brothers and sisters in Jesus!

I am the most blessed and honored person today for being accepted into the family of God, through the Lord Jesus. But before I say something about my long journey to be embraced and blessed by the Lord Jesus into his family today here in front of you, I want to thank those who the Lord Jesus used to introduce me to this utterly new life, with new thinking, new objectives, new priorities, new challenges, and of course new sacrifices of unimaginable magnitude, for which I am absolutely prepared by heart and mind.

I want to thank sister Myrna and brother Kent Morley, sister Vicki and brother Scott McCracken, brother Prof Samuel Naaman from Moody Bible Institute in the USA, and sister Dr. Kholda Naaman in Pakistan for their big role of love & compassion, through which the glory and light of the Lord Jesus was revealed to me and a window of heavenly breeze opened for me.  I feel like God was speaking to me all the times through the above-mentioned brothers and sisters.  May the Lord shower His eternal blessing on them forever.

Honorable brothers and sisters, I have traveled to this point of knowing God’s acceptance for a very very long time.  Even to tell part of the story would take longer than we have today, so I will just give you a few glimpses of it.   The whole story may be told some time soon in future, if God is willing, you will read about it in a book.

Long ago, while I was a college boy, the Lord Jesus appeared to me in a dream, and asked me to follow Him.  Then I did not give any importance to it, and had no clue about Him at all.  The only thing I knew was that Christians are the followers of Jesus and He was man of many amazing miracles.

In the days following the dream,  I started feeling utter disgust and rejection of the Islam I was seeing, for the degree of its hypocrisy, hatred, sanctioned killings of non-Muslims and suspected apostates (jihad) in the name of Allah, double standards, and so many more things made me revolt and subsequently abandon Islam for the rest of my life.

In 2006, in northwestern Pakistan, the Taliban started consolidations on the behalf of the Pakistani government and army.  Overnight, I was transferred to Waziristan where, under immense pressure from the US and other western countries, Pakistan had to (unwillingly) move its army against the Taliban hideouts in the area.  Perhaps it was similar to the Apostle Paul’s situation when the Jews could not prove their allegation against him so they tried to persuade Governor Festus to transfer him for trial in Jerusalem where they had planned a plot to kill him.

Because since then, and even now, I have been leading a large covert anti-Taliban and anti-jihad organization in Pakistan.

I am certain now that the Lord Jesus was my protector then and now, who saved me during every difficult and life-threatening circumstance I was facing.

It was just a year ago when I had the opportunity to chat with brother Kent Morley and Scott McCracken in the Morleys’ home.  It was then that brother Scott introduced me to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, the son of God.

Though honestly it was not my intention to believe in, or to follow, Jesus but after spending time studying the Bible I began to learn more, and to see more clearly with every passing day of my learning about Him, I found Him to be mine and the only true savior of all of us, and the whole world!

Dear brothers and sisters, following the Lord Jesus has totally overhauled the whole pattern of my life, my apprehensions, my outlook on world matters, my personal and family life, and my approach toward friends and enemies, through the lessons of compassion, love, forgiveness, repentance and service with love and integrity, for which I am grateful to the Lord from the core of my heart and mind.

As I mentioned earlier, I have not been following Islam for long time now, even though it is my ancestral religion and practiced by my family and the whole region of about 20 million people.  For all these people it is beyond imagination for someone to commit apostasy from Islam or conversion to another religion.

As you know, apostasy in Islam (according to Sharia law) is punishable by death. 

Not only that, but the area I am from, if my conversion becomes public knowledge, unimaginable violence  will be unleashed upon every relative and villager in the whole area by the evil forces of Islamic fanatics and jihadists.  This is the only region in the world where, after the fall of Afghanistan, the barbaric Taliban version of Islamic Sharia laws were introduced, sanctioned, and ratified by the government of Pakistan.

My home in Pakistan was destroyed through bombing and arson last year.  My parents have escaped to refugee camps since then.  My father was detained twice by the Taliban for interrogations and intimidations against me, inhumanely treated, beaten, starved and humiliated.  My wife and children are persistently receiving threats and intimidations by phone.  They have to hide and are compelled to move hiding from place to place very often and continuously.  My friends and associates, with whom we have worked against Taliban and Islamic brutalities have been silenced through bombings, slaughters, and public hanging of their corpses for lessons to all.

With all this and many more very acrid unbelievable hard and tough memories and series of savageries, I hereby forgive all these Islamic apostles of Satan in the name and glory of the Lord Jesus, because He has taught us to love our enemies.  But certainly I would ask you to pray for real miracles of the Lord’s glory and path of salvation in the heart and souls of every Muslim in particular and others in general.

I don’t remember the names of all the brothers and sisters in this Nea Zoee church, except a very few like sister Litsa, Tanya, Carolina, brother Panos, and Ryan Brown who have been always concerned for me and very compassionate, and persistently praying for the safety and protection of my family from the wrath of the Taliban. Thanks to them all.

I thank all of you, and particularly brother Fotis and sister Mary for making this occasion of my new beginning with the Lord Jesus so wonderful and memorable in this beautiful resort place on this great  blessed Sunday.

I thank you all for the attention and time.

"H" is now our BROTHER!

"H" is a 24-year-old Afghan born and raised by Afghan refugees in Iran who has been living with us for the last 6 weeks.  In the first few weeks he would frequently say things like, “Scott, talk about Jesus” or “Talk about sin” or “Talk about grace”, etc. If I tried to talk about anything else, he would say, “Why did you change the subject?! Talk about Jesus!”

Two Fridays ago, while waiting together for a bus, I said, "H, talk to me...about Jesus."  He paused with a very serious look on his face and said, "Honestly...honestly...nothing else...I see Jesus in you."

Well, I have to say I was momentarily stunned and had to choke back my emotions.  Of course, I immediately told him that if he saw ANYTHING good in me it was because of Jesus because I know (especially in these days) how dark and sinful my heart really is.

This past Friday, while riding the us together, he turned to me and said, "...Scott, will you baptize me...?"  When I asked him why he wanted to be baptized, he replied, "Because I believe in Jesus."  I asked, "The REAL Jesus or the Jesus of Islam?  The Jesus of the Bible or the Jesus of the Koran?"  He answered, "The real Jesus! The Jesus of the Bible!" 

As we talked more that night and the next day it became clear that his journey toward Jesus had, in the last week or so, drawn him to the place where he was ready to risk being disowned by his family and rejected or hurt by others to leave the religion he was strongly indoctrinated in all his life to follow Jesus as his God and Savior.  Apparently he called out to Jesus to help him overcome some strong temptations that he had never before been able to withstand, and Jesus helped him.  To him these were like "signs" that Jesus is more powerful and he wants to trust in Him.

Please continue to pray for "H", for his growth in Christ, for his safety, and for continued guidance from God about where he is supposed to go and what he is supposed to do.