New friends! :)

“May I help you with your bag?” I asked as I grabbed for the duffel to carry it up the hill. After some hesitation, the young woman finally agreed.

This was the start of my friendship with some beautiful Greek young women who had come to participate in our young adult camp this year.

As I insisted on helping this young lady and her friends to their cabin, I had a chance to get to know them a little bit. For most of them, it was there first time to Porto Astro.

In the next couple of days, they continually invited me to their table during meals; they let me practice speaking in Greek, and I genuinely felt a part of their ‘parea.’

The activities of the camp proved to be more key times to build our new-found friendship. The survivor “scavenger” hunt we went on one afternoon was full of adventurous tasks from the water to the climbing tower. It also included team problem solving and brainstorming together to remember key Bible verses, come up with climbing tower spiritual analogies, and even create a team chant! In the mornings we had small group Bible study time which led to lots of fruitful discussion together. The evenings included thought provoking messages from excellent speakers, the powerful “How Great is Our God” video, and I even got to help lead singing in worship together with my new friend.

When we said our good-bye’s at the end of camp, I knew it wouldn’t be the last time we would see each other. Back in Athens, we have still been in touch. Just last week, they took me out for supper for my birthday. As one of them went out of her way to drive me home afterwards, she started talking about that first moment we met…

“You know when you insisted on grabbing my bag and taking it up the hill for me? I was a little annoyed at first and thought you were just some over-eager, smiley American trying to ‘do a good deed.’ Now I know that you as support staff actually care about investing in relationships.”

YEAH! May the Lord continue to provide opportunities throughout the whole year to pursue building close relationships with those who participate in our camps. :)