absence of poseidon and closing the the acropolis

We've had a really busy last few days. On Saturday we made our first trip into the city and that was fun. We all split up and spent some time walking around Glyfada and just looked at stuff. We saw the Conga Palace Hotel, which is where Harding's Greece campus (HUG) started a few years ago. It's been renovated since then so it's probably a lot nicer than it was a few years ago (they moved to the Artemis in 2000). This all took up a large chunk of time but there's really nothing on note. We just looked at stuff.

Then we went to the Temple of Poseidon and that was awesome. Poseidon wasn't actually there though. I guess he was out of town or something. It was really interesting to think that this building was much older than anything I've ever seen at home and it still stands mostly intact. We stayed up there for a while and then some of us climbed down the side and played on the rocks.

Sunday morning we went to a small congregation (like 15 people without us, almost 60 with us) in Athens that speaks in Greek, Russian, and English. We've been using these whispering sets so that Tim could translate everything they said so that Dino (the guy heading up the church. More about him later) wouldn't have to translate it all for us. Basically how the whisper sets work is that Tim has a microphone that he can speak softly into and everybody else can hear him clearly through a set of headphones that we carry with us. If I think about it I'll put a picture of them up later just to show you. We also use them when we're touring Athens, except the one I had the first day didn't work and the one they gave me to replace it yesterday worked in church and then just screamed static into my ear for the rest of the day until I turned it off.

After church we walked around in Athens and got some gyros for lunch. They were good. Then we hiked up to the Acropolis and got there at 3:15 to find out that it closed at 3. Tim had checked 2 weeks ago and it closed at 5 then but I guess they changed it. It was ok though. Mars Hill was right next to it so we went up there and Tim talked to us some about it some and then we had a short devotional, which I was a little unsure about at first but because of how many people were up there but then it turned out to be pretty cool because a few of the people came and sat next to us and took picture and recorded us on their cameras. Not to show to the authorities or anything, though. It was all good.

Then we went over to where they had the first democratic meeting. Mark wanted to sing God Bless the USA here after singing church songs at Mars Hill but we didn't. All we did here was take pictures and stand around.

On the way home the bus dropped Mark, Cabot, Molly, and me off in Glyfada to go help with an English speaking service at the Congo Palace Hotel, which probably actually ended up being the best part of my day. It was the first time that they had it there and there were about 20 people, including us. It was just like any regular Church of Christ service in terms of format: singing, prayer, sermon, singing, Lord's Supper, closing prayer. The four of us stood at the front and led singing and Dino gave the lesson. There is nothing really that stands out about the service, but it just felt like the most real church experience that I've ever had. I think it was more like the Church as it was intended.

Dino drove us home and told us about some of the stuff that he's done which was pretty interesting. He was actually the one that started the Harding campus at the Congo Palace Hotel in 1991 and then found the Artemis a few years later. He also knew the Brinleys from years ago and recommended Tim for the director's position when it became available. This is actually Tim's first semester here, I think. He and Rebbecca were missionaries in Russia for 14 years before this.

That's really it for now.