Thálion Friesen Dot Com

Volos

MelletiVolos

Nikos is the big fellow with Thalion.  He was the caretaker for their camp.  The other man is Melleti, the missionary/pastor who organised for the group to come, and loved to watch Thalion eat!  And the view of Volos, where they spent many hours ‘cleaning up’.

Thalion and Nikos

T's favourite spot

laundrya porcelain hole in the floorT's favourite spot

Thalion’s camera stopped working at Boot Camp, then on the LAST day they were in Volos he discovered that it worked again!  So we have no pictures of him actually working, but his team mates are sending some that we will post when we get them.  Here are pictures of the camp they were stationed at on Mount Pelion.

a porcelain hole in the floorT's favourite spot

home base

Preaching like Paul

These show the Ancient Agora,  the market place where Paul saw the shrines to many gods, even ‘an unknown god’, also a team mate preaching on top of Mars Hill, where Paul would go to debate with the scholars.  Thalion also visited Phillipi  and Thessloniki, where Paul planted churches and suffered persecution.  He saw the jail cell believed to be the one that held Paul.  Sadly, he did not have his camera with him then!

the Agora, seen from the AcropolisPreaching like Paul

A typical day in Greece:

Up around 5:30

Breakfast and Personal Devotions

Bus 1 hour to the work site
-either painting at the mental institute or picking up trash in Volos

Work for 5-6 hours

Bus back

Showers and laundry

Supper

Team Devotions

Free time

Reading missionary biographies

Bed at 9:30

Our home base in Greece was a camp owned by the Greek Orthodox Church, so it was a miracle that we were allowed to stay there at all.  They had never had Protestants stay there before.

Our local missionary/pastor was Melleti.  I really liked him.  He’s short and a lot of fun!  He spent four years trying to lead people to Christ, but they just got offended because they’re already Greek Orthodox.  About four years ago he started serving more than talking and since then has had much better results over time.  They were all so happy that we were there.  My favourite was when I sang a solo in church at the English service.