This month, we want to highlight Johnathan Macris and Hellenic Ministries in Greece. Johnathan, one of our Global Partners, is president of Hellenic Ministries. As an international mission organization, one of the ways they serve Christ is by way of refugee outreach. Chris and Amy Moore, Fellowship members, are on a team at Hellenic Ministries that serves refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. We’ve asked them to share some events that happened this past December.
Dear Fellowship Bible Church,
Amy and I send many greetings to you from Athens, Greece. We have been serving refugees with Hellenic Ministries for five years now. It is a privilege to be connected to you as we seek to be light in the darkness on this side of the world.
We work with refugees primarily from Afghanistan and Iran. Our team strives to meet their basic needs, while also sharing the good news of Christ. We offer Christ as the answer to their great need, brokenness, and lack of a place to call home. We find that many refugees are open to hearing the gospel after seeing love in action among our community. The love of Christ breaks through and gives hope and peace to a culture that has had little opportunity to hear the good news until now.
This past Christmas season brought so much joy to our hearts as we saw Jesus Christ glorified and His Kingdom expanded among the nations. On two separate occasions, we had the opportunity to invite refugees to the mission’s downtown hall for two special Christmas banquets. Every year we plan with great anticipation and excitement, waiting to see what God will do. This past December, we served 600 men, women, and children from Afghanistan and Iran with the love of Christ.
We celebrated with fantastic food cooked by our Persian staff and sang Persian songs of worship led by Iranian worship leaders. We witnessed a play about the birth of Jesus performed by a Persian church. We heard a powerful message of Christ delivered by an Afghan leader in the community here. So amazing! Five years ago, this was all lead by the foreign missionary staff. This year, we took a more of support role as we cheered on our brothers and sisters of Muslim background.
It is such a privilege to invite and host Muslim refugees to a party celebrating Jesus Christ our Immanuel. As a westerner, it is easy to take the holiday season for granted. We are reminded of the true meaning of it all as we watch the refugees who are invited to our programs become like wide-eyed children as they witness people from their own countries lead them in an evening of great fun, centered around our Lord Jesus Christ.
Afghans serving Afghans. Iranians serving Iranians. It is a beautiful picture of the body of Christ at work and a refreshing reminder of where our focus should really be. After all, Christ came to earth, well outside of His heavenly splendor, to become like one of us. There is a lot of truth there that can resonate with the heart of a refugee as they experience their own countrymen, people just like them, serving with the transformative love of Christ.
We are so thankful for this celebration that we get to share with our neighbors from all over the world. We are thankful that God chooses to use broken people like us to carry His message of love to the nations. We are thankful for your care and support from Tennessee as we continue to go to the dark place with the light of Christ. God is good! Christ the Lord, our Immanuel has come!
Peace and Grace from Greece.
With gratitude,
Chris, Amy, and Clayton Moore
