...more from "the country" cousins...

I have enjoyed more stories about what is going on in Greece (other than Athens) as a reult of the Olympics hype...and wanted to document a few of them here...(thanks again, Ramon!)…

“Orayo, Orayo” (beautiful, beautiful) was the word most often heard at one of the special Open Crowd Festival outreaches that are currently taking place in Greece during the Games.

During the Olympics over 100 people from Fusion International, a Christian Youth & Community organization, have been running Community Festivals throughout Greece. They have been working beside local Greek churches and have been welcomed enthusiastically wherever they have run Festivals.

Mayors have given Fusion permission to run these free Family events at the centre of their communities and local Christians have joined the Fusion team to ensure that the local Church have been at the centre of all that is taking place. Thousands have turned up to these Festivals and have been delighted by all they have experienced. Security guards and police, at first sceptical and suspicious, have ended up becoming part of the team as they joined in with the fun and celebration.

Local Christians have been excited seeing the response of the Greek community to Festivals and many are planning to continue running Festivals with the 3 sets of Festival equipment that Fusion will leave behind in Greece.

Here’s just one story (of many) about these community festivals…

A team of 17 from Fusion International took the long 7-hour journey from Athens to join with enthusiastic Christians in the North Western township of Ptolemaida (40,000 people). There they have created something of a joyous revolution. Balloon sculpting, face painting, circus skills and a living Greek statue all drew gasps of joy. The Greeks came in their thousands and time and time again the team were told we have never had anything like this in our town. The city square was circled with aging Greek inhabitants with broad grins on their faces as parents, children and teenagers engaged enthusiastically in the event. The most commonly heard word that night was "Beautiful, Beautiful"! The local members of the Free Church threw themselves into the Festival proudly balloon sculpting and face painting alongside their brothers and sisters from around the world. Language barriers disappeared as sprits united in mission. When Harris Kerr Fusion's local Greek worker asked the crowd would they like to see more of this, they responded, "It must be, we must have more!"

More "country cousin" stories tomorrow.