One week

Meet John (that's "Glen" to you)...

He wanted to watch this over and over on my camera. :)

George & Lydia had me up for dinner last night and said the boys had been so excited all day long that I was coming. I'm so thankful to have found a place with this family. They lived in the States for several years and in London for one, and are themselves trying to adjust back to living in Greece with three kids. We are going to IKEA on Monday morning, so hopefully it will start to feel a bit more like home around here for me.

It has been an interesting couple of days. Obviously I need to try and figure out my place here. In talking with a few people, I think the main thing that I have on my heart is some kind of a resource center or organization that exists strictly to network other agencies that are already working on (or are interested in working on/learning about) human trafficking. There seems to be a similar desire on the hearts of a few others I have been talking with. I guess I need to start learning about what that entails, what I need to do, and how it will work. It could incorporate resources, training, and strengthening partnerships & collaboration for stronger effectiveness, advocacy, and support. There are already agencies in place that do outreach, shelter, services, etc. well. One bonus, I already have a lawyer and a social worker to partner with in this. :)

A really important contact, a woman who runs a shelter that has recently taken in at least seven new victims, told me yesterday that her shelter is in danger of shutting down because of new financial constraints from the bank. This is really discouraging. I'm meeting with her on Saturday, and praying urgently that this closure won't happen.

A new shelter opened in Thessaloniki this month (the group that I met with up there in March), and they have just received their first victims, a young Bulgarian couple who were trafficked for forced labor (and the wife for sexual exploitation). They are beginning the restoration process, and the church in Thess is really rallying around the shelter. I will be traveling up there in January or February to do a training for the shelter workers!

So...what is my place? A couple times the past few days that has crossed my mind. What am I doing here?? I've entered something here with zero structure or form. That is going to be largely up to me.

I let go of Greece in April, and God brought it back in May. Seven months later, here I sit in my new home. This is clearly his doing. I'm not yet certain what his plans look like here for me, but I can be certain that they are his. The timing, the connections, and anything that comes of this.