Well, what can I say? The last week has been packed with the good, the bad, and the horrendously difficult. At first I was reluctant to tell the story I'm about to tell however I believe it glorifies God which is the whole purpose of this trip. Let's get on with it shall we?
We got here 3 weeks ago with the hopes of a place to stay, a place to work, and to just live for a while. Through a friend we had a contact named Dimitra who was trying to get us set up with all of this. Keia, Jed and I came to Crete and immediately came to Kastelli to find Dimitra and possibly a shack to live in. We didn't have her contact info so we left for a bigger town which we stayed in for 8 days while we waited for David and Christina. While there we got in touch with Dimitra and she wanted to meet us and said she could probably give us a place to stay. We went in faith back to Kastelli but when we arrived and met Dimitra she asked where we would be staying. We were shocked, we thought she had something for us. After a bit of sitting around thinking we found out that there was a little place we could rent. Dimitra walked us down there and helped us get in to this place and get sorted out. This began our friendship with Dimitra since we were now living in this small town and her being the only person we knew. She came over to our house every morning to see what we wanted to do. She took us to some amazing beaches and showed us around town. She became one of the gang. We fell in love with this wonderful 16 year old girl.
The entire time we were living in this little place we were praying for direction about what to do. We felt that God had brought us there and wanted us there but we didn't know why. We knew Dimitra had a big part of it and prayed for her every night but for some reason we were looking for something bigger. We thought that maybe we were there to love Dimitra and also just to love one another and grow together. We were all becoming weary though and felt we needed to move on because we still didn't see our reason for being there. We planned on leaving on the Sunday because we were going to hang out with Dimitra on Friday night and go to a party on the beach and then we were going to take her somewhere special on Saturday because it was her only day off. We didn't want to tell Dimitra we were planning on leaving on Sunday and I guess it slipped our minds on Thursday but we were going to tell her on Friday. On thursday Dimitra came over as usual but this time she brought her boyfriend Kostadinos who lived in a bigger town an hour away. She just wanted him to meet us before they went back to his town for the day. We went on with our day as usual and stayed up incredibly late, as usual. The next morning we woke up and Christina started talking to our landlady. She came back in the room and said that we needed to pray. She told us that last night there was a car accident and a young girl was killed and her parents owned an internet cafe in Kastelli. This fit the discription, Dimitra hadn't come yet and her parents cafe is down the street from our house. We said a few quick prayers before trying to find out for sure before we got too ahead of ourselves. 3 of us walked up the street and found that the cafe was closed, it shouldn't be closed. Keia and David then walked down the other way to where Dimitra worked while the rest of us prayed. We were outside on our porch when they came back and Keia had tears streaming down her face. We knew right then that our worst fears had come true. Our beloved friend Dimitra had been taken from us. We sat there crying for about half an our before we started praying again. The amazing thing was that when we started praying, we weren't asking God why this all happened, it seemed that we all knew why we had come to Kastelli. We began thanking God that he had brought us here and used us in a crucial time in Dimitra's life. We felt honoured to have spent the last 9 days of her life with her, giving her joy, making her laugh and sharing stories with her. We prayed all morning for her family and friends, for God to comfort them. Greece is a place where God is not very real, he is a picture on the wall in a church, there is no relationship. In church they only speak ancient Greek which no one understands, there is no Christianity here.
We were informed that the funeral was that same day at 6:30 in Dimitra's home town which was about 20 minutes away. We rushed around to get ready and find out how to get there and eventually got a taxi there. We got dropped off down the road from where we were supposed to be because of Greek traditions. We walked up the winding road to where a bunch of people had gathered. We walked down a small street passed all these people which eventually led to a house with flowers covering the front steps. We walked in the house where people were standing at the entrance to the living room. I made my way up to where I could see and when I looked in I saw Dimitra lying in a casket covered in white flowers with a white beaded crown on her head. The reality of what had happened finally hit me and my heart dropped to the floor. I couldn't look. We cried and sobbed outside for a good while. I found 2 of Dimitra's best friends who we had the privelege of becoming friends with aswell, and gave them both big hugs and we all cried together. They carried her out and put her in the hearse and drove up a small rocky road up a mountain to the cemetery. We followed in a long processional and watched as they covered the tomb with massive marble slabs and cement.
So, that is part of our story, not close to all of it but part. We don't know if Dimitra accepted Christ before she died however we have been encouraged by the verse Matthew 10:40-41 which says: "Anyone who welcomes you is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the father who sent me. If you welkcome a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will recieve the same reward a prophet gets. And if you welcome good and godly people because of their godliness, you will be given a reward like theirs."
Dimitra accepted us as family and showed us so much hospitality and love. She treated us as if we had known her for years. Her friend Krisa told us at the funeral that Dimitra really loved us. She was so happy we were there. We were so encouraged. God used us to bless this girl during the final days of her life. We have faith that she is in heaven as she accepted us, therefore, accepting Christ.
If you would like to help, you could pray for Dimitra's friends Krisa and Ricarda aswell as her boyfriend Kostadinos. Her parents are also in deep mourning. She also had a younger brother named Andreas.
As for us, it seems we'll be leaving tomorrow for Italy to hopefully work on a farm and live life again. This is our life, it's not a vacation, however, we are learning to take joy in the simple things in life. God has given us so much to be thankful for. He is such a faithful God.
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