I just woke up (ish) on the second day here in Greece and I’m exhausted.  I literally had no clue what day it was…what time it was…my schedule is all kinds of messed up right now.  Time frames are not the same in Greece…we had our dinner last night at 1am to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Our first outreach was last night at one of the parks here in inner city Athens to a large group of homeless and drug addicts.  We went with the local church and brought out food and drinks, spent time with the people and prayed with them.  The New York team performed a skit that they had been practicing as well.  It was an intense evening to say the least…the ground was riddled with used needles, people were shooting up heroine right in front of us…there was a lot of sadness and hurt there.

It’s crazy to think that the Mercy Center (where we’re staying and working during our trip) is one of only 2 rehab and outreach centers in all of Greece working to remedy the rampant drug/alcohol/prostitution problem that’s gripping the city.  It was also very eye opening to quickly realize that Greece isn’t just what you see on travel brochures and tv shows…there’s a very very dark inner workings to the city, so much so that even after spending a year in New York and working with the homeless outreaches there I was blown away.  More to come I’m sure…for now I’m going to try and get a little more sleep before we start with today’s work.

Fine out more and see the rest of the photos on the i61teams page HERE.