Dino & Debbie Roussos - January, 2009
posted in Missions, Europe |
DINO & DEBBIE ROUSSOS
P.O. Box 70127 Glyfada, Greece 16610
Tel : 011 (30) 6944 344167
Fax : 011 (30) 210 8974405
E-mail : DinoRoussos@gmail.com
Our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
The New Year 2009, started with the Lord’s work in Greece receiving many blessings. We are very happy to serve a Living God and today we are sharing with you our latest news. Thank you for taking precious time to read our newsletter, to call us, to write us, to pray for us and to care for our ministry.
Four New Believers were Baptized
Elizabeth and Nancy live in Greece and worship with the new established congregation at Heraklion, Crete. I had the privilege of baptizing them in the Aegean Sea. What a thrilling experience as they surrendered their lives to Jesus and decided to follow in the steps of our Master. More than twenty-five precious souls are coming to worship the Lord Jesus every Sunday in Crete.
Theodora is our new Bulgarian sister who asked me to baptize her after our morning worship service at the Omonia Church in Athens. She speaks perfect Greek. Before her baptism she confessed the name of Jesus in front of our assembly and she expressed her joy in finding the Truth and assurance of Salvation. Theodora was delighted to find the Church of Christ and the love of fellowship among other Bulgarian, Greek and Russians who worship the Lord together in Athens.
Panagiotis Koutsioubas was baptized in Athens. He is 91 years old and the father of Costas Koutsioubas, who became a Christian around the same time as I did. Thus making him one of the first in Greece to be converted to the Truth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that Costas and his sisters, who have also been faithful Christians for many years, are praising God for bringing forth fruit from the seed sown more than forty years ago. Costa’s parents live in a lovely city 5 hours away from Athens in the beautiful Greek mountains. Recently his mother underwent surgery in Athens. I visited her at the hospital and prayed for a quick recovery.
The Church in Crete
We are so happy that the new Church in Crete remains faithful, in spite of the absence of a full time minister. In December, 2008 and January, 2009, Debbie and Dino, Alex and Eleni, Charles and his wife traveled from Athens to Crete, either by plane or ship to preach for the Christians there, to encourage them and to plan for the growth of the church in the future.
They need edification, Christian fellowship and a couple who will be willing to go to live there and work with them. God has answered our prayers. There is a Christian couple who are graduates of Harding University and they were in Athens with Harding two years ago. Last week I received a letter, in Greek, from Jason Eades who wants to enter the mission work. After talking to him, he and his wife are willing to serve the Lord wherever there is a need. Please pray for him, in that he may decide to serve Jesus and His Church in Crete.
Here is a letter I received from our brother John Adesoye, who was preaching in Crete and now lives in Ireland:
“Dear Dino, Alexandros and Brethren,
On the behalf of the brothers and sisters on the Island of Crete, we are using this opportunity to express our deepest appreciation for the time and money you generously spent in order to teach and preach for the young church in Crete in the absence of their local minister and his associate.
You have shown the love of Christ by sacrificially given yourselves so as to encourage, strengthen and minister to us in various capacities. And we are saying THANK YOU. Moreover, your support, prayer, advice and oversight are still needed. We encourage you to keep up the good work for the praise of God. The Scriptures below express our hearts: For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. “Heb 6:10″. And the King will answer and say to them, Truly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. “Matt 25:40″. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, Truly, I say to you, He will by no means lose his reward. “Mark 9:41″.
With love and appreciation, John, Debo and the Brethren in Crete”
Court Appeal, January, 2009
As you know from our previous newsletters the Lord’s Church at Omonia last year had to attend a Court trial with many accusations (e.g. we are a foreign religion, we don’t have the right to meet as a Church, we should not use our Church building etc).
The judge had found that all accusations were wrong but we should move the compressor of the A/C unit, we should close our doors going to the balcony (although we have exclusive use of our verandas) and that we should not have a kitchen. Recently we met several times with our civil engineer, and visited the City Hall to obtain some new permissions etc.
The court appeal on January, 13 was to dissolve the last three accusations. We spent the whole day there with our lawyers and we are now awaiting the Court’s decision in 3-4 months.
The issues that were disputed were the right to have a kitchen in our facilities, the right to have doors open that lead on to our verandas and the wrong placement of our A/C compressor (that has since been corrected and is now positioned according to regulations).
Home Bible Study
For the last 5 months we have been having a home Bible Study at our home on Thursday evenings. There are many people in our area that have expressed their desire for Bible Study. Our assembly have between 8-10 attendants. We rotate study leaders between Tim Brinley from Harding University, Ron Kretz from Athens International Bible Institute and myself.
New Meeting at Glyfada (southern Athens)
The recent unrest and rioting in Athens has motivated us to consider other options for our Sunday evening English worship service. Some of the members are uncomfortable coming on Sunday evenings to the part of Athens where the Omonia Church building is located.
Two Sunday’s ago, we had a meeting with all English Speaking members. Several options were discussed and finally we all decided to have a 4.00pm meeting in English at the Omonia Church and at 6.00pm a meeting in English in Glyfada at the Congo Palace Hotel.
God has lead us to a solution that might work out for all of us. The Congo Palace Hotel which is located in the southern suburb of Athens called Glyfada, has offered us one of it’s conference rooms for our use. For the immediate future this is a very workable solution.
We will continue to have English services at Omonia for those who are unable to come to Glyfada.
Last Sunday was the first service at Glyfada (at the new location) and we were thrilled to have 20 people attend. My sermon was “Come over to Macedonia and help us” Acts 16:9.
We had invited friends and people who love the Lord to come and worship with us. We were so happy to see several had accepted our invitation.
Youth Group on Saturday Nights
The youth group fellowship on Saturday evenings continues to go well. More young people are joining our activities each week. 
Last Saturday the guest speaker was Ilias, a Greek from the States. He told us how he became a Christian while he was working in the States and decided to return to Greece to share Jesus with the Greek people. An amazing story of God’s metamorphosis (changing) of his life.
It has been great having Matt take a leadership role in this ministry. He will be teaching our young people and I will translate for him. Matt has a degree is in youth and families ministry, so he is happy to use his talents and he is a blessing.
Valentina
Valentina is an elderly Russian sister who lives in very poor conditions and also suffers poor health. She was married to a Greek man and has lived in Greece many years. Her only son lives in Canada and has literally no contact his mother. Her only care comes from her Church family at the Omonia Church. We visit her, take her for medical attention, arrange for cleaning of her apartment and make sure she has food. Her neighbors are also helping her daily.
Vaso
Vaso is a widowed sister who also exists on a very meager means. At Christmas some of the sisters raised some money to buy her food and other necessities. They continue to visit her and meet some of her needs.
Christian Celebration at the Titania Hotel
Once again, we had a Christmas banquet at the Titania Hotel, as we did last year. I was able to arrange for a buffet lunch and use of a meeting room for our program. The banquet was attended by members and friends who enjoyed the program of singing, prayers, Christian message along with wonderful food and fellowship.
Pamela and Lawrence were married in Athens
Lawrence from Ghana has been a strong member of the Omonia Congregation for several years now.
Recently he met a lovely Canadian Christian lady and they decided to get married. Pamela came from Vancouver , Canada, and the wedding took place in Athens.
The church in Athens and especially Eleni and Alex Melirrytos assisted Lawrence and Pamela to collect the required official paperwork required for the marriage.
Praise the Lord that the Lord’s church is a place of fellowship, love, hospitality and care.
Irine and Stelios were married in Athens
Irine has been attending our services for many years. She got married to Stelios a few weeks ago and now they both attend our services.
We have Bible studies with them often and we hope that Stelios will obey the gospel soon. He is a wonderful young man and works at Athens Airport.
Charalambakis Funeral
The ex-Orthodox priest who has written many books and established the “Original Orthodox Church” (a Church that returned to the New Testament teachings) passed away two weeks ago.
We attended his funeral and had the opportunity to visit with many members of his assembly. It is true that he was a dynamic preacher and writer. Many times I was invited to preach the Word of God at his congregation.
One time they almost decided to unite with the Omonia congregation, but for various reasons this did not happen. We will continue having fellowship with this group of believers who want to return back to the teachings of the early Church.
Prestoncrest New Preacher
Brother Gordon Dabbs will start preaching at Prestoncrest on February 1st, 2009. We are pleased for him and the last few weeks we have been praying for Gordon, his family and the Prestoncrest congregation. He will have our support, cooperation and assistance in every way.
May the Lord bless Gordon, Prestoncrest and the mission work around the world. May His name be glorified among the Nations.
Family News
Stephen is now attending Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas. He is a graduate student in Zoology and at the same time, a graduate assistant, teaching anatomy and working at the lab.
Stephen spent Christmas with us here in Athens and has now returned to the States and his work at the University, whilst studying for his Masters.
Nikki and Matt are with us in Athens and we enjoy very much their lovely daughter Ashtyn. She is a delight to all of us. She will be one year old on February 22nd. Melody and Andy live in Frisco, Texas with their two children, Jackson 2½ and Zoe 1½. We really miss them, but we hope to see them as soon as we have the opportunity to return to the States.
Brethren, we thank God for our family, for the mission work that we are involved in, in this part of the world and for Jesus our Saviour and redeemer who gives us the hope to live for ever.
May the Lord bless you all.
In His love,
Dino and Debbie Roussos