Grandchild ministry leads to growth in Greece

<p>28 January 2016 | Athens, Greece [Victor Hulbert] It just takes one committed grandparent and a new church can be established. That committed lady recently became an Adventist and is part of a small church that meets roughly one hour outside of Athens. In her turn she has nine children. They are all married and have children of their own. The whole family now attend church, their children making up a large proportion of the twenty children in attendance.</p>

News January 28, 2016

28 January 2016 | Athens, Greece [Victor Hulbert] It just takes one committed grandparent and a new church can be established. That committed lady recently became an Adventist and is part of a small church that meets roughly one hour outside of Athens. In her turn she has nine children. They are all married and have children of their own. The whole family now attend church, their children making up a large proportion of the twenty children in attendance.

Children’s Ministries training in Greece
Clair Sanches-Schutte, Trans-European Division (TED) Children’s Ministries Director, met in Athens for a weekend training with Children’s Ministries leaders from across Greece from 15-17 January 2016. She says, “On Sabbath I was asked to run a combined Sabbath School class for two hours with around 40 children. I love this because you get to show exactly how a children’s Sabbath School should be run. The kids loved it and that is the best advert you can have.”

Clair was astonished with how involved and attentive the children were – especially as she was having to teach via a translator. She added, “About 20 of those children came from a church about one hour from Athens. The Greek Mission office had ordered a bus for them because they are a new church plant and do not have a lot of money.” With so many children, Clair stated that it is “amazing how God leads one woman to the church and we now have a church made up of that family.”

The weekend was more than a Sabbath School. On Sabbath afternoon she held a workshop on Mission – directed both towards Adventist families and those children outside the church. ‘Mission’, in Clair’s case always means something practical because, as she states in her forthright manner, “theory doesn’t help anyone.”

Clair Sanches-Schutte displays Sabbath bags 1200
Clair Sanches-Schutte displays a sample Sabbath bag
However, ‘practical’ was a reciprocal word for her when she met a Russian mother who discovered that church was ‘boring’ for the children under her care. Rather than moaning, she took things into her own hands and created delightful Sabbath bags for every child in the church. A sample of the bag and its contents is now brightly on display back in the Children’s Ministry office at the TED headquarters in St Albans.

The training continued with a series of workshops on the Sunday. Despite the Adventist Church in Greece being small, Clair now intends to return later in the year to provide more training and ideas – simply based on great enthusiasm and desire for learning expressed by committed lay-leaders.

Children’s Ministries training with Apostolos Maglis
The weekend training was organised by Evangelia Papilia, Children’s Ministries leader for the Greek Mission. While she may have a few grey hairs she is not someone to put her feet up. “She is doing an amazing job”, Clair states. Apostolos Maglis was also heavily involved. Caring for Adventist Mission, Communication and the Ministerial Association, he was busy translating, filming, and taking an active part in the training.

For more on the exciting story of Children’s Ministry in the Greek Mission watch a short video report. [tedNEWS]


tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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