Greek Mission
Established: 1903
Churches: 9
Address: Greek Mission, Maiandrou 7, P.C. 18450 Nikaia, Greece
Website: www.adventist.gr
The history of chruch in Greece
As early as 1878 the Review and Herald referred to results, unspecified, from publications sent to Greece. In 1879 an Italian Adventist named Bertola went to Greece and shared his faith. H Henderson, a licensed minister, went there in 1899 and W E Howell (1869-1943), a distinguished scholar, worked in Greece from 1907-09. Both were eventually recalled.
The first known Adventist convert in Greece was George Vrakas from Epirus, a heavy drinker, smoker and gambler. He bought a Bible and began to read with his wife. Then he stopped drinking, smoking and gambling, and joined an Evangelical Church. He read about the Sabbath in the Bible but never questioned Sunday observance until a senior Evangelical pastor visiting from Athens mentioned that Sabbath observance has a biblical basis. Vrakas left the Church very troubled. The following Sabbath, in 1902, as he was going to work the words of Isaiah 58:13 came to his mind. From that day onwards he decided to keep the Sabbath. His wife followed three years later.
Vrakas had heard of a Sabbath-keeping group in Constantinople (Istanbul) and wrote ‘to the Sabbathkeepers, Constantinople’. This correspondence was the only contact Vrakas had with any Adventist for six years. In 1909 Pastor Greaves, a Canadian missionary working in Smyrna (Izmir), baptised Vrakas, his wife and his daughter Eleni, followed by three more members in 1912.