Witnessing during the Carnival

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Eph 5:18

From the 4th to the 6th of March 2011, I visited the city of Patra, where they biggest celebration of the Carnival in Greece took place.

Greece’s Carnival season known as "Apokries" is a period of eating, drinking, dancing, and masquerading for the young and the young in spirit. 
Traditionally, it begins ten weeks before Greek Orthodox Easter and culminates on the weekend before "Clean Monday," (Ash Monday) the first day of Lent.

The roots of Carnival celebrations and customs can be traced back to ancient Greece and are linked to the worship of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and festivity. 

The processions, costuming, and feasting all derive from ancient ceremonies honoring him and other Greek gods and goddesses. (http://www.grpressbeijing.com)

We were a team of 17 believers from Athens and also some believers from the local church of Patra. We spoke about the Lord to thousands of people who were out in the streets celebrating the debauchery of the season.

In 3 days, we distributed more than 18,000 Christian tracts as well as hundreds of New Testaments. We felt the presence of the Lord among us as we witnessed of the Lord to the people in the rain and cold but with joy in our hearts.

Please pray with us for fruit for the Kingdom from the distribution of His Word.
Panos Karakolidis

Evangelistic Program Airs on Greek TV!

Praise to the Lord. For the first time on Sunday, February 27, 2011, Hellenic Ministries, in cooperation with Vasillis Zetas from Toronto Canada, sponsored the airing of an evangelistic program in the Greek language on national TV here in Greece. The program will be broadcast every Sunday from 13:15 till 14:15.

The program called “Zontas Pragmatika,” was shown on the TV Channel “Kanali 1”
(http://www.enatv.gr/) in the city of Lamia (250 km from the city of Athens) and the surrounding neighborhoods from Volos to the outskirts of Athens, an area in which about 600,000 people live.

After the broadcast, about 20 people called our office to thank us for the show and to ask us for a New Testament and other Christian literature.

We thank God for this opportunity and we pray that this program will be shown on other channels and in other big cities of Greece, like Athens or Thessaloniki, etc.

Please pray for this program and also that God will continue to open new doors for us.

Submitted by Panagiotis Karakolidis