Matt. 13:1-9 Parable of the Sower

Bible distribution day.

This morning the 200+ attendees at the Anastasi conference prepared to hand out 12,000 bibles in four zones of Thessaloniki. Our goal was to place the Bibles on the doors of homes in a residential area of the city. After a time of worship and prayer we left on four coach buses packed with the Bibles. We were assigned to a team with new friends and given a map of our area. We packed our backpacks full of Bibles and left for our assigned location. As in the parable of the sower, we saw mixed responses when handing out the Bibles today.

When we got to our area, we placed each Bible into a specially made door hanging bag. A lady from the neighborhood walked by and looked at us skeptically. We offered her a bag and she reluctantly took it. A short distance away we saw her open the bag and start reading the Bible!

We came upon another elderly lady sitting on her porch. Approaching to offer her a Bible, she refused to take it and kept yelling at us in Greek to “get off my porch!” Another man would not take the Bible unless we could tell him what local church we were from. Even though we explained we were Christians, since we couldn’t name any local churches, he would not take the Bible.

We gave the Bible to another lady and showed her the page explaining that the Bible was approved by the Greek Orthodox Church. We  said, “Christos anesti!” (Christ is risen!) A big smile appeared on her face and she took the Bible while signing a cross and asking, “Christian?” When we said yes, she motioned for us to wait and proudly returned with two Easter eggs she had carefully colored with dyed thread. Happy to receive the Bible and share her eggs, she kept trying to tell us something. Unfortunately, it was all in Greek and we couldn’t understand a word! (We found out later that she was inviting us into her home!) We just made a symbol of the cross, and smiled a lot. Then she sent us off with the warm greeting of a kiss on each cheek. 

The weather today was perfect for being outside all day—until the minute we got on the bus to return to the conference. Then it started raining! Our seeds were being watered!! 😃

Many seeds were sown today. We don’t know what type of soil they fell on but trust God that these seeds might bear fruit 30, 60, and 100 fold.

Monday we will distribute another 8,000 Bibles!

Thanks for praying for our team and all those who received Bibles today!

Joe and Georgette