The gospel to the Greek
There is a large Greek-Cypriot community (300,000) in the UK, concentrated mainly in northern London. On a rainy weekend this June large numbers gathered at the Cyprus Wine Festival and Business Exhibition, held annually at Alexandra Palace.
They came to recapture something of the homeland – its warmth, hospitality, music, singing, dancing, drinking and food. As always on such occasions, the Greek Orthodox Church was there; not, however, disseminating the Word of God, but selling icons and lottery tickets.
The Greek Christian Fellowship (GCF) was there too, with the Word of God. We received some suspicious comments: ‘You are not Orthodox. You are JWs; you are “evangelists”; you are heretics!’ Nevertheless, many had wide eyes and open mouths when we gave them free New Testaments for themselves and their friends and relatives.
We had good opportunities to explain the gospel. Behind us were two large posters – with the words of John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 15:4. There is much ignorance among the Greeks regarding the Bible. Many do not know that it consists of the Old and New Testaments.
Many think that the liturgy of St Chrysostom, chanted in the Greek Orthodox Church, is the Bible. I gave out literature in modern Greek and had English NTs for those who could not read Greek.
On both days at this event, my son played traditional Cypriot folk tunes on his violin to large audiences; each time he ended with ‘Amazing Grace’. Please continue to pray that God would shed his grace on the Greek people.
Pavlos Karageorgi
www.bethelwimbledon.com/gcf.htm
