Day 1 of MO-YOM 2011: GREECE is in the books! And what a long and exciting day it has been. After our 11 hour flight to Athens, we met up with one of the missionaries, Bro. Jonathan Strickland, and got off to a quick start. Soon after checking into our rooms at Hotel Presidente, the YOM team headed into the heart of Athens to get a firsthand look at what life in Greece is all about.

Athens is a beautiful city of more than 5 million people, and the architecture is even more wondrous than photos or words can relate. Many of the YOMers have taken notice of an interesting sight: nearly everything in the buildings and streets are made of marble! It is an abundant natural resource in Greece, and is used very often in all sorts of endeavors.

By way of walking and subway transportation, our first stop was the Acropolis. The word “acropolis” is derived from two Greek words - “top” and “city”. The Athenian Acropolis sits on a high hill in the center of the city. It is here where the ancient Greeks built monuments to their gods, a few of which still stand and are very famous and recognizable by people all over the world - most notably, the Parthenon. From the top of the Acropolis we could see the entire city of Athens, including Zeus' temple and the 1896 and 1996 Olympic sites.

As we descended from the Acropolis to the ancient city center below, we were able to spend a while visiting and taking in the biblical historical site of Mars Hill, the place where Paul preached and reasoned with the Greek philosophers of his day about their many idols and their monument to “the unknown god” (this event is recorded in Acts 17). It was amazing to walk where Paul walked and to sit where he taught. Bro. Strickland spoke to us briefly about Paul's message and audience in Acts 17. Bro Levine then spoke to us about how we face some of the very same challenges today, as Paul did centuries ago.

Continuing our descent though the site of an ancient market, we had dinner at a city restaurant (chicken/pork gyros or beef kabobs) and did some souvenir shopping in the nearby shops. We arrived back at the hotel around 8:30pm, all pretty worn out. We met briefly to plan the VBS that starts tomorrow. We are excited to finally be in Greece and to see all God is doing in this nation!

Keep checking back for updates as we go; you can also link to us on Twitter by following @MO_YOM. Thanks so much for all your prayers! We're already making memories for a lifetime and being transformed by the missions work in Greece.