Exciting Things Are Happening!

God is moving throughout the world and I am so excited to be a part of what He's doing!  Recently the Celebration Athens team had the privilege of meeting Nico Bougas who is with Hellenic Ministries. Hellenic Ministries is doing wonderful things in Athens and throughout Greece & I am excited that we will be partnering with them. They reach the communities in Greece by serving love meals to refugees, reaching youth through worship events & sports camps,  evangelistic outreaches, and missions. A new ministry that has been started and has touched my heart, as a registered nurse who worked with infants & young mothers for more that 9 years, is The Hope Center that they are in the process of building/renovating. 

(an excerpt from their web site) In Greece more than 250,000 abortions take place every year, of which 40,000 happen to girls under the age of 16. Many women have had more than one abortion. The act of having an abortion not only kills the baby, but it has also been discovered to cause long-term psychological and emotional damage to many women as well as to the men who are involved.
With no shelter of its kind in Athens, a sprawling city of 5 million people with one of the highest abortion rates in the world, there is great need for a crisis pregnancy center/home. Our desire is to provide counseling and encouragement for girls to give life to their unborn children and not to seek an abortion. We want to offer ‘Hope’ and a safe refuge for girls to stay in during their pregnancy. We plan to help girls get set up in their new life with their baby after they leave our Center, or if they choose to consider adoption, we aim to help them with that process by offering legal support. Our prayer is that God will meet each girl in her place of need during her pregnancy, and that she will find refuge in Him and a way to walk forward in strength. 

I have been in touch with Sarah who is in charge of The Hope Center and I can't wait to meet with her once I get to Athens. I know God is in the midst of all of the many divine appointments that each of us on the team have encountered.  We continue to take steps of faith, trusting and believing God for big things! He is a big God and nothing is impossible for Him!

I am believing God for my finances to be in order so I can be on the ground in Athens sometime in March. As it quickly approaches it is my prayer that if you are not already a partner in the mission with me, that you'll search your hearts and ask God what your part might be.  I am excited to be the hands and feet of those partnering with me here in the states, as I make myself available to serve those living in Athens ministering hope so that God can touch and change there lives.  Please continue to pray for the Celebration Athens team, Hellenic Ministries and those working on The Hope Center.  Check out the link below and get to know Hellenic Ministries


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcQYl7jcD9U


Love & Blessings

~Tracy~

Thankful Heart

"I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers." - Philemon vs. 4

In this verse Paul sets before us an awesome example of how we are to be praying for our brothers & sisters in Christ with heartfelt thankfulness. It shows us that prayer is not just bringing God a list of our needs, but coming to Him on behalf of others as well. During this time of prayer & fasting and preparing for Greece I have been reminded of how thankful I am that I have an amazing family & friends, an amazing church & church family & generous partners in the mission. I just want each & every one of you to know I thank God for you daily & lift you up in prayer. I pray in this coming year that God's direction, favor & blessings overtake each one of you.  I can't wait to see all that God not only does in Greece as we reach out & help refugees that have no home, unwed mothers & those rescued from trafficking as well as sharing the love of Jesus to all we meet, but what He also does in each of my partners lives as well. I am believing God for big things in 2011! With God nothing is impossible!

Let your life be one that lights the way!

Kali̱méra! Good day everyone! We at Celebration Church are in a time of prayer & fasting called "Awake 21 right now."  It's a time where we set aside the first part of the year to disconnect from the world, all that distracts us, & connect with God. It's always an amazing time where God reveals things to us in special ways.  God loves us so much. He wants people to know just how much He loves them. Many times we talk about this love, but don't necessarily grasp the depth of that love, or we even take it for granted, especially in our normal day to day activities of life. Sometimes we forget that the little things we are doing daily are not only "big" in God's eyes, but they are big in the eyes of others as well. There are always people around us watching us, what we say, what we do, how we act.

There is an old Newsboys song........shine, make them wonder what you've got, make them wish that they were not, on the outside looking bored..... I used to think this was just a christian cliche'. I never heard anyone say "hey your different, I want what you have" even though we talk about it all the time. Well, during this time of prayer God totally blew my mind! I had an experience with someone that didn't seem to like me very much, that I was around on a day to day basis. They came to me and took me aside to share with me something they were experiencing.  They told me that they were sorry for many things that had happened between us and that they felt their behavior was coming from the fact that they were uncomfortable around me. The reason, they shared with me, they were uncomfortable being around me, was because I had something that they didn't. They said that they now realized that they needed it, but weren't sure where to start. 

What I had was Jesus! I was SO honored that God used me with this person......not by me doing anything "special,"  but by living my love for Him out loud every single day in my normal every day life. I never even stopped to think during my work day, that my life could have been speaking to someone. There are times when we have divine appointments & we recognize that, but just during the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, at least for me, I never thought I could be ministering to those around me without even knowing it. God so blessed me and revealed to me just how much He not only loves me, but those we aren't necessarily thinking about that are around us everyday. We have opportunities every moment, of every day, to share His love without saying a thing, but just by being living epistles. By living our love for Him out loud in all that we do. That to me is amazing!!

So I am writing this to remind everyone, including myself, that even when we feel like we aren't touching anyone's life, making a difference or being used by God, in our work place or school or home. Remember that the world is watching us. Those around us are watching us.  The things we do, the choices we make, they say who we are & who we live for.  Live the way you believe, you never know who God may be ministering to through your life.

awake21.org 

Freedom!

Over the last few weeks I have been giving away, throwing away, selling and putting a very small amount in storage, much of what I have collected over the last 20+ years. Although it was fun at first going thru all of the "stuff", after a while I couldn't help but wonder what I was thinking when I decided to hang on to so many un-necessary things. (pictures, papers, letters, cards, phone books, gifts, the list is endless) God showed me that as people, we tend to do this a lot, without even realizing it or thinking of the consequences. God will free us from something, but we will hang on to just a "small piece" of what He has freed us from and after a while all of those small unnecessary pieces that we hang on to can add up to a large amount of stuff, bagagge, weights, bondages, burdens. It can then be difficult for us to shake ourselve free again. God's word says "who God sets free is free indeed" John 8:36 It also says "In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off]. Gal 5:1 I say all this to declare I am free. It has been so liberating preparing to go to Greece, getting rid of "stuff" and allowing God to prune me and my life. Getting rid of all the old dead "stuff", not just in me but also the stuff that I was hanging on to. So I declare Freedom!!! Over myself, my family, my Greece Team members and Greece! I am so excited to see all that God is going to do.

An Adventure in Faith: The road to Athens Greece

Let me start by saying blogging is, in itself a step of faith for me, but I am attempting this at the encouragement of my team members and fellow missionaries. :o)
My Journey: Loving God, Loving People
After moving to Florida in 2001 and visiting Celebration Church several times on & off throughout the years, God spoke to me in 2006 and told me that Celebration was to be my home church. Little did I know back then all that God had planned. I am so extremely thankful for all that God has done since I was planted here. There have been times of growth and stretching, times of correction, many opportunities to serve and I have many new “family” and friends that I can‘t imagine doing life without. I feel so blessed to be a part of such a loving, reaching, life giving church.
I have known for about 15years that God called me to missions. In 2009 He spoke to me during a Late Nite service about Greece.
In March of 2010 I had the privilege of being a part of the “exploratory” team sent to Athens. Being in the city & seeing so many people lost & without hope, from young girls in the brothels selling their bodies during the day, to the transvestites on the street corners at 2am confused & shocked that I would take the time to get to know them, to the refugees in the feeding centers looking for a hot meal, or just the ordinary families on the metro, all of them wanting to be loved and valued. I knew then that I was to be a part of the church that brought the unconditional, life giving love of Jesus to this city.
So that is where my Adventure in Faith to Athens begins. I am fighting the good fight, trusting with “audacious” faith, that God’s word and promises are true! I have completed missionary training at Go To Nations, a missions sending organization that we are partnering with and I am now a full-time missionary with GTN to Celebration Athens. My role in Athens will be to build relationships, organize & lead devotional and discipleship groups, take part in evangelistic & other outreaches, and gather people together for worship.
I am super excited to see all that God is going to do. I know that without Him, I can do nothing! Please keep me in your prayers.