Athens Greece, ARC, Lost Coin, and Russia?

:: Athens Refugee Center ::

Pretty soon after I arrived here in Moscow, I was given a heads up to an exciting opportunity within our team here in Moscow. As I have spoken to many of you about, International Teams: Russia has recently (the end of last year) come into fruition. IT Russia will focus on sending Russians to the four corners of the world. They had planned to take a trip to Athens Greece to work with the Athens Refugee Center (ARC) and with the ministry Lost Coin, which reaches out to women involved in the sex trade and trafficking. Prostitution is legal in Greece, but many of those involved are not registered properly, and therefore do not have access to the rights of the unions or health benefits. Read about that here. Download a PDF that profiles Lost Coin's ministry here.

The trip last January did not pan out. The Russian's were denied the proper visas required to let them travel from Russia to Greece. Only one member of the team (an American) was able to go. The team has not lost hope in being able to move forward with this ministry however, and are currently in process of trying again.

I have been asked to join the team in going to Athens, Greece! There is currently six people who are planning to make the trip. Four Russians, Stacie Shopp and myself.

Specific Prayer is needed for these areas:

The travel visas for the Russians: It is a cumbersome process to get travel arrangements to most places in the world for Russians. We have applied with a tour agency to Greece. The visas required are simple tourist visas, and even those are a pain.

The cost: It is a bit higher then we were hoping. Most of the Russians already had about 800 USD raised from last time, the cost now is around 1200 USD. I will need to supplement my trip with little extra as well. Most of it I can extract from unused funds in my budget, but not quite all of it.

The trip will happen at the end of August, the trip is from August 29th - September 8th.

I will post more details and exact costs soon. Thanks for praying.

If you would like to give, please send support to:

International Teams
411 W River Rd.
Elgin, IL 60123

Please put a little note that says: 'Russian Short Term Trip to Greece.'
You can also give directly to me by putting: Chris Warren in your memo line.

Tagged: Missions, Greece, Prostitution, The Road