June 03, 2008

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,


We are sending you our latest news from the mission work in Greece.  Praise the Lord for His many blessings as we teach Jesus and His Word to those who are still in darkness and without the HOPE to live forever.

Photo Gallery

To make this newsletter load faster on your screen, we have separated the supporting photographs into a photo gallery slideshow.

The 6 individual albums can be displayed by clicking the following links:

Five Souls were Baptized into Christ

The angels in heaven and all of us are rejoicing to see that God's holy Word brings precious souls to Jesus.  Natasha Glushko and Liutmila Savsenko gave their lives to Jesus, and I had the privilege to baptize them in the River Jordan in Israel, in April 2008.  They are both from Ukraine but they live in Athens and speak Greek and Russian.

Natasha is a journalist for a Russian newspaper in Athens, and Liutmila is a teacher of chemistry.  They are good friends and both of them are on fire for the Lord and His Truth. 

It was an unforgettable event.  In the River Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, we had the joy to baptize our two sisters for the remission of their sins.  They surrendered their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and now they are coming faithfully and with GREAT JOY to our assembly.

Irena has been studying God's word with several members of our church in Athens.  When brother, Sammy Flannary, came to teach recently, at the Sunset Bible Institute, he baptized Irena after our Wednesday Bible Study.

Patience is a Nigerian woman who attends the new congregation on the island of Crete where John Adasoye is preaching.  Alexander Melirrytos with his wife Eleni and a group of American Christians visited the church in Crete and Alexander baptized Patience.  Since last year about 15 people have dedicated their lives to Jesus and were baptized in Crete.  Thank you for your prayers.

Mayia a Bulgarian lady was baptized by Christo at the congregation in Omonia in Athens.

Sixty-Seven from the Church in Athens visit Israel

For the last two years several of the members were asking me to put together a church group to visit the Holy Lands where our Saviour Jesus Christ lived, taught, healed the sick, died and was resurrected.  I was surprised at the number that wanted to come.  I was expecting around 15-20 people would be interested, but 67 were so excited to fulfill a lifelong dream.  In the group we had Greeks, Russians, Romanians, Ukrainians, Philipinos and Americans.  It was a spiritual and very educational study tour of Israel. 

Wherever we travelled, we could study the Bible.  In Tiberius, Capernaum, Cana, Nazareth, Jericho, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem.  In the evenings we had Bible studies answering questions and we had daily devotionals.Two precious souls were baptized for the forgiveness of sins in the Jordan River.

I thank God for allowing me to lead this Christian group to Israel.  For most of them, it was a life dream that became a reality.  We studied the scriptures together, we enjoyed Christian fellowship, prayed together and our faith was renewed as we meditated upon the sufferings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Here is the translation, in English, of our new sister, Natasha’s impressions from our trip in Israel:

"It had long been my dream to visit the land, where once was born, lived, preached, taught, was crucified and resurrected our Lord Jesus Christ. At last, with God's help, I headed for the Holy Land with a group of pilgrims.

We were reading from the scriptures, touching the places where our Lord endured trials and agony, traced His way down Via Dolorosa, which is called "the road of the cross".  It culminated at Calvary where Jesus was crucified. We spent some time at the place of His ascension to heaven and took the opportunity to see the tomb of the Lord.

We were blessed to visit the birth town of Jesus, Bethlehem, as well as Jericho near the mountain where Jesus fasted for 40 days and was tempted."

Teaching God’s Word in Athens

It is a great joy for me to preach every Sunday for the Greek, Bulgarian, Russian, or English services.  Sometimes I have to preach 3 or 4 times on a Sunday.  At the end of the day I might be exhausted but very happy that I had the privilege to teach God's holy Word to the nations.  Please continue to pray for us and the work in Greece.

Guest Speakers for the Church in Athens

The last few Sundays we had excellent gospel preachers who came to visit us and preach for our congregation.

Sammy Flannary, a teacher for the Sunset International Bible Institute and a gospel preacher gave us a good lesson on "The Law in the Old Testament". He also conducted a three-day seminar for a charismatic Nigerian church in Athens concerning the "Power of the Holy Spirit in our Lives".  I enjoyed listening and learning from our brother Flannary who is a great servant of Jesus.

Jerry Heiderich, We were happy to have Jerry Heiderich, missionary to Brazil and his son, Chris, come through Athens last week.  Jerry has been supported by the Prestoncrest Church of Christ for several years to perform counseling services for missionaries and church members in Brazil.  His son, Chris, just completed a semester at ACU's program in Oxford, England and spent a few days visiting Greece.  Jerry spoke at our Russian worship service on Sunday evening and gave an inspirational message on the importance of human touch.

Larry Foster, spoke to us on Biblical archaeology and the historicity of the Bible.  Through the presentation we were able to see the archaeological sites in Israel and verify that the Bible is very historic, authentic and true.

As you know many Russians were not taught that the Bible was inspired by God and they need historical evidence.

Francis Habashy, who is a preacher in Cairo, Egypt came to spend two weeks in Greece.  I arranged for brother Habashy to speak in Arabic for a group of Arabic speaking people from Iraq, Somalia, Marocco, Algeria and Egypt.  On Monday night we went to Evripidou.  Doug Reeves, Dean of Sunset International Bible Institute, was with us as well. On Wednesday night he preached for the refugees at the Samaritan Refugee Center.  Then we assisted in feeding the refugees.

Dr. David Burks, president of Harding University, preached for our English speaking congregation on May 25 on the subject of "We are the Light of the World".  Dr. Burks brought 24 members of his family (children and grandchildren) for a 10 day journey to Greece. Debbie and I enjoyed being with them on a four day trip to the Biblical city of Ephesus, the island of Patmos where John received the Revelation, and the islands of Rhodes, Crete and Santorini.

Christo Arnautov returns to Bulgaria

Christo Arnautov has been the preacher for the Bulgarian congregation of the Omonia Church for several years.  Brother Christo and his wife, Jana, did a dynamic work among the Bulgarian population in Athens and, through their hard work, the Lord created a strong Bulgarian congregation.

We ask God's blessings upon them as they leave us and pray that they will continue to work for the Lord wherever they go.

We now have to preach for the Bulgarian Church.  Please pray for us as we find the BEST ways to serve Jesus.

Stephen and Debbie Return

Debbie returned to Greece on May 4 from her trip to the States for the birth of Nikki and Matt's baby.  She stayed to take care of the baby for a while after Nikki started back to work.  She also went to Texas to see Melody and Andy and our other two grandchildren, Jackson and Zoe.

Stephen just arrived two weeks ago after finishing his semester at ACU.  He will be here until July then will return to take the remaining classes he needs to graduate in August.  He is enjoying seeing some of his old school friends, but is also studying for his GRE exams for graduate school.

Seminar in Corinth

June 25 - 28  we will hold our 4th annual Christian conference.  I have spent the last couple of months making preparations for this event.  There has been great participation each year from the Omonia congregation and many others.  I have invited speakers from other countries as well as Greece and have extended invitations broadly.  It will be held again at a beautiful hotel on the seaside, close to Corinth.

Trip to the U.S. in July

We will be traveling to the U.S. on July 8th where I will be one of the keynote speakers for the Global Missions Conference in Arlington, TX.  On this trip we will also stop to visit Debbie's father in Virginia, who underwent open heart surgery in September at the age of 80.  We have not seen him yet since the surgery.

Since Stephen is supposed to graduate from ACU in August, we have arranged to attend the ceremony and return to Greece immediately afterward on August 13th.

Nikki and Matt come to Greece in September

Our daughter Nikki and son-in-law, Matt and their new baby girl, Ashtyn, are planning to come to Greece in September rather than July.  They are waiting for their house to sell and, as everyone knows, the housing market has reached a crisis point.  Please pray that their house will sell soon so they may come and start their ministry with youth camps and the young immigrant population in Greece.


Brethren, we are looking forward to seeing you soon.

We appreciate, very much, your love to us; and we thank you for your letters, cards, phone calls and support.

TOGETHER we can continue the ministry of the gospel of Christ.


In His Service,


Dino and Debbie Roussos

 

DINO & DEBBIE ROUSSOS
P.O. Box 70127
Glyfada, Greece 16610
Tel : 011 (30) 6944 344167
Fax : 011 (30) 210 8974405
E-mail : DinoRoussos@gmail.com

 

PS: Don't forget the photo gallery slideshow.