ShawnCuthill.com

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

In Ireland

Not sure how much internet access we will have while we're here, but we're safe and sound on the emerald isle.

Monday, August 30, 2004

On the road again

Well folks, we are off today on our homeword trek. Greece, Italy, England, Ireland. Won't be in touch for a few days so please pray for us as we travel.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

From all of us here on the team, to all of you who prayed and supported us every step of the way - Thank you.
We can feel your support through your prayers and we can't explain how priceless that is.
As a thank you gift, we wanted to make something special, so above is a picture of our island "Evia". Feel free to print it out as a thank you from all of us.

Photography- Shawn Cuthill
Digital Editing - Paul Roides

Thanks
Paul Roides

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Worship JAM-bo-Ree!!!

It's time to rock folks, tonight is the big worship celebration of all that the Lord has done. Stories, testimonies, pictures, music, prayer, preaching, bible reading, world flags around the building! We are going to celebrate what the Lord has done from noon till midnight! Then again tomorrow from noon till midnight!
Help us by thanking God for all he has done and giving Him the glory he deserves. There is a festive atmosphere in the air, reminiscent of the Old Testament Feasts! May He get the glory

Friday, August 27, 2004

Video 1

Shopping days = fun

Well today is the long awaited 27th of August, the absolutely FREE day to explore Athens and do as we please.

Veronica and the birthday girl Mel bought tickets for the men's volleyball semi-finals and blew some euros on clothes and such.

Channa and Danielle bought USA Semi-final basketball tickets for a ludicrous 80 euros, which is worth it for the match they are seeing.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with some relatives of mine then traveling to the main Olympic complex for some architectural photography. Along with Len, we got passed 2 sets of armed guards, solely for the purpose of photography. Amazing.

Shawn Hayley and Sylas went to Monnestiraki for some shopping fun.

Len was kind of all over the place, but he joined me to see the Olympic stadium. He is now practising for the worship session tonight.

In conclusion, a special note to parents - wire some money to your kids! We need it for gifts for you.

k.thx.bye

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Updates galore

<-- NEW PICTURES - CLICK ON LINK

You'll notice over the next few days that the post are fast and furious! We are back in Athens with unlimited Wireless internet! I will be posting as many pictures as I can in the next few days so hang tight and click on the link to the pictures! Keep checking back cause we are trying to also post videos! Took us 2 hours last night but we still couldn't figure out how to do it. Pray for us and keep checking in frequently for more pictures, stories, videos and reports to help praise our God for the great things He has done!

test: www.netsoc.ucd.ie/~oneup/Agia Anna1.AVI

Adventures in Halkida

Well, what can I say? It was a long strenious trip to the island of Evia. We took an excrutiating air-conditioned, reclining seat, train ride for 2 and half an hours. (Just for those of you who didn't get the joke, it wasn't bad). But anyways, i believe it was on the fourth day of being on the island (City Halikida), we did another round of handing out literature. But first I must tell you a little something from the day before... my awsome buddy Mel and I were handing out bibles, then Mel spotted an apartment and decided to distribute bibles there so, I continued on, but out of the blue this lady comes up to me and asks me if I was a Jehovah. Of course i replied "No." Then she gives me a nasty look and walks away and calls me a Jehovah anyways. People these days. So back to the next day, Shawn and I decided to buddy up for a little literature round-a-bouting. Shawn spots a nice teenager boy watching the ol' tube, he hands a bag through a balcony. Then catch this, out of no where the bag flies out of the window, along with a rather not so nice looking foot. Guess who?

The lady from the day before! Surprised?!! Well at least Shawn was because read closely, after the foot came, then, oh yes you better believe it... the HAND!!! She gave him a very fierce slap across the head! His hat practically pulling a triple axile. If i was not to witness this first act of harsh punishment, i would've been next because her hand was dancing a pretty nice tango around my head. I fortunalty didn't get hit as well. But please pray for this extremely couragous
women as she lives on with out knowing the gospel and love of Jesus Christ, but of only creepy priests who never shave. Just kidding, (well about the priest anyways). But all things good come to those who wait,and we had pretty good reception after that. Well that's what I have for you all back home, where ever home
really is... I love you all! A. Susan O you rock!! Thank you so much for the post, it made me feel very happy! Well Peace out. Easy.

Veronica

P.S. Mel's Mom, Mel is so having a birthday tomorrow! she's full of bologna!

Back in Athens

Shawn here, we just arrived back in Athens and are recovering before a time of sharing with the other 30 teams. More stories and pictures very soon. Thank you one and all for your prayers, the battle is over, now the celebration begins!!!

we're baaaack..in Athens

Well first...THANK YOU..to all our friends and family back home, whom have been praying for us!!! Your prayers were very much appreciated!!!
We have just returned from up north in Aghios Anna and Pefki and many small towns in between!
We stayed (camping style) with a wonderful family up in Aghios Anna. Christina and her husband and family fed us all like royalty and stayed up each night, anxiously awaiting our return from each day of evangelism. We shared stories of conversations and people to pray for!
Divine appointments abounded!! Paul took on a Professor of Theology, I spoke to an Agnostic from France (yeah French town) and scared the begeebees outta him ;-) Channa and Danielle (I believe that was the partnership) had a wonderful encounter too..and I will let them tell you about that...don't wanna steal anyone's thunder..I am just proud of em all!!!!
We went into this one town where I swore was 100% tourists and I thought for sure people would blow us off...BUT the Lord is GOOD...people came up to us and asked for bags of literature!!
The stories were amazing!! We met the "Prophet Elias" hmmmmm interesting..crazy yes, but interesting! I tangled with some thorny vines..they won!
We went to the hot springs in Adipsos and I EVEN SWAM IN THE OCEAN!
Shawn and Hayley did an awesome job of being our fearless/prayerful leaders! And Linda did a great job at driving and keeping all safe :-)
There are soo many people that we talked to and that need prayers! The Greek people are incredibly hospitable and the land is beautiful. Please pray for Max (the Agnostic from France) and Thimios (the man from the internet cafe in Halkida...I did have a talk with him and I know THAT was a divine appointment..PLEASE pray for him as the seeds were sown into his heart!)
I miss my family and friends...thank you soooooo much for all your love and support! And to let you know..I am not having a birthday this year...maybe next year ;-)
LOVE, Melanie

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Amazingness

First of all, sorry for te lack of updates this week. We left our Internet haven in favour of smaller towns. But it was a worthy sacrifice. These past few days have been our most succesful yet. On our way to Agios Anna, we stopped in every small town we could to lighten our load of literature. The results were incredible.

This one town's orthodox church had a decaying body in the middle, which was apparently some man who they worship as a saint and whose body is indestructable. It honestly FELT like satan's stronghold. We were met with some harsh opposition in that town ( Police were called ) We actually got the argument on video which i hope you will all one day see. But the amount of literature that we've passed out during the last 48 hours is breathtaking, just like the views of the sea from the mountains we drive through.

We met one lady, who we will vist again later tonight ,who was absoleutly DESPERATE for the Lord. It was the one point that my translation felt the strongest it had ever been. Mel told me about the prayers from her Mom's church. Thank you so much.

Pray for tonight that we'll be able to reach this woman for good. Now off to distribute some more literature.

Paul Roides

Monday, August 23, 2004

Up North

Well folks, it's Shawn here on the wireless connection for probably the last time in a while. This morning we are picking up 2 rental cars and driving up north to Agia Anna, Pefki, Limni and Edipsos to give them the gospel too. A lady named Christina and her wonderful family have offered for us to stay with them up there, and so today we are on our way. Please pray for us:
1. Travelling - driving in Greece can be difficult - Linda & I will be the drivers
2. Contacts - as we drive up we will be dropping off literature
3. Decisions - lost souls for Christ, and some team members for decisions to serve God as missionaries in the future

Here are a few final pictures from the laptop...i guess you could pray for internet access while we're up north :)

Danielle with the empty boxes of bibles. A few stories here:
1. A lady refused a packet from Paul yesterday because "her friend called her and warned her about us". Seems word is spreading that the "heretics" are in town :) We were able to give out over 600 packs in one day.

We were able to share at the Evangelical church on Sunday. I spoke, we sang as a group and then Channa rocked the house as usual :)

We love you all and are exceedingly thankful for your participation with us in the gospel!

Sunday, August 22, 2004

The latest muahahaha

Well I should first say, HELLO MYRA AND ROGER!!! Mom, I did not nor cannot find their comment could you forward it to me??
It is the last night in Halkida.
Interesting point to note for this evening...
Veronica and myself went out to evangelize. There were simple rules to follow and we managed to break them all...NOT intentionally!
1) Girls stick to preaching to females
We ran into a few men who happened to come from Egypt and Albania...well Veronica speaks a bit of Arabic and I happen to understand some French and Itlaian. The Lord provided us with eager listeners who just happened to be Arabic/English and French!
It was an amazing time..and I even encouraged the French speaking man to get in contact with Hellenic ministries and request French material! He understood the concept of salvation and says it is something that he wants :-)

2) Don't go down dark alley ways
Veronica felt led down an alley and we ran into a small group of men and they were sitting outside a cafe...the owner gave us Coca Cola and we had a discussion with them. They also just happened to speak..Arabic/Italian and French! They were interested and said they knew of others who would appreciate literature. We were able to distribute about seven packages to them alone..they read through the literature and were very pleased!

It was a very eventful evening and it was as much uplifting to us as it was to those we witnessed to...we had our prayers answered..AND the Lord took care of the language barriers! Hooray for living in a French community ;-)

Tonight also held much team bonding and we each built eachother up and I believe that did help us as we each went into the evening!

Love you all and miss you all loads! Thank you so much for all the responses..I can't stress enough how much I am thankful for each of you :-)
By the way..each time we come to the internet cafe there is a particular worker here who I have been talking to..I just gave him a literature packet and he very happily accepted it! Here is praying to the Lord encouraging his heart to read the literature and accept it's truths!

Love, Melanie

Wireless for a minute!

Hey folks, Shawn here. I just this moment got a wireless internet connection so I wanted to post some pictures of our island Evia! I have also updated the statistics to the left, as we handed out at least 600 olympic packs with bibles! Thank you for praying!

PICTURES MOVED TO PICTURE SITE

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Hello Timmins Peeps :-)

Thank you for praying for all of us! I am very thankful and feel very loved to hear so many comments from friends and family! Our team is very much appreciative!
Love you Spud...Happy Birthday to Amanda if you are reading this!
Last night was the first night of proclaiming the gospel in dramatic form (here)and Len did wicked with his guitar playing and Channa with her vocals!
We did balloon animals and attracted quite a crowd! There even were a few conversations..however, the language barrier is an issue..but the Lord can use us in whatever way he chooses..so GO LORD GO!!
Today, we went door to door handing out literature and that went very well..the fruits of the labour will be seen one day!
The heat could have wrecked us, however we made it..through the Lord's grace! This is the best weight loss program ever ;-)
I love and miss my family and am thankful always for your prayers and love!
Everyone else out there checking out these posts...THANK YOU!!! It is awesome to hear that our blog is being read by people all over..SPREAD THE WORD!!!
LOVE YA!!
Melanie

Friday, August 20, 2004

PHASE TWO: PROCLAMATION

Today we started evangelism with the usual 56.7 km hike to the Greek Evangelical Church here in Halkitha to pick up some literature for tonight's proclamation evangelism.

With butterflies in our stomach but the Lord on our minds, we hit the streets. We always feel like contestants on Fear Factor as they walk to their next objective- except instead of competing $50 000, we compete with Satan for the souls of the lost. Man that sounds epic and in essence, it is.

Isaiah 58 teaches the foundation of fasting. One of God's requirements during the experience is to give your meal to those cannot afford it. Today, some Greek gypsy chidren were approached by the team. We asked them what they'd like from the local fast food store. After we took their orders, they followed us and wanted to spent some time with us! They watched the premier performance of "The Jacket of Sin" while clutching onto their balloon animals made by Veronica. Everyone has a purpose on our team and it's great to see that God gave everyone a job.

We started PHASE TWO: PROCLAMATION at 9pm, knowing that dozens of other teams were doing the same at the same time, a feeling of empowerment. ( Jonathan's brilliant idea ) The first spot we found was by the salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea, a truly scenic location. Although the restaurants blared their music louder than usual, we went on with the program and were met with minial crowds. We were somewhat discouraged and went to look for an alternate location to win some souls.

We ended up in this platia loaded with children who flocked to Veronica and the gang for balloon animals. When we perfomed "The Jacket of Sin," they stuck around to watch and ALL wanted literature packets! We gave out all 40 tonight- a huge encouragement. The team then gathered for a huddle where we thanked God for our success. This left us with a feeling of accomplishment and a great end to the night.

I would like to bring forward a request for prayer right now. I am responsible for the translation of Shawn's messages. My Greek is very limited when it comes to translating. I have the words in my head as I understand them when they are spoken to me. But when it comes to accessing them for my own use, I come up blank. It's like they are encrypted files inside my head. Shawn is somewhat forced to dumb down his messages for translation. This was semi-acceptable today as the crowds consisted mainly of chilren, but when we deal with a adults, this will not suffice. So here's the deal:

TOMORROW : 2PM ( for Canadians ) PRAY FOR THE KEY TO THOSE WORDS IN MY HEAD! I know that God can accomplish anything and we desperately need this. Pray hard! Pray with all your strength! Pray without ceasing!

Paul Roides

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Fasting = Over

The fast is over. 3 cheers for that. We learned a lot through it, though, and most of the team members plan to do it again.

We've taken to eating the same things at the same restaurants everyday. When the price is right, it's most definitely right. We eat very well for under 5 euros. In the Greek culture, eating the same thing 3 nights in a row is a GOOD thing!

We were met with some confusion today in our plans to evangalize this island. First, we were met with the authoritative ways of the Dutch sea captain, Foko, who scolded us for being 20 minutes late for our meeting. He was even mad when I suggested that he calm down and forget about it. Strange character that Foko. We are still deciding whether to stay here in Halkitha, a large city, or go to a smaller town in accordance with Hellenic Ministries wishes. If our choice was the latter, we would be forced to leave our hostel, rent 2 sub-compact automobiles, and head up north. It would be as those cheesy Christian books say "breaking our comfort zone." But hey! Who am I to screw with God's plans! If he wants us to pack up and head north, so be it!

For those of you who are a little confused at the schedule, here's a breakdown.

3 days of prayer and fasting ( completed )
3 days of proclamation evangelism ( starting tomorrow )
3 days of literature distribution ( we have approximately 1500 )

This may be switched around so we can distribute literature to Halkitha. Keep praying. Pray especially for rest... One of those insanely heavenly rests that you get when you sleep for like 56 hours after getting a massage and eating your favourite meal.

In conclusion, bye.

Paul Roides

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Arrival in Evia

We're here settled in our island of Evia, although it doesn't feel much like an Island. It's more of a large body of land connected to the mainland by San Francisco-like bridges. Pretty cool. Our "hostel" which is more like a ghetto hotel, is actually pretty nice; much better than a campground. We're surrounded by an awesome bakery and an internet cafe. What more could we ask for?

Today is our day of fasting, although we ate breakfast and are planning on eating dinner. I know what you skeptics are thinking, " That's not much of a fast. They are infidels!"...but we spent nearly 4 hours in study of God's word and in prayer on the steps of Evia's largest Orthodox church which overlooks the city of Halkida and that's whats most important. We plan on doing the same tommorow. It's a great way to focus. When hunger kicks in, you focus on God, then grab a litre of Fanta.

Getting pictures and videos online is going to be alot more difficult here on the island. In Athens, Shawn's laptop had access to the net. Here in Evia, it doesn't. This means that we need to look into alternative ways to get items off his hard drive and onto the blog. We apoligize for this as we know how much joy the pictures bring you. We do however, have a picture from the final day of Operation Gideon where we were commisioned.

That's all for today. Continue praying.

Paul Roides

Monday, August 16, 2004

For the Sword of the Lord and for Greece

Yesterday was the "commissioning" service. Peter Grant preached on the 2 crowns in the Bible, the one a king receives, and the one a victor receives, like the ones they are using in the Olympics this year! What a great illustration of the crowns we receive from the Lord! Next we gathered in a circle and had communion, then every team came up and was prayed for inside the circle. Then each team leader was given a "crown":

Quite a night!
Please pray today as we travel to our island to begin our ten days of outreach!
We hope to have internet access at our hostel, so pray we can update the site! Sorry for the famine of posts yesterday. Blogger wasn't co-operating with us.

Shawn Cuthill

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Thanks for Praying

Hello folks, I know it's Sunday today and so hopefully alot of people will be praying! Just wanted to publicly say thank you to everyone who has posted comments, printed updates for churches or emailed. We are very grateful for your prayers! We are just starting the battle, as we head our to our island tomorrow! Please maintain the amazing prayer support! We love you all - Shawn for the team

Pages