SONSHIP STORIES:

KOSTAS V.

ATHENS, GREECE

“As a young man, just before going into the military, my best friend died. Then, my girlfriend and I broke up. I’m in the army, where I don’t want to be, and I’m grieving loss. So I was so angry. I think depression had become deeper and deeper. It was literally a challenge for me to be there and not harm myself or others.”

“After the military, I spent most weekends drinking. But one Sunday, I woke up with this feeling that I needed to go to church. In Greece, there are many orthodox churches, but I felt something drawing me to this new evangelical church. I sat down, hiding among the people around me. A preacher from South Africa was there, and through the Greek translator he gave a sermon, then said, ‘I want a guy between 20 and 30 years old that doesn't have a wife and kids to stand up and say that he's ready to give his life to Jesus.’”

“So I'm there and I know that this guy is talking to me. I know it. But I’m hiding. And he said, ‘I'm waiting for one more.’ This went on for minutes, and I started shaking, holding back tears. I finally jumped up, and it was like a hundred kilos of sin stuck on the chair and I could fly. I was so free. I felt that if I jumped, I would fly. I understood that this time, this day, it was made for me. October 12, 2003. That’s when God said to me, ‘Let me set you free from some things.’ I stopped the alcohol, the smoking, the drugs—I was so in love with Christ.”

“Prior to attending my first Canyon Pathways retreat, I was very tired from everything that was happening in life at that moment. My body was already too tired. So I was looking to find some rest, some physical rest, you know. So a brother suggested the upcoming retreat because I’d said, ‘I want to have more involvement with other men, share life with them, share God, share experiences.’”

“When I arrived at the retreat, one of the first things Noel said to me was, ‘Here you're gonna rest. You're here so you can rest. You don't need to do anything else.’ And it was a hundred percent that. I slept well, even with the physical pain I was dealing with, had good food and very nice fellowship, prayer, and during the week, my back pain just started leaving! So my first impression was not just positive, but literally a cultural change, that we can do that, we can rest.”