Hellenic Ministries hosted the "Fire that Unites Us" Memorial Celebration on October 27 & 28, to commemorate the one year home-going of HM's founder, Costas Macris.  During these two dynamic days the atmosphere was charged with blessing as hundreds of Athenians gathered for this special event. The Lord's presence was profoundly evident! Many witnessed the event as inspirational, challenging, refreshing, and convicting. The Lord's fingerprints marked all the details.  It was an absolutely beautiful occasion in every conceivable way. The event was preceded by an evening gathering of 20 pastors and lay workers with the purpose of prayer and worship.

Tom Mahairas from CitiVision in New York City was the featured guest speaker.  He shared two powerful messages on commitment to Christ and missions, focusing on the need for unity in the Body of Christ and a total "selling-out" to the Lord.   The first night was for the general public remembering the life and work of Costas and Alky, while the second evening was dedicated to the youth with the purpose to challenge them for complete dedication to God. It's not enough to know Christ as 'Savior';  Our desire is to see young people confess him as 'Lord'.  It was reported that 30-40 young people committed their lives to carry the baton from Costas through a life of surrender to the Lord while another 15 made decisions to accept Christ as Savior.  Even parents came forward to release their kids to the Lord.  It will be an event not soon forgotten as the Lord truly and amazingly blessed us in this extraordinary celebration. The attendance ranged between 300-400 people per night completely packing out the conference room at the Hilton Hotel in Athens with many left standing.  (In 1974, Costas and Alky had rented the Hilton conference hall in a historic evangelistic program highlighting their work of many years in Irian Jaya - (West Papua).  While that meeting commenced the work of Costas and Alky in Greece, this one closed a wonderful chapter of Costas' life and ministry.)

We are thankful for the 120 volunteers that donated their time and strength to make this event possible and for the special donation that helped to make it happen. These wonderful young volunteers displayed the beauty of unity as the body of Christ in all the areas of service including decoration, promotion, setup, music, prayer, drama, worship and video productions, as well as translation, ushering and clean up. Numerous churches were represented in the planning, organizing and performing.  A church in Corinth even dedicated itself to prayer and fasting for the week leading up to the program.

Hellenic Ministries is honored to serve alongside such choice Christians. We pray that the flame carried by HM's founder Costas Macris and sparked in the hearts of many who are following and were present on those two days will grow into a mighty fire that will sweep Greece and the surrounding nations.