News & articles

Feisty, Fearless, and Faithful

25/6/2024

Greece is without doubt one of Europe’s most difficult mission fields. EMF missionary Leonidas Kollaros says: ‘The Greeks have been convinced by the Orthodox Church that they are the true Christians, and that the evangelical Church is a perverted and heretical form of Christianity.’ So when Evropi Tzeli relates how she and her late husband Evangelos stood firm in such a hostile situation, you want to listen well to her story. Zeal for the gospel oozes from every pore of this brave lady’s now rather frail body.

Evropi sat at her kitchen table recounting the life she husband had had together. He went Home in 2017, and she lives all alone,but this amazing lady’s eyes (now almost sightless) shone with joy, and her pain-racked body (now almost immobile) looked as if it wanted to dance with gratitude to the Lord for his goodness and abundant grace.

 

Picture a humble little white-washed cottage at the end of a bumpy lane on the outskirts of Volos, Greece. Now climb the rough steps outside the house that lead to its flat roof, and you’ll see just why Evropi Tzeli* and her late husband Evangelos Tzelis chose to live here. From this vantage point they could see the city they loved, in which they laboured for decades;  beyond the port city lay the shimmering Aegean Sea, a sea that the apostle Paul knew well on his travels as he took the gospel to this very land, one which has long since buried the true gospel beneath rites and traditions that have little to do with biblical Christianity.

 

The port city of Volos, as seen from Evropi's home

Evropi was only seventeen when she married Evangelos, EMF’s first student at its School of Biblical Studies in Watford, and then travelled to England with him in 1966 to prepare for service in what was, and still is, one of Europe’s hardest mission fields. She comes from a line of feisty, fearless evangelical women who knew what they believed and why they believed it, and who would joyfully have suffered any penalty imposed upon them by hostile authorities for sharing the truth they loved so much.

 

This member of the EMF family has not changed since her teenage years, because she has never ceased to be an evangelist. She is carrying on the gospel-spreading work that she and her ex-Jehovah’s Witness husband Evangelos began in those early days, first on foot, then on bikes, later on a motorbike, and eventually in a Mini, up mountains and into valleys,with the Good News in their hearts and on their lips. She still cares as deeply about the people around her as she did when she was a pastor’s wife in a pioneer church situation.

 

Now housebound, Evropi can barely see, and has multiple health issues. But there is not a care-giver, nor a service-provider, nor a cold caller, who does not hear about Evropi’ s Saviour. She is a telephone warrior, asking young call-centre operators what they know about Jesus Christ, and ringing Christians who are floundering, encouraging them by singing hymns over the landline. Her ophthalmologist travels many kilometres to treat her in her home, and never leaves without being challenged about his need of salvation.

 

Our sister’s life is hard, however. Just a few days ago she fell in her home and was on the floor for hours until she somehow managed to get to the phone and seek help. Rescuers had to break in to provide assistance. Will she be able to carry on living alone? Evropi hopes so, but the truth is that she can only survive with the help of others. This otherwise extremely strong woman is quite broken at the moment, uncertain as she is about her future. Will you pray for Evropi, a faithful servant of Jesus Christ?

* Wives in Greece do not use the final 's' in their husband's surname. So, although EMF supporters are familiar with our calling our sister 'Evropi Tzelis', it is not quite correct. She is in fact 'Evropi Tzeli'. But we have not changed the spelling in all our media, as folk may find it all a bit confusing!

Prayer Points

Please pray:

  • for gospel witness in Volos. The situation there is not at all encouraging
  • that Evropi may receive the care she needs, and have resources to pay for this
  • for more workers to be raised up to witness to hundreds of towns and villages in Greece with no gospel witness at all.