114: From Apartheid to Faith, Effie Damianidou (Cyprus, South Africa)

What if the road out of faith is the very path God uses to lead you home? 

Effie’s journey begins in a sun-soaked Cypriot village and detours through apartheid-era South Africa, where barred windows, schoolyard prejudice, and a harsh home life force hard questions about God’s goodness. How can a good God cause such prejudice?

Watch Effie's faith come alive after a friend's prayer to end nightmares. And 

We walk with Effie as Scripture comes alive—offering a clear-eyed account of the fall, a compelling vision of the image of God.

Then, years in Chicago’s club scene pull her far from what she once knew. When everything unravels, an unlikely person through another dream lure Effie back to walking with Jesus. Effie returns—not with fireworks, but with a steady yes to a Father who gives more than second chances.

The show concludes with Effie's new biblical convictions on suffering and how to face it with God. 

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’ve gone too far or asked how faith speaks to racism and suffering, this conversation is for you. Listen, share with someone who needs hope, and if this story resonates, subscribe and leave a review.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Effie’s Story Begins
• 2:32 Childhood In Cyprus And Orthodoxy
• 3:45 Moving To South Africa And Apartheid
• 5:45 Abuse, Alienation, And Doubt About God
• 8:55 Nightmares, Lisa’s Prayer, And Youth Group
• 12:25 A Supernatural Encounter And New Faith
• 14:55 Scripture, Calling, And Racial Reconciliation
• 16:41 Family Conflict And Honoring Parents
• 18:12 Walking Away And Years Of Turmoil
• 20:34 Chicago Party Scene And Hitting Bottom
• 22:31 Jean’s Dream And Returning To Christ
• 24:35 Grace Beyond Second Chances
• 26:06 Calling, Studies, And Ministry
• 27:33 Advice For Doubting Young Believers
• 28:44 Image Of God Versus Apartheid
• 30:12 Prayer For Cyprus And Closing

Transcript

Announcer: 1:02

Welcome to One80. Transforming testimonies from next door to across the globe. Be amazed at how God works to bring people to Himself. Share today's One80 with a friend. It might be the best news they hear today.

Effie Damianidou: 1:20

And she told me that her husband was a pastor. And I said to her that God and I at one point were on speaking terms, but we're not on speaking terms anymore. That's the way I put it. And she kind of said, Oh, okay, why don't you come home and talk to my husband? Because I just had so many questions.

Margaret Ereneta: 1:51

See how God brought her back through many miraculous prayer warriors. This is your host, Margaret Ereneta. Welcome to Effie's One80.

Effie Damianidou: 2:04

I um originally from Cyprus. I was born there, and uh my dad was a school teacher, elementary education teacher. So I had a very sort of idyllic childhood up to the age of around six or seven. Sort of what you would imagine, uh, even though Cyprus isn't Greek technically, it's its own country, a sort of an idyllic little village. You know, you walk around barefoot and go to the beach and everybody knows one another. As far as my spiritual background goes, my parents were very staunch Greek Orthodox, you know, everybody in Cyprus is.

Effie Damianidou: 2:40

So I had some introduction to God, but my view of him was that he was sort of distant, hard to please, and there were sort of things that you had to do in order to please him. So I never actually, even though I knew that there was a God and I believed that there was a God and I knew about the Bible, we never read it or anything. So I I sort of had this view of God as a distant, inapproachable God that was hard to please.

Effie Damianidou: 3:07

But we had a good family life at the time and just had a pleasant childhood until my dad took a job when I was seven. So we moved to Durban, South Africa. And then everything really changed because I went from this uh little village to a city with bars on the windows, you know, for safety. And then I got thrown in the deep end when was sent to a school where the only spoke English and I didn't speak English at the time. So I had a really difficult time just adapting all around. And I think that really affected me. And I think there was a lot of this was in the apartheid era, right, of South Africa.

Margaret Ereneta: 3:45

I asked Effie to explain to us what apartheid is, and you'll notice, and I'm gonna say it the American way. My apologies to people who are used to saying it the right way.

Effie Damianidou: 3:55

So apartheid was a political system that was legislated where there was complete separation between different people of color. So in fact, we everybody had an ID card that stated your race, and the different races were not to mix. So there was whites, then there were the blacks, and then there were what I call colored, which were mixed race, and then there were the Indians.

Effie Damianidou: 4:19

But by legislation, you didn't use the same bathrooms, you did not use the same buses, and you did not go to the same schools, did not live in the same areas, could not date, or marry, of course. That was all against the law. So, you know, you you you have interaction with one another, but you keep separate.

Effie Damianidou: 4:34

And that was legislated, otherwise you got fined, went to jail, there was some kind of punishment. And then at the time there was the I think they were called the ANC that were uh trying to turn things around, and Nelson Mandela ended up getting imprisoned. There was just kind of sometimes acts of violence both ways: acts of resistance, then the government and the police shutting those down. So it there was just turmoil all the time. And I think obviously the church did not do a good job with this because they had their own theology of why this was okay, the separation was okay.

Margaret Ereneta: 5:12

Next, Effie shares how apartheid affected her faith.

Effie Damianidou: 5:16

There was suffering externally and internally, right? In my own home, there was just a lot of turmoil. I had a father that was very harsh. He had survived polio, he had suffered a lot himself, but tended to be pretty abusive. So there was just turmoil in in my own home, right? How can a good God allow me to be treated this way?

Effie Damianidou: 5:36

And then there was just turmoil outside of the home that how could a good God allow, because what people don't realize is that there wasn't just prejudice against black people, there was a lot of prejudice against immigrants too. So there was just things that I'd be told at school or the way that I was treated, or things that I was told, right? You might be white still, but you bought on the totem pole. So prejudice that I experienced, and then also seeing how other races were just, you know, everybody was just even among the black people, the tribal clashes that would occur, right? Between different African tribes.

Effie Damianidou: 6:10

And I just thought, if there was a good God, why does everybody hate each other? How how can there be a good God? What does it mean God created? I mean, honestly, I would think you didn't create something very nice. And there was just a lot of uh input from outside sources that I was trying to reconcile. For example, even though it was a public school, we would have a general assembly every morning where we sang a hymn and read from the Bible. And some of the things that I thought are kind of funny.

Effie Damianidou: 6:36

For example, I didn't understand why they were praying to God anyway, because he only spoke Greek, of course. So they were praying in English. So what was the point? You know, he couldn't hear them or understand them. So that was one factor. I it was the first time that I was introduced to anybody outside of a Greek, little Greek language or Greek Orthodoxy trying to commune with God and doing it very differently than what I was used to. And then the other input was just all the political upheaval and just seeing kind of the ugliness, you know, of a part hate and not understanding if God was good, why people didn't get along or hated each other like they did. And there was just a lot of uncertainty, a lot of violence that was going on that was very unsettling. And at the same time, our home life started unraveling a bit.

Effie Damianidou: 7:21

My parents were gone a lot, and I think they were feeling the stresses of the cultural adaptation and working a lot. So we didn't really have like a cohesive family life anymore. And I think by the time I was 10, I just decided that they couldn't be a God. There was no God. And one of the factors that went into that as well was that I would go, and this isn't to dishonor Greek Orthodoxy in any way.

Effie Damianidou: 7:48

I'm just saying that me personally, I did what I was told to do, which was to go, you know, pray to the saints, pray to Mary, and I I couldn't connect with God. There were no answers at all. So actually, really young, by the age of 10, I decided there really isn't a God at all. You know, I tried to read the Bible, didn't know what it was about. So I started in Genesis, didn't really make sense, so I gave up on that. And then uh by the time 15 came around, I was even more disillusioned. You know, I was having like suicidal ideation by that time.

Margaret Ereneta: 8:23

Surrounding all this darkness, there were glimmers of hope, and Effie talks about two of them. One actually is when she saw evil in the world, and the second is a friend who couldn't lie, listen in.

Effie Damianidou: 8:35

The one thing that kept getting to me was that I was very conscious of the fact that there was a spiritual realm. I mean, this was Africa, right? So there were some supernatural things that I had seen, and I couldn't get rid of that feeling. And in a roundabout way, I started reasoning that if there was a devil or dark spiritual forces, the only book that talks about them is the Bible. So if the Bible talks about the fact that there are evil sources or a devil, then maybe the Bible is also true in saying that there's a God.

Effie Damianidou: 9:08

So I was at that point around the age of 15 when I was put next to a girl. Her name was Lisa Kohler, and we all thought that she was weird because she was a Christian. We all knew that she was religious and did really weird stuff, like refuse to lie. She just kind of talked about God in a different way than I'd heard anybody, like she knew him, like he talked back to her, which made her seem even more strange.

Effie Damianidou: 9:34

But what happened at the time is that I was having really bad nightmares. I I would almost dread going to sleep. And she asked me one day, you know, you just seem really tired. Are you okay? And I told her, I'm just having these horrible nightmares and I'm not sleeping well. And she said to me, you know, um, there could be kind of a spiritual element to your dreams. And I know God and He has power over anything, especially something spiritual. So she goes, Do you mind if I pray for you that the nightmare stops? So I was like, oh, sure, not expecting that she was gonna like pause right where she was and pray with me right there and then. So that's what she did. And that night, the nightmare stopped.

Effie Damianidou: 10:13

I didn't have another nightmare. And and it they just completely stopped, like somebody had flicked a switch. So at this point, she really had my attention. You know, who who was this girl, who was this God that she was uh talking about. So she invited me to go to youth group with her um that Friday night. And it was just a non-denominational church, a very different experience. I was kind of looking around thinking, what is wrong with these people and their preoccupation with the ceiling? Because they had their hands lifted and were looking up and you know, talking to God. And I I just thought I I was so just th thrown, thrown back, you know, just didn't understand what was going on.

Effie Damianidou: 10:50

But but at the same time, something, I just felt something just tugging at my heart. Okay, simultaneously, I'm gonna leave you hanging with what happened that night. But simultaneously, I had a religious education teacher called Miss Hedley, another person that I thought was strange because she talked about God as if she knew him and as he really existed and was a caring God. But she was genuinely born again. She really knew the Lord. I know now in retrospect, she was going rogue instead of teaching us the religious education curriculum that she had, she was reading us crossing the switchblade.

Effie Damianidou: 11:26

So I had actually met with her a couple of times and had questions, and she had said, you know, if you want to pray to become, and I just that freaked me out, and I ran out of the classroom. But she did tell me read the Bible, start with John. So I was trying, but I don't, I'm like, who's John? I knew nothing. And why am I reading this? I, you know, again, like I wasn't making the connection. But I I in retrospect, what I found out afterwards is that she was praying for me and Lisa was praying for me.

Margaret Ereneta: 11:53

Now we're back to the fateful night. Listen in, it's so cool how it's different for every believer.

Effie Damianidou: 12:00

So, what happened that Friday night is that there was a fresco. I remember I was facing the stage, and there was a fresco on the left-hand side on the wall, and it was just kind of a painting, just a very simple painting of the Lord all in white with glory behind him and just stretching out his hands. It's hard not to talk about what happened that night because I get so emotional about it. It was such a miraculous experience.

Effie Damianidou: 12:23

But I just looked at that fresco and I remember watching the people worshiping and speaking about God's love, and something really supernatural happened. It's like the heavens opened, and I felt like somebody had just bathed me in love and light. And just within a second, I just knew that I knew that there was a God, that he was good, that he was 100% love and 100% holy. And then I was like, uh, I I can't kind of this feeling of he's 100% holy and I'm very not clean.

Effie Damianidou: 13:01

And I just felt this, just this, just this, like I somebody had bathed me in water and scrubbed me clean. I don't know what I said. I I remember having this feeling of God asking, you know, I like I'm calling you to myself and me saying, I'm in. So I nobody like prayed as Sinners Pray with me. Maybe sometime that night, somebody prayed as Sinners Pray with me. I don't really know. Um, but I didn't like do the prayer. But I knew that at that point I it was like I was living in the dark and I had crossed over to light.

Effie Damianidou: 13:33

And I believe, you know, at that time I was born again. So that night I I don't remember the rest of that night, other than this supernatural experience that my mind, my very logical Greek analytical mind, could not explain. But it was real. You know, it was God was real, he was good, he was loving. And what I like to say is that I feel like it's God's power that brought me into his kingdom, but it was his love that kept me. You know, it was the supernatural answer to prayer for for those dreams, but then just him loving on me, just knowing that he was a good God that was going to take care of me and loved me decades later. I can say that that still is the case, right? Decades later that he he is 100% love.

Margaret Ereneta: 14:17

No matter how unique it is, a genuine profession of faith is always going to be followed by fruit. And so we'll see what happened next in Effie's life.

Effie Damianidou: 14:25

So what happened after that was that I had an insatiable desire to read the Bible. I could not get enough. I and I couldn't pray enough at times. You know, I I just really wanted to be with the Lord. I wanted to be with him, I wanted to pray. And I realized that the Bible actually had the best answers out of anybody that I'd ever heard about any of the issues that I had seen, including racial hatred.

Effie Damianidou: 14:48

The Bible explained because of the fall, that was sort of the explanation for the racial hatred that I saw. It was the explanation for family conflict. The biggest explanation was for the desire that I always had these resolutions. I'm going to be a better person and not do this and not do that, but I was completely powerless to actually do the right thing. But all the power came from him to do the right thing.

Effie Damianidou: 15:12

Love for other people came from him. The power and the desire to do the right thing and to follow through on that all came from him. So it was kind of like, you know, I had this book, the Bible, that was a religious book, quote unquote, but it actually gave the best explanation for everything that I saw around me, which made me love it even more, right? But also gave the solution that someday God was, you know, Jesus was going to come back and create a new heaven and a new earth and make all things right. But in the meantime, I really understood the concept that he calls every believer to be his co-laborer, to make things right, to pull heaven forward.

Effie Damianidou: 15:50

Realistically, I do understand that pain and suffering continue, but we're his co-laborers to relieve that until he comes, to be agents of flourishing and transformation and love, to give people glimpses of what the future is gonna be until he comes. So I was very happy about everything that had happened in my life. Went home and was all excited and told my parents, and they completely flipped out and thought that I had joined a cult. Started bringing the priest home to speak to me, and just there was so much conflict. I wasn't allowed to go to church. They allowed me to go to youth group, and that was about it. They were acting really out of fear. Very much an us versus them mentality and just kind of acting out of fear, you know that. And and I think it's difficult for somebody that is Greek, of a Greek nationality, because uh Cypriots consider themselves Hellenistic, right? They're Greek.

Effie Damianidou: 16:44

It's like a Jew becoming a Christian. If you deny Greek Orthodoxy, you're denying your ancestry, you're denying your very nationality. So that was really difficult for them. But the Lord would just really told me to honor them and to just not argue and to just honor them by going to church like they asked me to. And I try to find points of connection if they needed prayer for anything. And my mom, even at some points, would see like answers to prayer. I try to be as respectful and as honoring as possible. But also I think they've seen God's grace in my life, right? And just miraculously answered prayer over the years. So that's all been good.

Margaret Ereneta: 17:22

We're about to enter the sad part of Effie's testimony where she actually walks away from the faith. Folks, if you've walked away from the faith in your past and you came back, don't discount your testimony. It's still very powerful, and there's probably many people around you who grew up in the faith and aren't living it.

Effie Damianidou: 17:42

Then at the age of 19, I left South Africa. Things were just getting um, there was just a lot of upheaval. There was a lot of persecution from my family and it I ended up walking away from my faith after two years. I think that I was just young and wanted to fit in and just loved my own way in a lot of areas and just decided that I was gonna turn my back on the Lord, you know, and just made a decision I wasn't gonna be a Christian anymore. But that left me in a lot of turmoil, right? Because once you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, it's hard to turn away from that.

Effie Damianidou: 18:16

So I'd be at church, then I'd be out of, I'd go to church for a few months, then be out of church, then I'd be in church, then I'd be out of church. So it was just kind of a messy time in my life. And that continued for about eight years. My dad and I were not getting along at all. He was a difficult person to get along with. And my mom asked my brother here. My brother had come and gotten his PhD in chemical engineering from Urbana Champaign and had married an American.

Effie Damianidou: 18:42

And my mom asked him, you know, just I wanted to get an education anyway, and there were no universities in Cyprus at the time. And he just said, you know, she can just come live with you and go to school. So that's what happened. So I came and lived with him and his wife. I started junior college and then eventually a four-year school. I just kind of continued to live my life the way I wanted, got involved in a serious relationship with somebody that I was with for about three years, and he was uh not a Christian at all. And he and I just love to party together and we partied and we partied hard.

Effie Damianidou: 19:13

And I I just kind of loved that lifestyle. Unfortunately, Chicago has a big club scene, and we really got caught up in that. So the Bible says that sin is pleasant, but what people don't understand is that it says it's pleasant for a season. So at the end of three years, I realized just how unraveled my life had become. I actually remember sitting having this thought that if this guy and I ever ended up end up getting married together, I thought to myself, I don't know how I can have a child and go nine months without drinking. And that's when I realized I was in trouble. And then he and I were not getting along. So I I ended up breaking up with him, and it really affected me.

Margaret Ereneta: 19:58

Next, see how God uses a very sad moment in Effie's life to actually bring her back.

Effie Damianidou: 20:04

I was a graduate student at the time. I was getting my master's degree in French. I would go to work and was obviously very distraught. I just wasn't doing well. And there was the secretary to the dean of the graduate school was a very friendly old lady, kind of this mama, and she was always friendly, but we never had too much conversation. And then one day everybody was out of the office, and it was just me and her, and I'll never forget, like we were in this little office and we started talking, and she told me that her husband was a pastor.

Effie Damianidou: 20:41

And I said to her that God and I at one point were on speaking terms, but we're not on speaking terms anymore. That's the way I put it. And she kind of said, Oh, okay, why don't you come home and talk to my husband? Because I just had so many questions. And I he he would love to talk with you and he can answer your questions. So I went home one weekend with her and they fed me dinner and he prayed with me and I gave my life back to Christ. Because my life had just bottomed out.

Effie Damianidou: 21:09

I just thought, you know, I know God is there. And these people, I I can't even explain again. These people just loved on me. And he just took time to answer my questions. And he was just a very loving, kind man. And I just, it honestly, it wasn't even like an emotional decision. It was just kind of like, yeah, I sensed that God was saying, just come back. Because I almost saw myself that I was just going to go off the deep end forever. And it was like, just come back now, or it's not going to end up well for you. That's the only way I can describe it. That's the sense that I had. So it was just kind of a very nothing miraculous or supernatural, not like the first time when I actually dedicated my life to God. It was just kind of a reasonable decision. God is here. He's calling me back. Okay.

Effie Damianidou: 21:53

What I did not know is that her name was Jean. Jean afterwards told me that when we were working in the office together, she had a dream one night. And God spoke to her in a dream and said, This girl, Effie, that is working in the office, was a Christian at one point. And she no longer is. And I want you to speak to her about me. And so God told her in a dream that I was a Christian, that I turned away from him. And he told her, speak to her about me. And she had been praying, I believe, for a couple of months to find the right opportunity.

Effie Damianidou: 22:43

And when everybody was at that office that day, she's like, here's my chance. And that's why she had come and started talking to me and told me that her husband was a pastor and had invited me home. So they kind of took me under their wing. They'd buy me groceries at times. You know, I wasn't living with my brother anymore. I would buy me groceries, and, you know, I would go and stay at their house some weekends, and they literally just parented me. And he would take the time and answer my questions and kind of got me back on my feet.

Margaret Ereneta: 23:14

I asked Effie to share with us one of the questions she had at this time. And that question and her answer is a really helpful part of her story.

Effie Damianidou: 23:23

One of the questions that I had was that I had at some point known God and had knowingly, and really without I mean, I can tell you the reasoning now. I think God is merciful and understands, right? But knowingly turned my back on God. How could God ever take me back? And that pastor kind of shared the prodigal son with me, a story, which I knew, but I realized that God wasn't just a God of second chances.

Effie Damianidou: 23:51

He was a God of third chances and fourth chances and fifth chances. That I wasn't beyond hope was one of the things that he answered. Not just, you know, you can just find a Bible scripture and give it to somebody. But a lot of our questions, I think, are rooted in God's character, like who is God? He's a loving parent that gives second, third, and fourth and fifth chances. And of course, lo and behold, their ex-boyfriend shows back up, right? I'll do whatever you want. You know, let's get married.

Effie Damianidou: 24:15

And I got involved with an organization on my campus. And they were like, stay strong and just really prayed that he would just leave the picture. And lo and behold, he got a job and moved to Canada. And that was the end of that. When I was a teenager, I God had called me to seminary. I knew that, but I dared not tell my parents that I was going to go to seminary. That would have been World War III. And I feel like God honored that. I didn't go. And in retrospect, I realized that it actually probably wasn't the right time for me to go. So I got my bachelor's and master's in French. I stayed and started teaching and went on staff with a compass ministry and worked there for several years.

Effie Damianidou: 24:55

Eventually I met my husband and got married. We have three beautiful adult children. And eventually I went back to seminary. I got a master's in theological studies from Evangelical University down in Springfield, Missouri. And I'm about two-thirds of the way through a PhD in biblical interpretation and theology. And praying that I've become that religious education teacher to others, like that religious education teacher was uh for me.

Effie Damianidou: 25:22

I just really have a heart for the younger generation and to be able to connect with people, you know, on just different levels. I think some people go, you know, oh, you know, not to use your mind when it comes to God or not to use your heart, but I think it's biblical, right? Love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, and strength. Sometimes God speaks to us through emotion, sometimes he speaks to us through reasoning, sometimes supernaturally, sometimes through through others.

Margaret Ereneta: 25:47

Because of Effie's heart for young people, I asked her to give advice to young people who might be in the same boat she was.

Effie Damianidou: 25:56

I think that I I had experienced and had seen so much suffering in my life at such a young age that I feel maybe that God had somehow let me down about that, or that it would be easier not to be a Christian. And I think that's the biggest lie that anybody can believe, that it's easier not to be a Christian because God has, you know, a standard of expectations and, you know, is he a killjoy? And why doesn't he deliver us from suffering some of the times? But what I think I've realized now as an as an you know older adult that I would tell myself back then, or anybody that's contemplating turning away from the Lord is that the suffering will come one way or another.

Effie Damianidou: 26:36

The suffering will come. And there's going to be consequences and standards one way or another. That's all there. You can either choose to do it alone or you can choose to do it with God's presence. Those are really the only two choices. There's never a choice. I don't want to suffer, or I don't want to do the right thing, you know, I I want to get out of doing the right thing, or I one way or another, suffering comes, accountability comes, consequences come. And you can either choose to do it with God or without. And it's just so much easier to do it with God right off the bat.

Margaret Ereneta: 27:08

In closing, I asked Effie to take us through reconciling the Bible versus apartheid.

Effie Damianidou: 27:14

The false sort of explains that. In the beginning, God created. In the very first two chapters of Genesis, we read how God created people. It really goes down to the image of God, right? What is that Imago Day? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? If we're all made in the image of God, are some of us, you know, made less in the image of God than others? So I didn't have terminology to explain all this stuff when I was younger, and now I do. But when I was younger, you know, it's the question that everybody, everybody has.

Effie Damianidou: 27:45

Am I worth something? And a part hate says, you are worth more than this one. It's sort of a a totem pole of who's more worth than somebody else. It really touches on that need to be accepted for who you are as you are. So in my young mind, even at the age of 10, it's like, well, some people are worth more than others. So what kind of a God creates this kind of system? Of course, it's a system. It wasn't God's creation ever, right? Everybody was made in the image of God, and in the end, He will make all things right.

Effie Damianidou: 28:16

It's just really messy in between. But yet I think these are questions that we that everybody asks always, even as adults. Maybe we just have like fancier language or theological terminology to put to it, right? The problem of suffering that without God, people are going to attack each other. There isn't love without Christ. It requires a heart change. And us, you know, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be social reforms or things that should happen externally, but but I it to me really the Bible explains and gives a solution. And in the afterlife, right in the new creation, there's gonna be the church is comprised of all all nations and all peoples that all get along and worship God, knowing that they're brothers and sisters in Christ.

Margaret Ereneta: 29:00

Thanks for listening. Today we're gonna close with a prayer cast prayer for Cyprus, and you might recognize the voice. Yeah, Effie's kind of a prayer warrior.

Prayercast: 29:21

Father in heaven, we bless you. We come before you and stand in the gap, Father, for the island of Cyprus.

Effie Damianidou: 29:35

Father, we thank you for the magnificent beauty of the island that you've created, the mountains that speak of your strength and your faithfulness. Lord, unchanging, immovable like you. We thank you for the produce of the land that your hands have created, the olive trees, Father, the orange groves, the vineyards, Father, all the abundance. Lord, bless this land from the shores of Geringa in the north to Lemesos in the south, from the shores of Brotara in the east to Agama in the west. May you fill this place not just with the fragrance of the honeysuckle and jasmine, Father, but with the aroma of Christ, his light and his life. Lord, we thank you for the rich spiritual heritage that you've granted us. Even Paul walked this ground. But just like then, Father, many hearts remain closed. With less than 1% of the population born again, we ask, Father, that you would open people's eyes to see you for who you really are, soften people's hearts to receive the message of the gospel. Lord Jesus, Barnabas was birthed in this land. He was a son of encouragement according to the book of Acts. Encourage the believers that are here to proclaim the gospel among much hostility. Raise up more workers that are needed, Father. Lord Jesus, I pray for every single Cypriot on this island. Lift off the veil that keeps them from seeing you for who you really are. Whether it's a veil of Islam or the veil of Christianity as a religion, but not a real saving knowledge of Jesus, I pray for a spirit of repentance to fall on this island. Forgive us for turning away from biblical standards of conduct and ethics. Forgive us for trusting in material things instead of focusing on the eternal things of your kingdom. In this island that can be dry, O Lord, in this place where water is precious, send living water, send the Holy Spirit to this nation. Lord, for the younger generation, I pray especially that they would turn back to you, the living God, away from their own thoughts and their own ways, Father. Sefkaristume posise pistoskidie. We thank you that you are faithful, Lord. We have known so much political upheaval in our history, and even now it stands a land divided. Lefkosia, Father, is the last divided capital of the world. But Lord, we ask you for your mercy, hear our cry for peace, for true peace that only Jesus can bring. Lord, we ask you for wisdom from above, for the political leaders so as to rule well and make good choices, and above all, Father, we pray for their salvation. Father, many have zeal and great pride for the religious traditions of our fathers. But may we come to a true knowledge of what a personal relationship with Jesus means. May we embrace that. Father, over the centuries, there's been many conquerors that have ruled over us: the Venetians, the Romans, the Ottomans, the Greeks, the British. But Lord, we ask you to come and take your rightful place and to rule. Take your place in our hearts and our minds and in our island. We pray all of this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.