For the next three days, November 15-17, Greece will celebrate a time of remembrance for the Athens Polytechnic Uprising. On November 17, 1973 a tank rolled onto the campus of Athens Polytechnic University, one of the universities where we work, to quell an uprising of students protesting the military dictatorship ruling Greece at the time. These events contributed to the eventual fall of the dictatorship, and the establishment of the modern Greek governmental structure.

[Image from Athens Info Guide]

Students and others in Greece remember the November 17th uprising as a symbol of the triumph of freedom over oppression. Even now students at Athens Polytechnic who had not been born at the time of the uprising take pride in the fact that students from their campus played such a key role in the shaping of their country.

[Students reading a memorial of the uprising behind the fallen Polytechnic gate]

Please pray with us that in this time of remembrance, the Lord would stir Greek students to shape their nation once again - this time for the glory of God. We see the passion in Greek students as something the Lord can use to reach a campus, and even a nation for His glory. May students change Greece yet again!

You can read more about the Athens Polytechnic uprising here [Wikipedia article] or here [Athens Info Guide].