David Betts in Greece

David Betts was the same age I am now, in his late 50's, when I met him at the Greek Bible Institute in the suburbs of Athens, in 1990. He was a part time- very part time- literature evangelist for the mission I was connected to, the Hellenic Missionary Union. He was living in an unplumbed, unheated stone cottage on a hillside on the island of Skopelos with a little white dog which had a very pronounced under bite. He later described that period of his life as his happiest. When he was in Athens he would stay in an airless, 75 square-foot basement cubby hole in the city center, out of which he would climb in the early afternoon after several hours of prayer, meditation, and devotional reading, which followed a night's sleep that usually began well after midnight.
More often than not he would head over to the HMU office and load up with their local two-sheet newspaper, O Dromos (The Way). He would then spend part of his day walking the streets of Athens, leaving papers at the doorstep of many of the hundreds of thousands of flats in the city. He would do this for at least a few hours. Some days he would deliver up to two thousand newspapers. He would take frequent breaks for liquid refreshment or food.
I developed a friendship with him. What we had most in common was a desire to help make people aware of the fact that we believed that Jesus of Nazareth was, as he claimed to be, God, that he was the key to understanding reality, to finding relative peace in this life, and to having an exceedingly pleasant experience in the afterlife.
His peculiar talents and energy were directed towards a most constructive and admirable goal. His harmless demeanor got him into a lot of places other people doing the same thing might not have been able to get into. He did not, like so many, have an agenda to use others for his own gain. He did not retaliate when he was mistreated. He never held a grudge, and never took satisfaction in the misfortune of others.
He was for the most part a soft-spoken, simple, gentle soul who just wanted to be left alone to enjoy his life as much as he could, given his limited finances and abilities. He loved the Lord with all his heart. Whatever it was about his personality that made him a rather bad fit for the regular society of men has now been eradicated and he is finally the human being that the God intended him to be all along.
I will miss my friend deeply, especially this June. I have been rather depressed since I learned of his passing. But that's death. Death is depressing. Death takes. Death never gives. But one day Death, too, shall shuffle off the scene. Death will die, or will, as the old hymn says, be no more. May God hasten that day. And may God bless John David Betts. His reward, I believe, is sure.

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Oct. 21, 2017. I just watched this again. It made me teary-eyed. I'll see my friend again, of that I'm sure...