Kostas Trigkas: I Was a Dentist in Greece When God Called

I was born and raised in a Christian home in Athens, Greece. I was about 12 when my mother led me to the Lord. There was an immediate change in my life. I was more joyful, less self-centered, more eager to help. 

In college, I studied dentistry in Prague, Czech Republic. My parents connected me to a local church there and gave me a Bible in modern Greek. When the Lord permitted hardships to come into my life, I felt alone, but the Lord showed me He was faithful; He was near to me. I opened the back of my Bible and saw there were references [for specific life circumstances]. It said, “If you’re alone, if you feel hurt, if you need to forgive someone...read this passage.” So, I started reading the Bible again. I started reading the Psalms, especially. I found Psalm 34 very comforting, especially verse 18, which says “the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”

After college, I returned to Greece, and in 2013, while working at my parents’ dental office, the Lord started giving me opportunities to preach. I taught at a midweek Bible study, started listening to a lot of sermons from Christian radio and [eventually] started theological training and biblical studies. In 2015, I started working at a local Christian organization called Hellenic Ministries as the lead dentist, treating refugees from Iran and Afghanistan, and I stayed in that position for seven years. 

During [those seven years], I became the secretary of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (Greece) and was also selected to join the executive committee of the Free Evangelical Churches in Greece. I was also doing church planting, discipleship and evangelism with the Romani people. We would visit them in their homes in south Greece, about an hour and half from Athens, and they were receptive to the gospel. I [introduced] them to the local Free Evangelical Church there—at the time, it only had about six people. I wanted to build a church among the Romani and revitalize this dying church [at the same time].

There was a growing desire in me to do something more. I felt I was wearing too many hats and starting to burn out. I got married and had kids, and [ministry] became even harder. I reached a point where I said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” 

Just before COVID, I went to a conference in Thessalonica and met Brad Mullet, the director of global ministries at The Orchard (EFCA) in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Brad was notorious for having a whiteboard, writing down people’s names and praying for them—and then sending them to different places. So, [he added] Erini and I to his whiteboard, and he prayed for us. Later, I prayed a very specific prayer to the Lord—with Brad in mind—and less than 24 hours after that, Brad sent me an email that said, “We want you.” 

We applied [for the pastoral residency program at The Orchard], but it was too short notice, so we didn't have peace and didn’t go right away. But the Lord was faithful through it all, and I eventually started serving at The Orchard in Arlington Heights. I feel I've grown in many ways, especially in my preaching. In my second year as a pastoral resident, I led a missions trip to a church plant in Athens. The planter was part of ReachGlobal, so I asked him questions about it. I didn't want to be a lone island doing ministry and burning out even worse. He told me great things about ReachGlobal, and I appreciated its focus on the local church, so I applied. 

At the time, I attended a session at a conference about the local church and global needs. The speaker asked us to consider committing to go wherever the Lord wanted us to go, so I did. I started worrying because I had a newborn baby—and didn't know what it would mean for my family—but I prayed that night, and the Lord gave me peace that He wanted me to go back to Greece.