Yassas!! (that means hello and goodbye in Greek)
We arrived on the island of Lesvos, Greece almost 2 weeks ago. In order to get here, we took a ferry from Athens to Lesvos. This ferry was enormous and super nice. Basically I felt like I was in Titanic and my life was made. One time I cried in the opening credits while watching Titanic…..Okay, I digress.
ANYWAYS, I will start by saying Greece is definitely the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life. The food is absolutely amazing. We have eaten Gyros almost every single day (they’re 2.50 euro and when you live on WR food budget, you can’t beat that). The people are so nice and friendly. Overall it’s a really nice place. Oh, and we live by A CASTLE. So, basically I feel like I’m living in a fairy tale. We take a shortcut through a field with sheep and cows grazing all beside it, to go to town each day. The other day we saw an elderly man leading his donkey down the trail as we passed. There are super friendly (and semi clean) stray dogs everywhere that know us and love us. I mean, come on! This is amazing. I can’t believe this is my life.
Our life in Greece is such a contrast because we live in paradise, but our ministry is pretty heavy. I’m going to assume all of you reading this have heard about the Refugee crisis going on in Europe right now. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on all of this but I will tell you what information I do know. In the past year, over 500,000 refugees have come through the island of Lesvos seeking asylum from the middle east. 400 of those people have lost their lives while attempting to make the 4-5 mile journey by boat over the Aegean sea. The people coming through are traveling from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, all over north Africa and many other places. There is a terrible war going on in Syria right now and tons of unrest and evil going on all over the middle east. These people are leaving absolutely everything they know (not to mention everything they own) and risking their lives to come to Greece in order to find some sort of safety.
The island of Lesvos, Greece is about 4-5 miles (at it’s shortest distance) from Turkey. Literally, I can sit out on the balcony where I live and see Turkey. So many, many people are coming here by rubber dingy boats, usually in the middle of the night, to seek safety. These boats are meant to fit 10-15 people and they are sticking anywhere up to 50-60 people on one boat. People are paying 1,000 to 3,000 Euro in order to board one of the ‘boats’ and attempt to make it safely to the other side of the sea. How bad could home look if you are putting your entire family on an unsafe boat, in frigid waters in hopes of just making it to the other side?!
My team, and another team from our squad have been splitting our time between two different camps. One is called Moria, which houses the majority of the refugees on the island. This used to be just a simple camp, however in the past month it has been turned over to the Greek authorities and is now a detention center, so it’s basically a prison. The capacity there is 2,000 people and the other day there were almost 3,600 people there and they can’t come and go as they please…they actually can’t leave at all. These people are living in camping tents and pop up tents, anywhere from 2-10 people per tent. Most NGOs have pulled out in political protest because of the Turkey/EU Deal, however there are still a few there. They are doing their best to pass out clothes, food, hygiene items and give them some form of roof over their heads just to hold them over until they can move on. Now that the EU/Turkey deal went through, they are all just in waiting until they find out whether they will be granted asylum or they will be sent back to Turkey. While people used to only be there for a couple days, now some have been there for 3 weeks and have no idea when they get to leave. My team, along with tons of other volunteers, are doing our best while there to serve however we are needed. That might mean hanging out in the info booth and giving out diapers and formula, organizing clothes and filling orders in the clothing tent, cleaning the squatty potties or just hanging out and having conversation with the people there.
The other camp is a Phase 2 camp in the village of Skala. It is where people that arrive on boats are taken first to register, get dry clothes, eat and then they are shipped to a different camp. My team and I have worked a few shifts there. Since the coast guard is picking up people and usually taking them straight to Moria now, we haven’t had any refugees come through. However, we have got to help another NGO here in Lesvos do beach clean up. There are life jackets, rubber rafts, clothes and tons of trash all over the beaches. People are going out almost every day and picking it all up.
The situation is heartbreaking, however there is hope. It’s crazy to me that there is still so much joy in these people and in those camps! The other day we were at Moria and a little boy who hangs out with us a lot came up to Alex and myself with fresh tea and cookies. He was obviously wanting to share with us, but we were resistant because we felt bad about taking his snack! However, after much prompting by him (he shoved a cookie in my mouth), Alex and I ate the cookies and drank the piping hot tea in the 80 degree weather all because it made him happy! Another day, I was cleaning the bathroom when a 15 year old girl came up to me (I hate that I don’t remember her name or where she’s from). She asked me if I had any news on the asylum paperwork going through. I looked in her eyes and saw her looking at me for hope. I hated that I didn’t have any news for her. My heart broke a little as I had to tell her that. She then asked me if she could give me a hug. Y’ALLLLLL! I had disgusting gloves on covered in who knows what from cleaning the squatty potties, but you BETTER BELIEVE I hugged her. I hugged her so tight and had to muster up everything in me to hold it together. She thanked me for cleaning and I told her how nice it was to meet her. My team and I have story after story like this.
We live in a really screwed up world where fear is pumped into us and we are taught to be scared of ‘the refugees’. So much of our world views them all as extremists and terrorist, and quite frankly that’s just not reality. They are just as scared of those people as we are! I hate that because the majority of them are muslim, they are clumped into that category. Honestly, it’s just extremely ignorant. When you look into their eyes and see them look back at you, it’s so easy to see them for who they really are. They are normal, every day people. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers, carpenters, welders. They left jobs, houses, cars, lives. I don’t mean to paint such a bleak picture of the situation, but honestly it kind of is. And I don’t say all this to be condemning or try to convict anyone. I’m just saying what’s on my heart, ya know?
If you think about it, pray for the people in the camps. Pray for our team and the rest of my squad that is spread out over Greece and Macedonia working in similar situations. Pray for the NGOs to have enough funding and man-power to provide for the people in the camps. Most importantly, pray that the love of Jesus is so thick in those camps. Pray that every one there sees Jesus in us.
Part of me wants to apologize for such a heavy blog post, but I’m not going to. This is real and people need to be informed. However, don’t think me and my team have lost hope. All in all, I believe that God is still good, and He is still on His throne. His light over powers any kind of darkness. Just like the joy we see in the camps every day, we carry joy that comes from the Father. We know that He is the true source of joy and He will take care of all of this. That is the hope that we can hold on to.
Okay, well, I gotta go walk through a field to get a delicious gyro! Like the Greeks say, Yassas!
