Welcome to the Peace Container (the PC)
Number one rule of the PC: Always be truthful, no matter how ridiculous you look.
Number two rule of the PC: Bring your worries and burdens and find a place of refuge here, no judgments.
The PC is a supply container right outside of the gate of the transit site that holds mountains of clothes, blankets, paper products, water bottles, diapers, toys, and various foods. But to me, it was my safe haven.
Even though it took me a few weeks in to name the big metal container outside of the transit site the Peace Container, I discovered the joy of the PC on my second night at the site.
One of our translators turned favorite human, Amir, brought me a hot chocolate and a sandwich back from town after I mentioned I was hungry that night. We were told that the container could be used as a place to go to in order to find a little bit of silence from the chaos of the site. So I took up the offer and went and sat on the mountain of water bottles to eat.
I can’t even describe to you how the Lord met me as I sat by myself eating that sandwich. I just know He was there and His voice was crystal clear when He spoke to me.
“I am here, my daughter, rest in me.”
Ok, Jesus, I am not going to argue with you there.
So I began to pray over the container so it would be a place the Lord was palpably present and felt peace and joy in. Prayers it would be a place for people to be rejuvenated and feel loved in while outside the walls the refugees flooded around.
However, it took me a couple more weeks after then to take refuge there again for an extended period of time by crossing its threshold.
For the next few weeks, I worked the front gate and the parking lot. Large crowds and potential mobs of the refugees formed nightly in the parking lot. I felt I could withstand facing a mob night after night. Then one night I couldn’t face them anymore.
Photo: Stephen Zenner
My anxiety reached levels it had never been before as I stared at the crowd forming. People yelled at me and questioned everything going on. Whether it was dry clothes, access into the site, a bus ticket, or blankets, they all needed something I couldn’t give them. I couldn’t tell them no anymore.
I grabbed the nearest volunteer who could replace me and I walked back into the site to see what other jobs were needed. The clothing tent needed replenishing on a number of things so I was sent to the PC to find them. This time, as much chaos as there was outside with people, there was the same amount of chaos inside with clothes and sleeping bags.
I don’t even know why there were signs on the wall that pointed to men’s, women’s, and children sections. It was clear there was no order in there whatsoever.
But again, I felt the peace welcoming me as soon as I stepped through the door, regardless of the lack of structure to be found anywhere.
From that night forward my heart changed and softened from being at the front gate for so long. I rediscovered and again felt the freedom the refugees gained from reaching European soil.
Eventually I began to welcome others into my place of refuge. More so at the beginning to help me organize the mountains of clothes and other supplies, but towards the end as a way of sharing what the PC had done for me.
First He brought me Joy, then Kayla, then Abel, Greg, Marissa, Benita, and Mark to come alongside me inside the PC. Each person affected me and showed me love just by being there with me, which filled a piece of my heart that had been emptied out from working the front gate.
It became my personal project at the site to create order to better serve long term after I left Greece, which I was able to accomplish. But more importantly, once my joy was restored, it also became my project to bring joy to the rest of the volunteers through what I found in the PC. And let me tell you, the PC was full of hidden treasures.
One night in particular, Greg and Abel decided to make it their mission to find bigger and bigger layers to put on me. By the end of the night, I ended up with 13 layers of clothes on and had laughed harder and longer than I had in so long.
We unearthed onesies, sweater vests, a pair of pants two people could fit in, ugly sweaters, an abnormal supply of blue baseball caps, a reindeer sweater, a ridiculous amount of nonsensical high heels, and way too many summer clothes for the current weather situation. We brought structure to a situation of mayhem and allowed the clothing tent to have easier and quicker access to what they needed.
It may be just a metal box sitting outside of the transit site to anyone else, but to me it represented so much of the past 5 weeks of my life.
There would be days that I had organized everything the day or two before, but then a new shipment of clothes or sleeping bags would come and all we had done had been undone and would have to start all over again. I would groan at the beginning in frustration at the site of it all, but for some strange reason, I never minded walking into my ministry at the site by walking into that container.
Jesus showed me the state of my own heart when He showed me the daily complete mess of the PC. I would figure everything in my life out and put it all back together, and then even the very next day I would be crumbling at the seams again.
Lord, where was my stability?
Not in You, apparently.
What was I building my life’s foundation of a future on?
My own self and my carefully laid out plans, trying to take precedent in my life once again.
There was no light in the PC so we had to use headlamps and Greg’s solar powered, wind up light to be able to see what we were doing. I could be cliché here and say Jesus was the only light we needed, but let’s be honest; more light would have helped a great deal, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
I can think of so many nights of laying on sleeping bags, praying with crying friends, trying on countless ridiculous outfits, telling my story and hearing other’s, or sorting through the mounds to create some form of structure. I can think of no bad memory in the PC because it is where the Lord met me and told me to rest in Him alone. All I had to do was listen to His words and be at peace.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
I read a blog earlier this week describing us all as refugees looking for sanctuary. Catherine found me a white flowing dress in the inventory tent that represented so much freedom to me. I put it on and let the wind take hold. The Lord showed me in my search for my sanctuary and freedom that He alone is where I am to find my refuge and peace, especially amongst the chaos the world will throw at us.
