I’ll be honest, I really didn’t want to answer your questions. I’ve written about 5 other blogs since my Q&A post, but I haven’t published any of them because I knew I needed to finish this one first. But I didn’t want to have to put myself back into the gates of camp. I didn’t want to write about the pain and heartbreak I saw on a daily basis. I didn’t want to share the stories because I just wanted to move on from that month. The month where each day, as I walked into camp, I was greeted with the pungent smell of urine and feces and I saw the barren faces pass by me on the short road to the information point.
I wanted to go about life, not to forget what happened that month, but not to dwell on it. But the reality is, I was just running, from dealing with the heartbreak that I felt for this place, for these people. Compassion is something I’ve always been capable of, but the Lord has given me a new heart for His people. The ones that lay in a refugee camp in Greece and the ones beyond that. As I wrote this, I shed tears, I relived moments, and IT. WAS. BEAUTIFUL. The Lord is gentle to give me time to heal, but He shows up and He shows off when He wants to. When I wrote this blog, He showed up. Hopefully he’ll show off a little too. Enjoy the read and Merry Christmas!
Did you have the opportunity to share the gospel with anyone through the month?
I did! This was a difficult thing to navigate many times because we had to be invited into the conversation, and even then we had to be careful to make sure it was not communicated with any type of force. Still, our team found creative ways to do so with a gentle nature. Because of the sensitive nature of this topic, I don’t want to reveal any specific conversations or stories on my blog. But I will tell you a story about one of my most fruitful days at camp. I was assigned to work a gate and was quite frankly dreading it because it was on an all mens level, the men there tend to fawn over the American women in camp and it can get tiresome to ward off their advances. I walked into the day with dread and about 30 minutes into my shift the Lord brought a gentleman across my path who I was able to have a GREAT spiritual conversation with. By the end of the day I was able to have FOUR different conversations with refugees on that level, most of the time I wasn’t able to have that many intentional conversations in a week. The Lord took that opportunity to humble me and remind me that He knows what He is doing. I walked in with dread and I walked out rejoicing, it was an incredible day!
Did anyone become a believer? Anyone on the path that we can pray for?
Sadly we didn’t see any salvations this month, but keep praying for those who are in camp, for tender hearts that want to ask questions. Pray especially for the workers, that they would have opportunities to talk about the Lord with the refugees!
Do you have pictures of the camp itself to get an idea of the “accommodations”?
For privacy reasons, photography is not allowed in camp, so I’ll paint a picture for you in the next question as best I can.
Can you describe what camp looked like and what the accommodations were like?
Trying to paint a mental picture of what camp looks like is like asking me to sit down and paint Monet’s “Water Lillies” from memory. It’s impossible to get even close. But I’ll do my best…
There are four different types of living scenarios at camp. Rub halls, tents, ISO boxes, and sections.
Rub halls are massive tents made out of a thick plastic/canvas material. There are thick metal poles that hold up the structure and from the outside, it looks like a large “classic house shape”, the kind you would draw in kindergarten. There is a small slit on both ends, about 7 feet tall, that creates a “door”. Inside, metal frames run the length of the hall, creating four rows, one on each side touching the main tent, and two conjoined units in the middle. As you walk down the two “hallways” in the rub hall you see blankets hung from metal frames, these blanket create spaces of various sizes for families ranging anywhere from 2 people – 10 people (maybe more but 10 was the largest I encountered). Each cell starts off with a metal bunk bed frame and one mattress.
Tents are ALL over camp, they range in size, shape, and color. The largest tents we have are basically a smaller version of a rub hall tent, they are tall, but not tall enough to stand straight up in. Comfortably there is enough space for anywhere between 8 to 10 people, but we manage to put 14 to 16 in a tent. They are made of a canvas material that isn’t waterproof. Most of these tents are clumped together and lie under a massive makeshift “roof” that has been created by the refugees in camp. From a distance this roof just looks like a massive tarp quilt, some tarps are sewn or strung together, while other tarps overlap these to cover any holes that might have occured over time.
The smaller tents that sit around camp are the same basic camping tents we use in the states, but if it says it’s a 4 person tent that means we are usually trying to fit a family of 5 or 6 in it.
ISO boxes short for isolation box are large metal containers that resemble the insides of a box car. Some contain windows, with bars on the outside, some do not. Bunk beds are crammed together along the walls and throughout the space in the middle of the room. Comfortably, an ISO box can accomodate 12 people, but often times up to 20 people can be found living there.
Sections are set aside for the most vulnerable at camp; families with medical problems, single women, and unaccompanied minors. These sections are each in a gated community built in the shape of a massive outdoor hallway, each side lined with units, similar to the style of an apartment complex. Each unit has various rooms all filled with as many bunk beds as will fit. Squeezed along the main corridor, outside, are tents squeezed into any space that will fit them.
It’s important to understand that although camp is crammed,we are doing our very best with the situation as hand. Needless to say, it is far from ideal, camp was built for somewhere around 2,300 people and currently holds around 6,000 people within it’s gates. It is not up to euro relief to determine how many people come in or how many people get processed, we just have to figure out where to put the hundreds of new people that flood through our gates everyday.
What daily scenes were difficult to process?
Every day at camp is hard to process, being in that enviornment changes you. As Americans it can become so easy to place a label on someone. We slap “refugee” as a title on their forehead and wash our hands of any other concerns. The reality is that they are not just a label. They are real people, with real stories. Their heartbreak is real, their tears are real, their laughter is real. It’s difficult to walk into a place like that with the pre-concieved notion that they are all somehow there by choice. Most of them don’t want your pity, rather, they need your help. If they did make a choice, it was to humble themselves enough to come to a place like this. In my time at camp I met folks who had fled from war, slavery, abuse and oppression for religious views. The stories don’t stop there though, 6,000 people live in camp and each one of them comes with their own tale to tell.
The most heartbreaking part of it all is that they fled to find something better and instead they found camp, they are constrained by spaces far too small, given a limited supply of money for essentials, and are surrounded by violence from fellow refugees. It’s difficult to watch the innocent suffer, to see death, despair, and violence win the small battles. Even when you know the ultimate battle has been won, it is still hard to see the defeat everyday you walk into camp.
What/who do you walk away grateful for after this month?
As hard as this month was, I am so grateful to have been able to experience serving in a refugee camp. It taught me to remain calm in the midst of chaos, to see people for more than just a label, and to keep fighting for good even when things seem hopeless.
