Do you not know? Have you not heard?
No this isn’t about the word bird. Bird is not the word.
Those are the first words that start off the verse Isaiah 40:28-31 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.”
This is the first verse that I think of when I think about our ministry this month, specifically about our time ministering to refugees, in the “refugee corridor” here in Bosnia.
Without a doubt, the most impact-full, emotion-filled, and draining ministry honestly of my entire race, was working with in Bihac, Bosnia. On day one we arrived at the hotel dropped the few personal items we had and went off to the first refugee camp.. There were crudely made tents, a generator to provide light, and a few portable toilets.
Besides that, there were people playing with volleyballs in an open field, people sleeping, and people building new tents. The situation was definitely desperate, some people had been living there for months. While we were roaming around we had amazing conversations with people from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria. We helped build tents, played with children, passed out food and toys, and even prayed with some muslims that would let us. After the long day had concluded we all shared our feelings and experiences and came to the same ultimate conclusion, we wanted to do so much more.
Day 2. We were up early to stay in Bihac and investigate the situation there. We hopped in the cars and rode around town asking everyone walking on the street if they knew where the refugees were living and sleeping. After a few discussions, we were led to a hill that had a few mapped out walking trails on it. Looking up we could see a few scattered tents and people walking around, obviously refugees.
But when we walked up the hill for the first time, as our host would say “it was a horror show”. We came up to a dilapidated building with gaping holes, water, and trash everywhere. Come to find out there are 750 refugees living in this decrepit building that shouldn’t even be fit for 10 people.
After we distributed lunch we started to split off into groups to enter this buildings damp, filthy hallways and rooms in search of people to talk to. My group ended up being Megan, Erin, Logan and myself. As we wondered around talking to people the situation kept getting worse and worse, people sleeping on the floor with huge holes above their heads where water would come in, puddles on the ground that wreaked of urine, and rooms with well over 60 people in them. If that didn’t seem bad enough there were children running around, growing up in this mess as if it were normal.
At that point, it didn’t matter who these people were, it didn’t matter if they were Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or atheist. What mattered was that we loved them, that we took the time to talk to them
In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus lays out the two great commandments “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’a]”> This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” The most convicting thing about his verse is that it doesn’t say to love only the neighbors and people that believe what you believe. For some reason, I find myself only loving those who will accept my love, or those who are like me in some way. But looking around the hallways and the rooms I had no idea what these people were feeling, no idea what it is like to be in their situation, and no idea what religion they were even though I had a pretty good idea. But it’s not my job to know how it feels to be them, or to even know their religion, but instead it is my job to love them as myself.
I will never forget one conversation in particular, we spoke to a man who had been on the run all the way from Iran with no passport and little to no money.
He was a firefighter in his country; He once saved an Italian woman’s life and as a thank you she gave him a Bible. He tossed it in his locker not knowing that it would be found by the police and that he would face 10-20 years in prison for owning it. This is the very reason he is a refugee.
He told us that so many Christians had helped him on his journey and showed him love while “his people” didn’t. As we talked to him he asked questions about Jesus, he ultimately wanted us to pray the prayer of salvation with him!! PAY ATTENTION.
When one of us asked him if he needed anything, money, clothes, food, etc. guess what he said… he said “no, I just need Jesus”. AHH!! Brings tears to my eyes to think about that pure faith, that I want nothing in return just give me the savior kind of faith! So, cool.
However, because he shared a room with members of the Taliban he could not publically pray in fear of being killed in his sleep, but God knows his heart. We ended up sharing the gospel, the history of the bible, and some verses that explained what we believe. We left that day feeling drained, but also a little discouraged because we knew he needed more time but we had to go. The whole ride back to Tuzla I was thinking about what I could do, and honestly drew a blank. BUT as of yesterday, our host has decided to take us back to Bihac next weekend! Praying we can find our friend and continue talking to him.
-Ryan
