One of the reasons God called us to Greece was to work with refugees.
God led us to stay at Jason’s Place, a guesthouse that is owned by an American pastor and his Greek wife. They do a lot in the community to love on and serve the refugees. That is how my team got plugged in with a Christian-run refugee center.
The center is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays for refugees that are waiting to be placed in a permanent location. The center receives donated clothes to hand out, and there are showers and laundry services so that they and their belongings can get clean. There’s a place to relax with couches and a huge pile of pillows to nap in (that’s what they end up being used for). There’s a kitchen where baked goods are donated from a bakery from the night before and sandwiches and juice are given out. There’s a play room for children. There are a couple tv screens playing a film about the story of Jesus in their language. There’s a classroom if anyone wants to learn English, Greek or another language, and is also used as a prayer room. The center is a place that refugees can feel safe and be loved.
My team showing up at the center on July 4 was an answer to prayer for the volunteers and staff. A group from Oklahoma had already been there for 6 weeks and it was their last day. This was an answer to prayer because…
The center exists off volunteers coming in and becoming proficient in a specific area of the center so that when they leave they can train someone else who is staying longer. Since we’re here for a whole month we were able to jump into a station and learn the system before the Oklahoma team left!
I chose the laundry room. At first, I had no idea what I had signed up for.
You may think doing laundry is pretty simple and self explanatory (definitely not my sentiments when I went to college). But having to do laundry for twenty different people at a time while keeping everything separate, organized, and in order is a different story. There was a system to stick with to keep everything running smoothly.
It was also really hectic that day with the large amount of people coming in to have their clothes washed. I had the added pressure of making sure I knew the laundry system before the girl from the Oklahoma team left at the end of the day. I wanted to retain everything because the next day I would have to run the laundry room by myself which freaked me out.
Now two weeks have gone by, and we’ve worked every Tuesday and Thursday at the center. Krystal, my squad leader, and I have got the laundry system down. And last week a YWAM outreach team from Kona, Hawaii, joined us. Two of their girls, Preslee and Desaray (awesome names, am I right), are now helping us in the laundry room too. They will be here in Thessaloniki for as long as we are. So, at the end of the month we’ll have to train any newcomers to continue on with the laundry system.
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There are two things I have discovered about mission/volunteer work while working at the refugee center:
1. Doing laundry can be a ministry! God has given me purpose in doing something that is known as a mundane, menial, and monotonous house chore. I get to bless people who are in need, don’t have much to their name, and just need their clothes clean. Serving refugees in this way was not something I expected to do this month but its such a tangible service that has humanized these people for me.
2. Organizations survive off of volunteers! Even short term teams play a big part in continuing the services that NGOs offer. Without people to come in and alleviate the workload from the full-time staff, it would be impossible to keep big organizations running. God has shown me the purpose in being that person to continue the good work that this refugee center is doing.
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Doing short term missions can be hard knowing you’re only there for a little while, especially when you meet and get to know the people who commit their lives to the work that you’ve only gotten a small taste of.
BUT, over the past two weeks I have seen the volunteer teams that have come in doing little things to add to the sustainability of the center. Things such as finding a place and purpose for a whiteboard to communicate to the refugees which loads of laundry are waiting to be washed, which are in the machines and which ones are all done so they don’t have to ask a volunteer every 5 minutes. The South African team went out and bought more mesh laundry bags doubling the amount of laundry bags the center had before. The Oklahoma team wrote out and put together an instruction manual for each station so that future volunteers will have all the information they need to refer to.
These are things that will last long after these volunteers leave the center and return home. Looking for a way to leave a ministry site better than you found it is a great way to leave a lasting impact. Its been great to be part of leaving behind tangible things to improve a place.
We have also gotten to meet the spiritual needs of the refugees which is the ultimate way our impact lives on after we leave. This one is eternal and changes a person’s destiny! And that is leading people to know Jesus as their Savior! This is, of course, our ultimate mission as Christians no matter where we are. On our second day at the center, a volunteer from the U.S. shared the Gospel with a man named Hussein and he accepted Jesus into his life!! Praise God!
Me with Alta and Lize from the South African team that helped me in the laundry room
