We were showered with blessings the moment we arrived in Nicosia, Cyprus. My team and I got to our new city by bus and were greeted by our host, who picked us up from the bus stop with his truck, sparing us a strenuous traverse by foot with all our luggage. He and his wife had a media production company and we would get to hear about all the work they were doing for the gospel in Cyprus. Within ten minutes, we had arrived at our house for the month, a two-story home that a pastor for a neighboring church formerly lived in. It. Was. An. Amazing. Accommodation. We had a huge kitchen, a comfortable living room with five couches, a dining room, a back patio, four rooms with balconies, and three bathrooms. THREE! That for our team of six was essentially a palace. I even ended up getting up my own bedroom! On top of that, there was a running/bicycling trail behind the house, which ran through the heart of city, which meant that running no longer had to be a spectacle as it was back in North Africa. We had lots to thank Jesus for.
We spent three weeks in Nicosia primarily working with the Nicosia Mercy Center to serve meals to asylum seekers and refugees and also with two organizations that specialized in working with and rehabilitating victims of human trafficking. We also got to visit our host’s media production company and a local radio station broadcasting about God, both of where we met some awesome workers for Christ who had made many sacrifices to build up their respective businesses to share the gospel.
At the Nicosia Mercy Center, we were able to express God’s love to the people who came by serving them food, but we were also given the opportunity to share the gospel with them if they asked about our faith. We got to have many insightful conversations particularly with African asylum seekers about their plight, and got to hear about cultural attitudes on several hot button issues, especially about women. Through multiple sessions of serving every Wednesday and Friday, we made friends with the kind local volunteers there, who were by a majority Christian, including the head of the organization, who was a pastor. It was particularly interesting chatting with him as he expressed that God had placed on his heart a thrust in ministry towards encouraging individual disciples of Jesus to pursue their spiritual gifts. It was a thrust essentially for democratization of Christian ability and duty. This has been somewhat of a prophetic theme that even pastor Francis Chan had recently written about in his new book Letters to the Church. We felt we were under leadership that was in tune with God.
On the other days of the week, we alternated visits between going to a facility under the Wellspring umbrella, an anti-trafficking organization, where survivors of human trafficking came to create jewelry and partnering with a volunteer team, A-Team Nicosia, which is linked with A21, Christine Caine’s anti-trafficking organization. These were opportunities for us to simply show love to these women and to try and remind them of how cherished they are in God’s eyes.
For the place we went to under Wellspring, our team visited the women at a house where we just were able to chat with them, get to know them, and make jewelry together. On the last day of our visit, we were even able to worship Jesus together with them, and it turned into one of the most powerful worship sessions I had experienced. We also met a fabulous lady from Finland who was working at the facility, who was so inspirational to us in her dedication to helping these women.
In our cooperation with A-Team Nicosia, we did the A21 Walk for Freedom as an entire squad (minus the guys of the squad who were in Turkey). We walked through the main shopping arcade of Nicosia wearing T-shirts that said “Abolish Slavery with Every Step” and held up signs that gave statistics on the very prevalent issue of human trafficking. Later in the month, we put together a poetry and art event where members of the public, the A-Team and us girls got to have a round table discussion on human trafficking and ways to fight it, which is primarily to promote awareness. We also got to paint mugs with women, who were trafficked, at a halfway house to fundraise for them through an arrangement by the A-Team. Shoutout to A-Team Nicosia, by the way, for being so well-versed and passionate about the cause.
Our hearts were full from the amazing connections we made with the people here as we left Cyprus. In regards to the cause of fighting human trafficking, we knew that there was much work left to be done now that we became so aware of it. God is at work in the region and we will be in touch with friends we made here to continue to support spreading the gospel and also to raise awareness on the horrific issue of human trafficking.
