Safe, but hardships ahead

Safely on Lesvos, many hardships awaited 38-year-old Solomon and his teenage son. After being registered as refugees, they continued travelling onto the mainland, expecting to finally find shelter and better conditions. It was March; the weather was still cold. They longed for a shower, even cold water would do. However, the ‘shelter’ in the port city was an empty warehouse. “I felt so dirty, like insects crawling all over," recalls Solomon, “but the sanitary conditions were basically non-existent. We were 200 people sleeping in this warehouse, yet the nights were freezing cold.” Two months later, the police moved them to a refugee camp, gave them tents to sleep in, and provided some food.

The misery of refugee life was almost more than he could bear, and now he had even become a diabetic with no money for medication. Solomon despaired, regretting that he had left his beloved Afghanistan, even though there had been threats on his life. The fact that he worked as a translator for foreigners, was enough to cause serious trouble with the Taliban, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he was arrested or worse, if he had stayed. He was able to contact a friend in Afghanistan and asked him to pray. Anton did more than pray. He connected Solomon to a friend in Greece; this friend happened to be the OM field leader in Greece, Gabby Marcus.

His only hope

Dirty, smelly, broke and downcast, Solomon felt too ashamed to meet Gabby, but it was his only hope of changing his situation. They had agreed to meet at a metro station, so with no money left, Solomon sneaked onto a train, hoping not to get caught. “Gabby was very kind to me,” says Solomon. “We talked a bit and walked to the OM office. Gabby asked discreetly if I wanted to take a shower. The office had a full bathroom; towels, soap and shampoo were provided, and I stayed in that bathroom for an hour! The first shower in months, and with hot water, felt like the top of luxury!”

The gift

Solomon had grown up in a Muslim family and had no plans of becoming a Christian. However, in Afghanistan, he had been able to secure a job with a Korean couple who were starting up a business. They kindly let him sleep in their compound, in a small room close to the guard at the gate. After some weeks, the Korean asked about his Muslim faith, commenting that he never saw Solomon pray. He also gave him a book to read, which Solomon left on the shelf. Yet, when his boss a week later asked if he had read the book, he said, “Yes,” not wishing to offend his boss. He thought he had better take a closer look at this book. After all, he had no other books to read and maybe next time, his boss would ask more questions.

He liked what he read, especially the parts where Jesus talked about forgiveness and loving your enemies, not to mention that prayer and fasting should be done in private and not boasted about. He even recognized some stories from the Qur’an. Plus, he was disillusioned with his Muslim faith, having seen so much fighting, so many dead bodies. How could Muslims kill other Muslims when they all believed in the same God?

Fellowship

Some time later, before the Korean couple left Afghanistan, they introduced Solomon to another Korean lady who helped him with in-depth Bible studies. In due time, she also connected him with a small fellowship of Afghan Jesus-followers. For Solomon, who had thought himself the only Afghan Christian, it was utter joy.

Solomon now moved to a translation job at the US Army base hospital, where he noticed how caringly the US doctor treated his patients. It was very unlike what he had experienced before. When he asked the doctor if he might happen to be a Christian, the man laughed and said: “Of course, I am a Christian!” His reply gave Solomon the courage to share that he, too, was a follower of Christ. He was invited to join the fellowship in the base chapel but was reluctant to go. Many Afghan eyes were keeping watch; it would be dangerous for him to attend a Christian meeting. When he managed to secretly slip in, the doctor anointed him with oil and Solomon cried and cried. It felt like a baptism, although Solomon’s baptism in water would only happen later, in Greece.

Time to leave his beloved country

The threat of danger kept rising. Solomon had moved on to work for a Christian NGO. When a friend was stabbed because he worked for foreigners, Solomon knew it was time to flee the country. Reluctantly, he discussed it with his wife, and they made their plans. Solomon and his teenage son made it into Iran. They then continued by taxi towards the Turkish border and the seemingly endless 12-hour walk in the dark and cold of night. Together in a group of a hundred Afghans, some too weak for the walk and needing to be carried part of the way, they made it across the mountains into Turkey. “My son,” said Solomon, “kept holding my hand, encouraging me to move on.”

Later, his wife and five younger children moved on to India, safe from the Taliban. As for many refugees, life is difficult, and the separation hard on all of them. 

Working for OM

In Athens, Gabby and Solomon met up again a few times, and Gabby asked if Solomon would be available to help them in the office. They could not pay much, but the nearby Filipino church provided accommodation, and life started improving.

Serving for 18 months with the OM team, Solomon led many Afghans to faith. He got baptised and studied for a diploma in theology at a Greek Bible College, graduating in January 2019. His dream is to study further and become a pastor.

Discipling others

Currently Solomon is serving in two churches as well as OM’s café, discipling new Afghan and Iranian believers, preaching and translating. He is also teaching English to refugees through one of OM’s programs. With his background, he is bringing his Muslim understanding to the situation in a way that is unique and can speak into other refugees’ lives as no one else could do.

Homesickness

Life has certainly improved from those first months of utter hardships. However, as the Afghan proverb says, ‘A woman is half your faith,’ meaning that only together you are complete. Solomon questions how long he will be able to continue on without his family, including the loneliness, temptations and desire to be part of his children’s childhood. And, of course, his wife and children long for the same!

“I love my country and my people,” shares Solomon, “and we pray for peace in Afghanistan. My hope is to one day go back and live there, in peace, with my wife and children.”

*Name changed for security

Solomon’s oldest son Hassan is still with him in Greece. Please pray for the rest of his family to be re-united soon. Pray for Solomon’s ministry and the ongoing ministry among refugees in Athens. God is doing a great work in this city, yet there are many hardships.

Since 2013, every year she made goals for herself. One of them was, “I want to do a short-term mission trip.” But every year, she had good excuses not to do it—a job change, a move, etc.

“But last year, I was like, ‘Yes, I really want to do it. This is the moment,” Lila remembered.

“At first, I didn’t know where I wanted to go or what kind of ministry I wanted to do. So I started looking at different organisations, mission trip locations and ministries. I prayed a lot. Finally, I felt like God laid it on my heart to work with refugees. It wasn’t like one day I woke up and knew that’s what I was supposed to do. It was a gradual realisation.”

Lila already knew of OM because as a child, she visited its ship Logos II in 1999. When she started researching mission organisations, people from her church recommended OM in Argentina. “A lot of organizations I looked at didn’t know what to do with a short-term volunteer, but OM does. And OM takes care of you from the beginning, from searching for a trip to coming back to your country. You feel like they are taking care of you in the whole process.”

So when Lila discovered an opportunity to serve refugees with OM for two months in Greece and North Africa, she knew this was it.

Going to two different countries for a month each appealed to Lila because she wanted to know more about the needs and stories of refugees from different parts of the world and different countries, and experience different types of relief work.

Starting in Greece

In Greece, Lila split her time between two camps. In the mornings, she organised clothes and donations at one camp. In the afternoons, she went to a second camp, where she spent time with a Syrian family living in a home made from a shipping container. There, she drank tea and talked with the family, building relationships while sharing stories, laughter, hopes and dreams. She even got to teach English to the two little girls in the family.

“I learned from them that most of the refugees didn’t want to leave their countries, but they needed to because of the war. They had no choice. They left their families, their homes, their friends, their possessions—everything—behind, because they want to have a safe life,” reflected Lila. “It is difficult for them. They don’t understand Greek; they have to ask for everything they need; and they can’t work until they have their documents and leave the camp. They literally lost everything because they want a safer place to live. I can’t fully understand that situation, because I’ve never had one like that. But...”

Lila paused. “But, I wonder...maybe it’s the only way they will hear about Jesus. If they’d stayed in Turkey or Syria, maybe they wouldn’t have heard of Jesus because those countries are closed to the gospel. But in Greece, they have a better chance.

“Maybe this is how they will meet Jesus.

“Maybe this is how God is using the refugee crisis to bring the least-reached Him.”

Lila couldn’t openly share the gospel in the camps, unless people asked her about her faith directly. But the good thing about a testimony of God’s love is that it doesn’t always need words. “Sometimes you don’t have to speak and share the whole Bible, but you can show you love someone by spending time with them. That family always waited for us and even sent us messages every day, asking if we were coming that day. They don’t have friends from outside the camp. We were their only guests from the outside. It might seem like a small thing, but a small thing can make a big change in someone!

“One day, we woke up and went to the first camp with a van full of donations, but the refugees had blocked the entrance in protest. I couldn’t understand,” Lila remembered. “Why were they doing this? I had so many questions, but I realized that maybe I didn’t fully understand the reality of what it means to live as a refugee. We decided to pray and then left for the other camp.

“At the next camp, they received us with hugs just like every other day. We gave English lessons, but after the class, the family asked us to sit with them outside their shipping container, where they’d made a special meal for us. We were never there for a meal before because we always came in the afternoon, but because the other camp was closed, we were there in time for lunch.

“The family gave us all that they had.

“I don’t know why the first camp was closed that day, but God gave us a gift in sharing that meal with them. It was like a hug.

“We taught them English, but they didn’t think they taught us anything. But when they shared the meal, they taught us how to eat the meal. It was so nice to be on the opposite side–learning from them and their culture.”

Outside of the camps, Lila could speak about her faith freely, and she began friendships with refugees living in Athens. She was able to share many meals with them, especially with 2 young moms. “It was their first and only times spending time with female adult friends, without their kids nearby. We got to pray for them and share our testimonies, since they were no longer in the camps,” Lila remembered. “They would often text us, asking if we could do it again.”

On to North Africa

Then after a month of ministry in Greece, Lila went to North Africa, where she spent her afternoons in a centre offering sports activities and lessons in English, Bible and art. While there, Lila found a lot of similarities between the refugees she’d met in Europe and the Sudanese refugees in North Africa. “They also left everything—their countries, homes, friends and family to flee unrest, in order to move to a new country and culture and learn a new language.

“But the biggest difference,” shared Lila, “is that I could share the gospel with freedom with the Sudanese refugees because they were in a centre that they chose to attend. We shared stories from the Bible and gave them something to think about each day.”

One day, Lila had a conversation she will never forget with a nun from the centre. This nun was from Guatemala, and she was the only person there who spoke Spanish. While Lila speaks English well, her first language is Spanish. So every day she spoke with this nun in Spanish. “She encouraged me, by telling me I have a special ability and sensitivity with kids, and she asked me why I was only doing a short-term trip.

“I’ve never thought about doing long-term missions,” reflected Lila. “I was prepared to support missionaries throughout my life and have my own work in Argentina. But it was really nice to hear someone I just met three weeks before see something different in me—and see God through me.”

Now that she is back in Argentina, Lila is working at her father’s business and waiting on God to direct her next step. “I usually always have a plan, but this time I don’t have a one. I don’t know if I will stay here or move to another country.

“On my trip, God taught me to be patient. He gave me new hope. I was really sad before I started that trip, because of a lot of life changes in a really short time. But God told me, ‘Be still. I am here with you. I will give you new dreams and new plans.’  I’ve never been as happy as I was in Greece and North Africa.

“We have been created to help others and to share the love of Jesus. When I am doing that, I feel complete.

“This trip gave me focus again. I stopped asking for things and started to give God thanks for the things I have and the things He will give me in the future–even though I don’t see it now.

“That’s what it means to have faith.”

As to whether or not she will return to Greece or North Africa, Lila doesn’t know right now. “But even now that I’m back in Argentina, I’m still able to exchange messages with the women I met in Athens, which is a big gift. Today I even heard from ‘my family’ in the camp. They asked when I would come back to Greece. I don’t know the answer to that... but I thank God we have internet so I can still stay in contact with them.”

Lila’s ministry—and impact—continues, even though the actual mission trip has ended.

The truth is, whether overseas or in her own country, all Christ followers, like Lila, are always on the mission field. After all, it’s just like she said, “We have been created to help others and share the love of Jesus.”

Kristen Torres-Toro loves to tell stories about what God is doing in the world. She currently serves as the Field Communications Facilitator for OM Argentina.

In 2015, Fion served on the OM ship Logos Hope. After one year, she felt called continue in missions, and God placed a love for refugees in her heart. When OM in Hong Kong suggested that she serve with OM in Greece, she felt God speak to her immediately by giving her peace that this was the place He wanted her. After a miraculous visa process, she found herself walking the streets of the ancient city of Athens.

Don´t think you are too small or too ordinary; you can serve Him in extraordinary ways, because it’s not about you, it´s about God.

In her first two weeks in Greece, Fion lived in the safe house Damaris, taking care of women, and their children, who had escaped the sex trade. Later, she worked with the refugees at Omonia Church, teaching and playing with the kids, serving them in any possible way.

She says that the most amazing thing she witnessed during her time in Greece was refugees coming to know the Lord, getting baptised and having their whole lives changed. Another highlight for her was seeing the work of churches in central Greece and spending time with Roma children in Karditsa.

Living for one year in a different culture, trying to learn Greek and struggling with English, was not easy for Fion. But still she felt she was able to do what she was called to do: serve God with everything she has.

Looking back, Fion feels the year went by quickly, but that it was fruitful and blessed. Instead of trying to solve all the challenges herself, she learnt to rely more on God. Through serving others, she also learnt more about her relationship with God and grew in her faith. She felt God´s presence, love, peace, blessing and healing throughout the year, and she encourages others to serve in missions.

“If God has called you into missions, be still before God and pray,” she said. “He will provide everything you need. Don´t think you are too small or too ordinary; you can serve Him in extraordinary ways, because it’s not about you, it´s about God. He will transform your life through serving, and the impact will be lifelong!”

I am joining my colleagues for a day in their ministry in one of the refugee camps around Athens. One of them shares that she started working there in 2016, and right from the start, she prayed that God would let Himself be known in the area. 

“God sends us to places, and He will let His name be heard. Other organisations had to leave because funds ran out. But we were able to stay, and that made all the difference. People know who we are now and know we can be trusted,” she said.

Last summer she came to a camp for the first time. “We started to get to know the leader, and God paved the way for a relationship to start. Even when I could not help them with something they needed, I still came to visit.”

Brand new sports ministry

Recently, my colleagues started a soccer team. It is my first experience with sports ministry, and it is wonderful to see the positive effects.

While I was there, the boys tried out their new sport shirts and soccer shoes that OM donated. Most of the boys had been playing with bare feet on the hard rubber field. The boys were proud to have their own outfit; and, of course, a professional soccer team photo needed to be taken. After playing for a while, one of the boys got angry because he never got the ball from his teammate. This was a good opportunity to talk about teamwork.

Now that the sport ministry has proven its potential, my colleagues will follow up training with the aim of being able to have fruitful fellowship time with the boys. They also hope to set up friendly matches with other refugee teams and church teams. This sports ministry is a beautiful combination of having fun together and learning valuable lessons about teamwork and discipline.

Our prayer is that, with the boys knowing that we are all Christians, we can show and share with them how God loves them.

Like one family

While the boys are practising their soccer skills, my colleague shares more with me about her time in the camps: “We don’t want to help as an aid organisation alone. We want to help as one family helps another family. So instead of handing out just food, we gave them ingredients and organised a big dinner with volunteers and refugees together. This was such a wonderful time of sharing that we have done it many times since then.”

The leader of the camp expresses his gratitude: "They [OM] are with us in the big and in the small things. They sit with us, eat with us, make jokes with us, and they hear our frustration and our cries. This makes us one family.”

Simple things that start to build community—and community that reflects God's love.

I don’t babysit, much. But recently during a rare exception I was asked by one of the kids (aged six) ‘what I do in my job.’ 

Oy vey! Not an easy question to answer if you can’t use the words ‘human trafficking,’ ‘sex trade,’ ‘pimps,’ ‘prostitution’ or ‘slavery.’ I distracted her with chips, but I’m under no illusions – sooner or later she asks again.

At the roots what we do at Nea Zoi is this: we spend time with ladies (and men) who are treated badly by other people. Some of them are scared and hurt, and some of them have done bad things because they think it is the only thing they can do.

Why do they do bad things? she asks. Well, small inquisitive person, why do you sometimes do naughty things? There can be lots of reasons. Some of the reasons are stupid, some of them seem to make sense at the time and some of them you only realise later that you have made a mistake.

How do you feel when you want to say something and your brother and sisters ignore you? Not fun, is it? It’s annoying the first time, but if you say it again and they still don’t listen, it gets worse (You have the advantage of being able to screech like a banshee – this may not be true forever, though). Sometimes it can take several minutes to get anyone to pay attention. But imagine if they never listened? And you may argue with them (especially over the TV), but you know that they love you. You have a whole family who loves you, and a church family too, and all your friends at school. But some people don’t have that. Some people are treated badly by the people who should be looking after them. If a girl is always told that she isn’t wanted, she’s useless, she’s a nuisance and she’s worthless, she will start to believe it.

A lot of the ladies we work with believe that they aren’t worth anything. So, a large part of our job is just treating them kindly, showing them that they matter. The most important thing is that we tell them that they matter to Jesus. He loves them so much, and He will never be cruel to them. 

And if they have difficulties, we offer to help them. Sometimes we go with people to the doctors, or to the shop or we read things together. Sometimes we take them out for coffee and they can tell us about what they are worried about or what they are hoping for (Yes – I agree, coffee is yucky. Sometimes we take them out for ice cream, instead).

We want to help them trust in God. When you trust in God, you can ask Him for help and He answers. And when you know that God is with you, it is much easier to stop doing bad things. We hope our ladies will decide to stop doing bad things, and when they do, we support them. So that’s what I do in my job. It’s not really a job. It’s a privilege. What does privilege mean? Oh...just eat your chips.

OM Greece is involved in anti-trafficking work by supporting our partner organisation, Nea Zoi. Nea Zoi is a Greek association for the support and restoration of individuals working in prostitution. Read more about their work here: http://neazoi.org/

“If possible, they would love to meet every day!” smiles Ellen. “Expressions like ‘I am nothing without Jesus’ from one of my students, is beautiful to hear. It motivates me to give my very best even if sometimes it can get tiring.”

It began with the KANO project (Greek for ‘to make’) providing knitting wool and fabrics for sewing. Afghan ladies were eager to make items for sale, which passed time and provided a small income. Relationships were formed, and opportunities to share Christ followed. Some ladies and teenagers invited Christ into their lives and wanted to learn more. They have become part of a local church and some are already baptised.

“And they are not silent in the camps where they live,” continues Ellen, “even if it leads to persecution from other refugees, they are eager to share Jesus, testifying to peace like never before.”

She is encouraged to see them now initiating prayer together in the groups, including for the needs of others, even their persecutors.

Long-term work

Short-term teams regularly visit three refugee camps in the wider Athens area, while the long-term team members follow up with Bible studies and specific relationships, as well as disciple new believers.

“The refugee work is now at a development phase rather than the critical first-arrival stage. As many of the refugees are settled for now in the camps, we find ourselves discriminating between meeting ‘real’ needs rather than ‘perceived’ needs,” explains Jill Lapping (Ireland), OM Greece refugee programme coordinator.

‘Real’ may include psychological and spiritual needs, rather than the first immediate desperation for food and clothing, says Jill. With increased stability, it is essential, she says, to ensure that the visiting teams are stable too—for instance, requiring short-term volunteers to stay at least one month rather than a week or two.

“Numbers are still high, but at this stage we are focusing on meeting the needs of individuals and families rather than the masses,” says Jill.

How do we enhance the life of those seeking refuge? What do they need to learn? How can we teach them a useful skill? What training will be helpful for them? These are questions the team grapples with. For instance, OM Greece would love to receive teachers of music and arts, as well as those who speak German, as many are hoping to go to Germany.

Another question the team asks themselves is: What can we learn? The work they do teaches the OM team, church members and one another. Many are cooks, as hospitality is a strong value in their culture. Team members know that ministry to a refugee family could become a lifelong ministry or friendship that meets emotional, psychological and spiritual needs.

Easter fun

Over Easter, several volunteers distributed painted eggs and Bibles, which led to many conversations about the Easter story and Christ’s resurrection. A young man from Syria gladly received a Bible, saying, “I’ve been looking for this book for weeks!”

A team of 10 from Finland organised a children’s event, with a bouncy castle, face painting, chalk art, bracelet-making crafts and games.

“Doing the children’s program in the refugee camp was a blast, and seeing the happiness in the kids’ faces was pure joy,” said team member Heidi Kukkamäki.

Another team hid cups of sweets in the forest and invited children on a treasure hunt. As they accompanied the children looking for sweets, they noticed how much the little ones had changed.

“It was incredible to see how their behaviour had improved dramatically over the past 10 days. The kids had started being far more kind and generous with each other,” shared a short-term team member. He explained that children have often encountered violence and trauma along the way, even in the camps, which reflected their treatment of one another.

“I was impressed with the children’s willingness to share their sweets and even help each other,” he wrote afterwards. “We hope that the team’s consistency and kindness over the last 10 days will have made a positive impact.”

Please pray that the seeds sown will grow into good fruit. Pray also for protection for the new believers, as well as wisdom and strength for the team members continuing to serve and disciple those in need.

Despite the outdoor temperatures rising, the team has received an ever-growing number of volunteers, and with that, a growing number of refugee camps to serve. What began as one van full of volunteers serving at one camp has evolved into hundreds of volunteers from around the world working in nearly a dozen different sites — and it’s only the beginning.

Unexpected encounters

One OM volunteer saw firsthand that a last-minute change in plans is often God’s way of setting up an amazing opportunity. When Lilly found herself at a different camp than expected after a schedule switch, she was able to use her fluency in Arabic to form bonds with many of the camp’s children.

A simple conversation with a 12-year-old girl led to a deeper connection and even a chance to pray with her parents. “As the van was departing that day, the young girl ran up to the van and asked me to write down Jesus’ name so she could ‘remember the one who loves her.’” They are now able to keep in touch via Whatsapp, and Lilly prays that Jesus continues to reveal more of himself to the girl and her family.

Discovering new perspectives

Another OM volunteer was able to show a young Afghan man a new perspective of Isa (Jesus). When a few Afghan refugees began helping Ryan and his team pick up garbage in a local camp, Ryan was able to meet and learn more about the life of Mohammed*, a young man separated from his parents and two younger brothers since travelling through Turkey. “Mohammed travelled from Turkey to Greece only to find that his family was still stuck in Turkey, while he is now stuck in Greece,” Ryan said. 

As they continued speaking, Ryan’s question of the meaning of Mohammed’s necklace initiated a conversation about holy books. Using common stories that tell of sacrifice for sins to enter the kingdom of God, Mohammed learned a new perspective of Isa — as the Lamb of God who came to take the sins of the world. Mohammed was open to receive prayer in Isa’s name for his brothers and parents. He requested prayer for his aunt and cousin in Switzerland who may be denied permission to stay, asking prayer for Isa to heal the cousin’s developmental disability.

They also prayed that Mohammed would have a personal revelation of Isa Messiah as his personal Lord and Saviour — not just the prophet of Allah, but as a ‘straight path to God’. The team asks for prayer for Mohammed’s family to be reunited, and that the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit will fill him and overflow to others.

With the future in mind

Even the briefest of encounters have made lasting impacts. Two volunteers were surprised to see a family from Austria walk into their camp one afternoon and were reminded in a powerful way of the potential long-term effects of their service.

“Since visitors aren’t too common, Trent and I were so surprised when an unfamiliar man approached us and spoke in English,” said volunteer Brandon. “As he stood there with his wife and son, this father smiled and shared that back in 1950 when he was only 3 years old, he lived here at this very camp. And he was here now to share part of his childhood with his family! He then proceeded to meet the other refugees at the camp, and they talked about their experiences with each other.”

“So often during our time in Greece, I would view these camps as a place that lacked hope, a place where these people were stuck. But as I saw this man so eager and excited to share about this camp with his family, our ministry in Greece just clicked for me — especially because this man was 3 when we he was at the camp, and I would spend the majority of my time playing with the younger kids. Imagine that in many years down the road, one of the kids we played with or the adults we interacted with recalls how, during a difficult time of fleeing danger and living at a refugee camp, a group of Christians who loved God visited the camp and shared that love with them!”

He concluded: “though we couldn’t do things like solve the refugee crisis while we were in Greece, our team was able to be used by God to share love with these people during a difficult time, and that made our ministry and our service to God so worth it”.

The OM Greece team will continue serving refugees in and around Athens in the coming months and will keep seeking outreach and ministry opportunities to both refugees and locals. We praise God for opening so many doors during the past few months. Please pray with us as we continue building relationships with government officials, camp leaders and other decision makers that God will continue opening the exact doors needed to build His kingdom in Greece.

To give to OM’s refugee aid relief efforts, or to learn how you can get involved, please contact your local OM office. For more information or stories from Greece, email communications.gr@om.org.

*Name changed

“I met him at the transit camp Sykamenia the first time,” shared Tamar from The Netherlands, a long-term volunteer. “He is 23 and from Afghanistan. He came all by himself. His family is in Sweden. They went there two or three years ago. He didn’t go because he wanted to finish his studies. But now he misses his family so much.”

“Later we met at Moria, the huge registration camp. We talked every day. When I brought him some groceries he texted me: ‘I’m really happy to have a friend like you. You mean the world to me. Thank you for everything.’ He tried to seek asylum in Greece, to not be deported. But all he got was a little piece of paper. He is losing hope. And so am I. I couldn’t see him the last days, because they didn’t give us access to the camp anymore. Being outside and not able to comfort him is so hard. He is my friend. All I want for him is to have hope.”

Pray and love

For the past weeks, OM team members have been trying to get access to the refugee camps again.  “What can we do? What should we do?” wondered one of them, in early April. “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. We read this verse from Ephesians 6:18 this morning during our Bible study. And it looks like this is the only thing we can do right now. The only thing? The most important thing!”

With all the new changes, uncertainties and decisions beyond their control, the team turned to prayer. Prayer for everyone involved and everyone affected. “We are here to ‘proclaim good news to the poor’ and ‘to comfort all who mourn’, like Isaiah 61 says. We will stand with the refugees in need. We will fight, but not with weapons or violence in demonstrations, but with love and prayer and comfort. And we will pray and love the police, the decision makers and the government.”

The OM team went to Mytilene, when the port was filled with journalists and mobile units. “We prayed over them. We prayed for the over 200 refugees who got deported that morning. We prayed for our friends at the camps, who are scared and hopeless.”

Open doors and hearts

The ministry on Lesvos is ending – at least for now. All team members and short term volunteers are moving back to Athens, to join the growing refugee ministry in the city. Although they are leaving their island family for now, the team takes with them the memories and testimonies of how God worked.

Memories of making new friends and dancing for hours with women and children. Testimonies of talking about the Gospel with a group of Iranians during an underground service and witnessing three of them giving their lives to Jesus. Memories of relationships built with other NGO workers and volunteers. Testimonies of God’s faithfulness in all circumstances.

“Just recently I talked and prayed with two teenage girls from Afghanistan,” recalled long-term volunteer Anita. “One of them asked me for a Bible. I directed her to Philip, a former refugee. He returned to the island a year after he arrived by boat on Lesvos. He was able to share the Gospel with her, in her own language. It’s been amazing to see that doors and hearts are open for the Gospel!”

God’s timing and provision prevails and as the team from Lesvos transitions into working in Athens, OM Greece asks for prayer for wisdom and stamina to serve refugees in Athens- for the good of many, but the glory of One.

An OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM’s relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

In one of the narrow tree-lined streets close to the Acropolis sits the OM Greece office. Nine team members and a few local volunteers divide their time between office work and reaching out to poor Greeks and refugees in Athens. Another important part of their ministry is recruiting nationals for missions, and OM Greece is heavily involved helping refugees on the island of Lesbos.

“God started this work,” said Gabriel (Gabby) Markus, OM Greece’s field leader, “and he will finish it no matter if missionaries come and go; we are just small parts of the big puzzle.” Gabby continued, sharing the quote from Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi (Phil 1:6), a key verse for the OM Greece ministry, and he emphasized: “until Christ returns”.

The ministry in Greece started small in 1999, with a few people working among the Albanian population. Later, an office was established in Athens and in 2008, OM Greece was officially registered. The team connected with churches and reached out to prostitutes in the red-light district (in partnership with New Life Ministry), and also helped translating and publishing Christian literature.

In 2012, OM Greece brought nine people to Transform (an OM-conference in Rome followed by outreaches to the Mediterranean nations). News came out about TeenStreet (OM’s teen-camp in Germany) and the Greeks got excited. The following year 24 youth signed up to go.

“It was kind of sudden,” smiled Gabby, “it took off and in record time we prepared to go!” Before joining OM Greece, Gabby and his wife, Evie, were youth leaders in one of the local churches in Athens. With the relationships and trust they had built over the years, parents were comfortable letting their teens go. “TeenStreet has become the catalyst for recruiting in Greece,” Gabby said. “The teens came home so excited, God had touched them and they realized what a big evangelical family they are part of. They were also exposed to the needs in missions.”

In Greece, refugees have been around for over twenty years, but last year the situation exploded. The overwhelming number of Syrians and others arriving in small boats on the island of Lesbos was an issue the OM-team could not ignore. They had to help. Since September 2015 a team has been stationed on the island and many, many volunteers and short term-groups have come to help. “I would say that the refugee ministry quadrupled our ministry in Greece,” Gabby shared. “We also help in Athens, through the churches, but until now Lesbos has been our main refugee outreach.”

However, with the recent closure of the Macedonian border thousands of refugees are stranded in Athens. To help the new situation, OM Greece, in partnership with a Filipino church, is in process of renting an old closed down restaurant to cook meals for the refugees.

“As we partner with several churches in helping refugees, relationships are growing deeper—between the different churches as well as between OM and the churches,” Gabby said. “Helping refugees and migrants give common ground; we get to know and help one another, and find our unity in Christ richer than before, a great blessing. However, it is important to not neglect the ongoing work among the Greeks. Our team still reaches out to the ladies of the night in the red-light district and helps the homeless and poor among the Greek population. Family ties are strong and families help one another, but those without relatives face many difficulties.”

Please pray for OM Greece as they reach out to nationals and refugees alike. Pray for God’s strategy in helping the refugees and migrants stranded in the Athens area. Pray for divine opportunities to share the Gospel, and for more short- and long-term volunteers to come and help.

An OM project, called ‘Safe Passage’, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM’s relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

Getting the Word in their hands

When we went to the Greek island of Lesvos for our initial need assessment trip, there was a Dutch organization. They were leaving and didn’t know what to do with their stakes of Bibles in Arabic, Farsi and Dari. We took them and left them with a church on the island, where a Canadian lady attended. That church with 30 people provided meals for about 100 refugees in a time where about 10,000 refugees arrived on the island. When serving the meals, church members offered Bibles to the refugees.

Some weeks later, one of the refugees arrived at the Greek/Macedonian border with one of these Bibles in his hands. He went up to one of the volunteers, who used to be a student on Lesvos and told her he had already met people exactly like her. 'There is something different with these people,' he'd said.

He told the girl that he read the Bible on his way and wanted to become a follower of Christ. The girl asked him who he got the Bible from, and he told her about the Canadian lady on Lesvos. It turned out that the girl and the Canadian women knew each other. When the women eventually talked on the phone, the Canadian woman was thrilled to learn that someone decided to become a Christian because of the Bible she gave away.

A Pastor preaches on the path to Austria

Hein van der Merwe, the project coordinator of OM's ministry on Lesvos, experienced something similar. He met an Iranian refugee who stepped off the boat and said ‘Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus!’. Hein was wondering what that was about and asked the man if he was a Christian. He turned out to be a pastor. The OM team tried to arrange accommodation and food for him and his wife, but the pastor texted a day later that they were leaving straight for the border. A week later Hein got another text, saying: “We’re safe in Austria. But I wanted to let you know, that on the way I led another Iranian to Christ.’"

It’s amazing how God is reaching out to refugees. These are just two people, but I’m sure there are a lot more stories like these.

Corinna: How long has OM Greece been involved with the refugees?

Gabby: The media magnified the refugee crisis in August 2015. Because of the war in Syria, the number of people travelling between Turkey and Greece increased. However, refugees were entering Greece years before that. We've been ministering to refugees for the past five years, with and through local churches in Athens.

Corinna: What does this ministry look like?

Gabby: We run soup kitchens together with churches. We also support a church running a drop-in-centre, where we offer a shower and laundry service every Tuesday for men. Friday evenings we provide tea and coffee and read Scripture to them. In the summer of 2015, one of the Iranians that had been coming for two months walked into the drop-in-centre and asked if we could pray for him because he wanted to become a Christian. It was amazing and makes the ministry worth doing.

Corinna: What is your 'normal' ministry?

Gabby: Besides the soup kitchens, we have a team reaching out to people in prostitution. We teach, preach and try to mobilise people for TeenStreet or Transform (short-term outreaches). We have people coming for short-term missions, we’re teaching English and so on. And then all of a sudden there was the refugee crisis.

Corinna: How did the situation for you as OM Greece change since last August?

Gabby: After August the whole ministry pattern of OM Greece totally shifted. And that is because the number of people arriving increased overnight from tens to hundreds to thousands. There was chaos on the islands of Lesvos, Kos and Samos and literally thousands were arriving in Athens – it was overcrowded. It started raining, so people tried to find shelter in the metro station. It became so dangerous that the entire underground had to be shut down. That’s when the government realized that they needed to do something and started opening camps.

As OM Greece we realized that we couldn't sit back and do nothing. But we’re a small team. We only had two people working with us full-time and one part-time. In February 2015 we got another five adults and we were working on building a team and maintaining our ministry. And then there was the refugee crisis.

Corinna: Could you continue with your ministries or did you have to close down some things?

Gabby: We are still doing what we have been doing, and we started with a completely new project: relief work for refugees. Hein van der Merwe arrived in March 2015 to be our training coordinator but has been leading and coordinating this project on Lesvos. He was involved in pulling people off of the boats, giving them warm clothes, distributing apples, water bottles, sleeping bags and so on, setting up tents and cleaning up. With the Balkan countries closing their borders recently, the team on Lesvos already feels the effects. Refugees are starting to stay at bus-stops overnight and are getting impatient as well.

In Athens, OM Greece was asked to mobilise and coordinate the relief work of the evangelical alliance. I was given the role to chair the committee. Looking back, I think accepting this was probably the best decision we made. We were helping the churches figure out what to do, and that was exciting. It raised the profile of OM within a short period of time. We do the coordination, but we empower the churches to do the work.

The highlight to me is that the churches are working together so well. It fits into OM’s core value 'esteeming the church' and into OM Greece’s vision statement, that “OM Greece exists to support and work in partnership with the church to witness Christ locally and globally”. The evangelical community in Greece is very small and we’re labelled as heretics by many people. But because of the work amongst refugees, the evangelical community is now known by the mayor, the volunteers in the refugee camps, and the Greek outside. The churches and OM were almost the first to come and help when the first camp opened. However, we do not introduce ourselves as OM but as the evangelical church.

So far God has given us favour through this situation. For example, I asked the mayor if we could play music in the camp. He said it was fine. I told him that it would be a Christian group. He agreed on that too. I said that they will play Christian songs. And the mayor still didn’t care about it. He said "Bring them, let them sing Christian songs and I’ve invited some government ministers to come, too". Two Christian groups performed in the camp.

Corinna: Have there been any specific encounters with a refugee that touched your heart?

Gabby: I see a lot of suffering. But one thing really, really affected my view about why we do what we do. When the first camp opened, we went in and started helping out. We’re talking about a thousand people overnight, total chaos. We were extremely overwhelmed by the numbers.

I was sitting outside the stadium and a mother walked out with a baby who was screaming in agonizing pain. Through an Afghan Christian who translated, we found out that the baby was seriously ill. We told the mother that we could bring her to the hospital. The mayor gave us permission and we took her and the baby to the hospital with our personal car. The next day we came to pick them up. When we walked into the room this lady completely lit up. She was so amazed that a total stranger took them to the hospital and came back to take them back. And they didn’t need to do anything.

But, what we did was stupid in a sense. We didn’t realize that there was a husband and two other kids. They came out looking for the mother and thought they'd lost their family. When the husband saw us and his wife and baby coming back, he ran up to us and thanked us. They were so grateful and the baby was perfectly fine.

That was when the Lord really spoke to me. When we look at the crowd, we are overwhelmed and forget about the individuals that make up the crowd. We should really try to see individuals. If we focus on the individual, we can impact at least one person in the crowd. That helped me a lot to not get overwhelmed. I don’t want to look at a crowd, but focus on at least one person in the crowd.

Corinna: What happens to the refugees when they've arrived in Greece?

Gabby: None of them want to settle in Greece. Greece is a transit country. That’s why we’ve called OM's ministry to refugees in Europe “Safe Passage.” First the refugees come to Turkey where a smuggler brings them on a boat. If the weather is fine, the cost is higher. If the weather is dangerous and rough, the cost is lower. That’s why so many people travel during bad weather.

One of the traffickers pilots the boat towards the Greek island of Lesvos, which is 9 kilometres away from Turkey. When they reach the Turkish/Greek border on the water, the smuggler jumps off the boat and is taken back to Turkey by another boat. However the refugees on the boat, from Afghanistan or Iraq for example, have never seen the sea in their life. The traffickers leave them all by themselves on the water between Turkey and Greece. That’s why so many of them drown.

Those who arrive on the island register at the camp and can travel by ship Athens. They pay about 60 EUR for a trip on this safe ship. When they arrive in Athens, most Syrians just go straight to the border of Macedonia, trying to get up to Serbia and then to Austria, Germany or Sweden - although this has become difficult with several countries closing their borders. A lot of the Iranians and Afghans don’t have a lot of money. They stick around in Athens for a while and try to get money sent from their friends and family in their country. Once they have the money, they’re off.

Corinna: What are you doing for the refugees in Athens?

Gabby: Three years ago OM built a kitchen in Athens. Now this kitchen is being used by a church to cook meals for the refugees. We helped another church and gave them gas burners and big pots. It’s a small church, but they’re cooking 500 meals every week.

We are working with WIN church (a Filipino church) in the heart of Athens. Every Wednesday we provide 200 portions of food to refugees staying overnight in Victoria Square. We provide the dry rations and the church is cooking. Along with the meals, we are giving out sanitation packs.

By the third week of March we will increase these portions to 900 meals each week - and then to 2,000 meals each week. The increase in the quantity of meals is the result of OM renting an old restaurant that was closed for years. We will be using this kitchen for cooking and storage.

We are also looking into the possibility of starting a children’s programme and running a training programme for the volunteers. The training will be both for OM volunteers as well as other Greeks and church members. 

Corinna: What do you need for this ministry?

Gabby: We really need some Arabic, Farsi or Dari speakers. We as OM are known for evangelism. We’re okay in terms of providing food, water and clothes, but we can only go beyond that in actually sharing the Gospel with them if we speak the language. We’re taking some simple steps, like providing flyers that mention websites with free downloadable bible apps in their languages.

A lot of churches want to get involved, but because of the economic crisis they can’t afford to. They have exhausted the resources they have. That is the reason why OM wants to come alongside and support them to do what God has called them to do. OM workers come and go all the time, but the church will always be there. So how can we empower them, to make sure there is continuity in the refugee ministry? How can we empower them, that even when the missionaries are gone, the church will rise up to the challenge?

One thing that excites me is that we have around 15-30 churches that are directly involved. And they are doing it! Even before the big relief and development organizations came to Greece, the churches were already ministering to refugees for years. To me it would seem wrong and unfair to come and say: ‘we have the money and the knowledge’, push them aside and leave again three months later. If we can get enough resources, enough funding, we will be able to empower more churches for this work.

Europe has been sending a lot of missionaries and a lot of prayers into the nations. Now Europe has become a mission field. What a tremendous opportunity! I just pray that the Church will be awakened and jump to the opportunity. OM wants to empower the Greek Church to do that. We can do what we can, we’re not the saviour of the world. But if we focus on one person in the crowd, that is probably worth it.

An OM project, called ‘Safe Passage’, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM’s relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

When asked about the priorities and principles guiding OM Greece’s refugee relief efforts, OM country leader Gabby Markus had one answer: “to esteem and empower the church to fulfill the mission that God has called the church to do.”

“OM is an instrument in uniting the churches, not only physically but with aim, with goal, with purpose,” explained Edwin Cardenas, pastor of Word International Ministries church in Athens.

That aim, according to Gabby, is developing a sustainable Christian community in Greece—before, during and beyond the refugee crisis.

“OM’s role in the body of Christ here in the refugee crisis is that we hope we can be the glue. When I say glue, I mean that I don’t want OM to be seen or known except that we will work with and through the churches for a sustainable Christian community here in Greece,” he said. “It’s not that it’s something that we just started doing during the refugee crisis, it’s something that OM has intentionally [done] already in the past, which fits in perfectly to one of our core values, esteeming the church.”

Therefore, OM’s response to the refugee crisis couples with that of its partners across Greece—with local churches and city officials in Athens and with EuroRelief and other aid organisations on the island of Lesbos.

OM is helping churches to prepare and distribute food to refugees, recruiting volunteers to run one of three children’s programmes at Galatsi refugee camp in Athens, and sending staff to help receive and aid the refugees arriving on Lesbos. In the office, OM staff and volunteers are working behind the scenes, preparing 4,500 hygiene packs to distribute through the churches to refugees on the streets and in transit camps.

Despite Gabby’s desire to remain invisible, others have noticed OM’s work. Fotis Romeos, general secretary of the Greek Evangelical Alliance, said, “OM has played a very vital role because it has a group of people here. There were staff members from the very first days [who] helped us tremendously as a church because all the people we have are volunteers. It’s a tremendous, tremendous help to have some Christian workers who are ready to go to the islands, to be ready to be on the front lines, to be ready to coordinate a lot of the areas.”

Even though OM has been present in the hotspots of the crisis—in Greece and further along the refugees’ journeys in the Balkans—Robert Strong*, coordinating the relief efforts of OM Europe, cautioned, “I think people need to really realise we are not a relief organisation. We are here to work with and alongside and to empower the local church. People need to understand that when they look at OM and what we can do…whatever we can do, we will do it hand-in-hand to see [the church] strengthened, to see them empowered to reach out to their countrymen and to those passing though their borders.”

On Lesbos, in particular, Robert said some organisations tend to focus on the beaches, where media crews continue to spotlight the horrible drama unfolding. OM, too, has received refugees at the water’s edge, but long-term volunteers as well as island locals have also seen OM working offshore: cleaning up campsites lacking proper sanitation and refuse disposal.

“These people are making a huge impact in the local community, and that’s what the people here locally really see,” he said. “There is nobody there with a camera, there is nobody there…taking pictures of that… This is where a lot of the OM-ers and EuroRelief-ers have been working and cleaning it up, everyday again and again, and not to be on the forefront. These are the kind of people we need.”

Calling for an international response

Echoing OM’s tagline, “Pray. Give. Go.” Fotis also listed three ways people can get involved. 1) Pray. “You can be praying, no matter where you are,” he encouraged. 2) Come. “You can find inexpensive flights to come here to Greece and help us in the front line, either in the islands or in the Athens area… We need people, and we need them yesterday.” 3) Give. “Along with your prayers and your presence here, you can contribute… This is something that will advance the Kingdom of God here as we see the whole church come together to serve the needy people.”

More volunteers are needed on the ground in Greece; however, the refugees’ journey does not end in Athens. They are “in the search for a safe haven, a place where they can be free,” Robert stated. “We call upon the church of Europe and beyond Europe to join hands and to really look after these people as they enter Europe in despair after lots of trauma. We pray that these people, in their search for freedom, will find Jesus because we believe that’s the only answer.”

“We’ve seen here that the church in Greece is stepping up, not just one but a whole blend of churches. And we’re honoured as OM to serve those churches,” he continued. “Now you can do the same in your country. They will end up as your neighbour. Our call to the church in Europe is to welcome each and every refugee with open arms…welcome in the name of Jesus.”

An OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM's relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

*Name Changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Ruts notwithstanding, the drive marks a familiar route for Hein, who’s spent countless days helping to unload inflatable boats overfilled with people landing on the rocks below the lighthouse. Up to 7,000 refugees per day have arrived on Lesbos, climbing its steep banks then trudging uphill towards the nearest town—a two-hour walk for young men, a six-hour journey for some families.

The sheer number of refugees involved creates a crisis in Turkey and Greece that is now spreading to Germany and Sweden, but the thing to remember, according to Hein, is that “they are people. That’s it.”

People. Who, if given the chance, would never have left home. “These people don’t move because they want to. They are being forced out of their homes,” Hein emphasised. While helping on the beach and in the camps, Hein has spoken to many Syrians. When asked if they would like to go back to Syria one day, “they all said, ‘Yes, we would love to go back home one day.’”

A while back when Hein was meeting boats below the lighthouse, a man who had just arrived told a volunteer working with Hein, “Everyone is just so friendly to us. Everyone is just helping and really good to us. This is how Syria used to be.”

Giving help and receiving truth

It seems that in the western part of Europe, and even in some volunteers, Hein said, “There’s a fear, a mentality that the people are just going to be lazy. But they’re not.”

One example was the six boys who excitedly ran over to hug Hein in the camp the morning after he’d helped them exit their boat. When they saw that Hein and a few other workers had to set up tents at the camp, they volunteered to assist. “Without their help, we would have never been able to do it,” Hein said.

Another group of young men walking down a particularly bad stretch of road one afternoon, still wearing the silvery foil emergency blankets given upon their arrival, noticed a photojournalist whose car was stuck in the mud. Together, they pushed her out of the rut.

Other times in the camp, Hein remembered refugees asking him for trash bags so they could help clean the site. “A lot of them are hard workers,” he said.

A handful have also connected with him personally and spiritually. Once, Hein talked to several men who said they were from Damascus, Syria.

“Oh, as Christians, we read a lot about Damascus in our Bible,” he said. “What? You know about Damascus from your Bible?” they asked. “What does the Bible say about Damascus?”

Hein told them about Jesus, about Paul, about the church in Antioch and about Paul’s journey to Greece. “They’re really fascinated by this, and I say, ‘Would you be interested in reading this if you had a Bible?’” “Yeah, really,” one of the guys responded. “Would you mind if I bring you a Bible?” Hein asked. “Is it in English?” “No, it’s in Arabic.”

Overhearing the conversation, another man asked for a Bible as well. And when Hein returned with the first two, a third Syrian also asked for a Bible. “Is this Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?” the third man wanted to know. “No, this is the entire New Testament, the entire Injil,” Hein said. “Thank you very much.”

Reaching people on the road

Already the team in Greece has heard stories of how God’s Word has changed refugees’ lives. Word came back to Lesbos from a partner NGO working on the Serbian border about a man who had received a Bible after arriving in Greece. He read the Scripture as he travelled north, and when he encountered the believer volunteering at the border, he prayed to give his life to Jesus.

Hein also met an Iranian pastor at the lighthouse beach during a surge of six boats arriving back to back. “When we helped the people out of the second boat, there was a guy behind me that lifted up his arms, and he screamed, ‘Jesus!’” Hein said. “I turned around and asked him, ‘Are you a Christian?’”

“Yes, yes,” the man answered. He couldn’t speak much English, but his wife filled in the details, explaining that he was a pastor. Hein exchanged contact information with them and offered to arrange accommodations for the couple in Athens. However, a couple days later, Hein received a message from a Serbian number—the Iranian pair had already moved quickly through multiple processing stations and border crossings. And that morning the pastor had led another refugee to Christ. “He was ministering as he was walking as well and helping people, so we keep praying for them,” Hein said.

The others Hein has connected with – a Syrian man and his cousin, a 19-year old, people from Burundi who had fled first to and now from Syria, Afghani men who were hungry and another who wanted a Bible – have not followed a specific pattern. “Maybe it’s just God sending people my way,” he mused.

God has also used others to help the refugees. On Hein’s toughest night on the island, the same day he met the Iranian pastor, he stayed on the beach until after dark. As the final boat’s passengers got onto shore, Hein noticed a middle-aged man, around 40 years old, very sick. Hein wanted to take him straight to the hospital, but the man said he wouldn’t leave his family: 16 people ranging from 80 years old to a weeks-old baby.

“We had nothing for them. We had a couple towels, and it was starting to get cold. We had to make the toughest decision we’ve had to make and leave them on the beach, knowing that the baby and the old man and the middle-aged man might not make it,” Hein remembered. “I was really struggling that night. I promised them we would come back for them.”

Later that night, Hein loaded sleeping bags into his car and drove back to the camp, but he didn’t find the family. The next morning at team devotions, Hein was still struggling, angry at God, frustrated at the lack of resources to help the people. Then the evening team told him, “Oh, by the way, we ran into the family in the village.” An elderly local man had taken them in, providing an indoor place for them to sleep.

“I just realized that, again, I thought God exclusively uses me to reach these people, and He was saying, ‘No, I want that old man to reach out to people as well,’” Hein said.

Is God calling you to reach the people forced to leave their homes and countries? An OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM's relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Like much of Greece, Galatsi Arena is green. Unlike the bright green of surrounding nature, though, an artificial minty hue covers the enclosed stadium at the end of the 608 bus line. Built to host table tennis and rhythmic gymnastics in the 2004 Athens Olympics, the giant building transformed into an emergency refugee camp in October 2015, the third such accommodation in the Hellenic capital.

Official sports competitions have long stopped under Galatsi’s arching roofs, but pick-up football, volleyball and badminton matches currently last until 2:00 every morning in the compound’s cement courtyard, according to Deputy Mayor Manos Eleftheriou.

Over 10,000 refugees—99.9 per cent from Afghanistan—passed through Galatsi within the first month. Daily numbers fluctuate by 500 or more people, Manos said, with most staying only overnight, or at most a few days.

Inside the main hall, families clump together across a rubbery green floor strewn with trash—a Nescafé wrapper here, a bottle cap there, small plastic balls scattered throughout. Men and women lie on the ground, recovering from the journey behind them, preparing for the trip ahead. In one corner of the room, heaps of stuffed animals and discarded toys wait for children’s use. Various pictures line the wall, pencilled drawings transitioning into rainbow-coloured sketches of houses, flags, mountains, trees. One paper’s message, in English, recorded a child’s single wish: “Hope. All I need. All I desire.”

“Children, everywhere in the world are the same,” Manos said. “The first day, everything they painted was black, brown and dark blue. After two days, they used all the colours. This was important for us because they smiled not only outside but also inside.”

Besides supplying food, warm clothes and a quiet place for refugees to rest and wait, Galatsi also offers medical treatment via an improvised pharmacy and adjacent examination room.

“The first day, we had one pharmacist and a bag of supplies,” Manos remembered. “Now, the doctors come here and tell us we don’t need more… We have almost everything.”

While the refugees are free to come and go as they will—small groups setting out for Greece’s northern border and the countries beyond supplied only with the clothes they’re wearing, maybe a backpack or sleeping bag, and a blue plastic bag of essentials provided by camp volunteers—news and media crews are not. To protect the refugees and give them a safe spot to rest, Manos strictly regulates cameras inside the camp.

Volunteers, however, are welcomed. Yannis Stokas, assistant international commissioner for the Scouts of Greece, said 25 to 30 volunteers from the youth organisation, largely teenagers, show up each day, especially on weekends when the young people are out of school. The scouts mostly sort clothes—endless piles of pants, shirts, coats and shoes donated from Greece and abroad. At the door to the hall, refugees present slips of paper with clothing requests compiled by a translator. A volunteer then yells the order for those clothes to the people sorting items in the long room.

“It’s like fast food, but with clothes,” Yannis joked.

When Galatsi first opened its doors to refugees, Gabby Markus, country leader of OM Greece, was scouting the situation on the island of Lesbos. However, as soon as he returned to Athens, he worked with a local church to prepare 500 portions of food and headed to the new camp.

Previously, OM had helped with other camps in the city, but as churches and other organisations showed up, OM’s role there became redundant.

“We decided to explore the opportunities, if there are pockets of needs that OM can actually help fill in,” Gabby said of his first trip to Galatsi.

At Galatsi, Gabby, representing OM and the Greek Evangelical Alliance, registered both organisations as volunteers. Alliance Relief agreed to arrange a rotating schedule of churches providing meals for the camp, and OM committed to running one children’s programme each week, with different churches hosting another two occurrences.

The work at Galatsi comprises one of OM’s main priorities at the moment, allowing not only OM staff but also local churches to make a difference.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity for the church to serve and build its relationship with the community,” Gabby stated. “We’ve seen that already. The mayor’s office do acknowledge it’s the evangelicals who are coming… OM has been working with and through the church even before the crisis. We empower the church to reach out to the community.”

For Manos, who routinely spends 20-hour days on site managing the camp, “the important thing for us is that we see people coming with a big smile. It encourages us to smile while we work all the night. I tell the volunteers, ‘You are angels.’”

Ellen Cardenas, a church member volunteering with food distribution at Galatsi one evening, said her inspiration for helping out “is first God. It’s His love for the people. I just want to extend that love to them, to let them know He has not abandoned them.”

Would you consider serving the refugees passing through Greece? OM Greece needs people who can offer a week or longer to help. Particularly, the team needs volunteers who have the ability to speak Arabic, Farsi or Dari, carry an international driver's license, and are willing to share Christ's love and compassion with others.

An OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM's relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

While the church’s involvement with the refugees arriving in Greece did not start this summer—indeed, Greece has received refugees for over 15 years, 20 by some estimates—“this crisis has tremendously helped the unity of the church,” explained Fotis Romeos, general secretary of the Greek Evangelical Alliance and volunteer pastor of a small Greek congregation.

This summer alone, more than 300,000 of an estimated 400,000 plus refugees entering Europe journeyed through Greece, Fotis said: “From the very first day, all the churches have been mobilised all over Greece.”

Not only Greek congregations have woken up to this opportunity. There are over one hundred migrant churches in the Athens area, about the same number as Greek churches.

“We see churches from different backgrounds, different denominations, different theological structure and administrative structure to come together with the same food packages,” Fotis said. “We may have a church providing 100 dishes, another church providing 200, another organisation providing 300, and all come together just to serve the refugees. That helps create a movement of unity among the people and also a movement of enthusiasm because we see that together we can achieve more. Together, we can be more effective.”

“The refugee crisis only magnified our effort and our work with the churches,” said Gabby Markus, country leader of OM Greece and chair of the steering group for the Evangelical Alliance relief effort. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for the church to serve and build its relationship with the community.

Wake-up call

Kostas Polyderakis, who volunteers said, “There’s a huge opportunity for the Greek church to go out, for people to wake up, to see the opportunity.”

Although the church he attends took months to move from discussing a potential response to actually donating items for the refugees, Pavlos said even a small response is monumental, especially for a church like his that lacks missional direction. Why? “It’s the way to show that Jesus is alive, the way to show we care,” he stated. “What you say, it has to be connected with what you do. There are so many opportunities to share the Gospel with refugees.”

“We didn’t come here to do these things,” admitted Yong Tai Yang, better known as Pastor Philip, who came to Athens in 1990 and preaches at the Samaria Centre church to a largely Afghan congregation. Since 2001, however, when he encountered a group of 200 Afghan refugees sleeping outside in a park, his ministry emphasis and, consequently, the church’s, shifted.

Practically, his church has mostly focused on food preparation and distribution. “I have great joy and expectation because through this preparation, we can make opportunities,” he said.

Most encounters with refugees are momentary, as single men and families seek to push forward quickly, leaving Greece within days of arrival, headed for the next six, seven or eight country borders they will cross before reaching their destinations.

“We don’t have time to preach to them, but we are preaching very loudly with our smiling faces and our love,” said Fotis.

Pastor Edwin Cardenas, in Greece for over 20 years and pastor of Word International Ministries since 2006, said his church, a Filipino congregation, started its feeding programme at the end of September. First they distributed meals at Athens’ Victoria Square, a common refugee gathering point. Now, they partner with OM, which resources the church to prepare food.

“I really thank God that even though we are a small church, it’s been wonderful putting into fulfilment the command of God: love your neighbours,” he said.

With tears in his eyes, Edwin talked about the men, women and children he’s encountered passing through Greece: “It’s so sad. They are not even sure of their future. They thought they were coming to a better place, but is this really a better place?”

Indeed, for most of the refugees, Greece only marks the beginning of the journey. But for the church in Athens, it’s a “place for us to express our love,” Edwin said. “God moved us to move. God has put this compassion in our hearts.”

The church’s response since this summer—50 to 60 Greek and migrant congregations uniting to serve the refugees—has encouraged Gabby and the OM team.

“This has never happened. This is a huge answer to prayer,” said Selina Greenow, communications facilitator for OM Greece.

Of course, despite good intentions, hitches still happen in the on-going relief work. Recently, one church cancelled its scheduled food preparation, lacking resources to prepare dinner for 500 people.

For OM, behind the scenes work is best, according to Gabby. “OM Greece exists in Greece to work in partnership with the church and to support the church for a sustainable Christian community,” he said. “It’s the whole idea of walking with the church in a way that even if we leave, the church will continue doing what God calls them to do.”

Right now in regards to the refugee crisis, that means helping three churches provide 1,500 meals every week at one transit camp in Athens. The organisation wants to increase that number to 2,000, as well as raise funds to supply churches who have volunteers willing to cook but lack monetary means. OM also runs a children’s programme at the same camp once a week, with local churches offering another two programmes throughout the week.

“We are all part of a big job,” Edwin explained. “It requires working hand-in-hand with other ministries.”

Pray that churches in Greece will continue to unite to serve the refugees in Jesus’ name. Pray that this ministry will lead to new relationships in the community that can lead to revival in Greece. Pray for small congregations to receive the resources necessary for them to serve the people passing through their country.

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. She’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Every year, thousands of Afghans like Atefah escape to Greece from their war-torn country, with its turbulence and insecurity. Many refugee camps in Athens are also makeshift homes to throngs of Syrian, Sudanese and Eritrean families arriving on Grecian shores. Almost everyone wants to leave for northern Europe, yet many are delayed in Greece due to the lack of funds and access.

Part of Eliza’s service is being a volunteer with a group of Christians who cook and distribute meals to refugees sleeping in the square and at the transit camp in Galatsi Olympic Hall. With the refugee migration intensifying across Europe, Eliza also notes that the local evangelical churches in Greece are stepping forward to partner with OM, providing volunteers and resources to support growing mercy initiatives.

Eliza cherishes building relationships with her newfound friends. Beyond providing hot meals and clothing items, she feels the best part of serving in the relief effort is sitting and talking with the refugees, getting to know their stories and hopes for the future. Yet, she knows she has to cope with the loss when her friends move on.

“I do feel sad when they go; we’ve built friendships, and it is hard to keep in contact once they leave. But I know they are going to a better future and I’ve learnt to commit them to God,” she says.

On another hot and sticky evening, Eliza sits with Reha*, a young Afghan mother, and holds her seven-week-old baby, while the mother feeds her other two children from the dinner packs that have been distributed. As they chat and gesture through the language barrier, Eliza takes out a New Testament extract in Dari, an Afghan language. After explaining what it is, she asks Reha if she would like to take it with her to read.

At first, the Afghan woman is hesitant to accept the book. But later, she says, “Yes, I will read [it].” To Eliza, for all the immense challenges she faces in the refugee work in Athens, these five words simply make her day.

Please pray that God will give OM workers in Greece the words of hope to speak to people who have left everything. Pray for more volunteers throughout Europe to give of themselves to show Christ’s love to the arriving refugees.    

A developing OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM’s relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

*Name changed

Thousands of lifejackets line the shores of Lesbos, Greece—abandoned bits of blue, pink, green and orange glowing eerily against shredded black dinghies and the dark wet rocks where they were discarded. Following a surge of 27,276 refugees arriving on the island 17-21 October—the highest number this year according to the International Organization for Migration—a short stretch of stormy days briefly stemmed the tide of people risking the Aegean Sea crossing.

One Thursday night along a beachfront nine kilometres (about six miles) from the Turkish border, close enough to pick up a Turkish cell provider’s signal, a handful of people huddled around parked cars, peering through binoculars. Despite the choppy water and fading light, three rafts headed steadily toward the shore.

Hein van der Merwe, OM’s project manager on the island, pulled his rented jeep to the side of the muddy road, preparing to re-enact the routine he’d performed countless times over the past month and a half: splashing into the waves, securing the boat, carrying strangers’ children onto the beach. Other volunteers started unravelling roles of “space blankets,” emergency foil sheets to hand out to the refugees coming ashore.

The first boat to land contained Syrians, families from Aleppo unsure of their final destination but certain of their choice to leave. Volunteers on the island said that per-person prices for the dinghy trip depend on the amount of risk involved. Daytime crossings on calm seas run up to 2,400 euros (2,600 USD) Hein said. That night, for a dusk voyage pelted by wind and rain, Mohammed, one of the boat’s passengers, had paid 1,000 USD per person for his family of five.

While volunteers welcomed the refugees onshore, hugging them and instructing them to put the silvery-gold space blankets on under their wet winter jackets, a handful of men quickly deflated the dinghy, slicing the rubber into pieces and loading the wooden benches and engine into the back of a small pick-up.

Collecting engines is common practice on the island, Hein said, where setting up tents is forbidden “because it might invite the refugees to stay.”

With their transportation from Turkey now a dismantled mass on the beach, the refugees headed toward the road, trudging through muddy ruts towards their next stop. Then, in short succession, the next two boats beached, one carrying more Syrians, the other Afghanis.

Climb to the camp

The coastline paralleling Turkey, where most dinghies land, is around 75 kilometres (about 47 miles) from Mytilini, Lesbos’ capital and port city, where refugees can register and catch a ferry to Piraeus on Greece’s mainland.

Klio, a small island town, sits somewhat closer, as does a bus stop turned camp, manned by Christian volunteers, including those from OM, working through a Greek aid organisation. With one large tent, designated to sleep 150 people at most, the site should act as a temporary resting point, a place to filter refugees headed for Moria or Kara Tepe, the two official refugee transit camps on the island. However, the recent influx of refugees arriving in the dark, including a rush of 2,000 people one night in late October, has tested the limits of both the site and its relief workers.

Because of the rain, fewer people had risked the sea that Thursday night. Still, Hein’s team of volunteers had refused to return that night, overwhelmed by their experience the evening before. Instead, a handful of people working with OMNIvision, OM’s international video and events team, and four additional volunteers accompanying them showed up. After the camera crew left the camp, three of the others stayed until the next morning, handing out blankets that arrived in the wee hours and comforting the men and women shivering through the night.

Light in the dark

When the video team first entered the camp’s tent, the refugees already huddled inside blended into the blackness. The generator wasn’t working, and the buses transporting the people to the larger camps had yet to arrive.

Jay, associate producer for OMNIvision, pulled his camera light out of his bag and turned it on, not to capture the scene on film but to illuminate the tent’s interior. Outside, the other volunteers used small keychain flashlights to organise supplies, lead people to the outhouses and, eventually, guide them down a steep muddy incline to the busses. Inside, Jay held his light steady, replacing the first battery when the glow began to dim. That one light, bright enough for everyone within the white canvas walls to see, facilitated other tasks. The rest of the team handed out bus tickets, smiled at mothers and their babies and, later, distributed water and bananas to the people waiting to leave.

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 5:14 (ESV). Just like Jay’s camera light, shining for a few hours inside a dark tent, OM staff on the island act out Jesus’ words and bring light to the thousands of people passing through.

From handing out Bibles to talking to people who want to become Christians, on Lesbos, Hein said, “opportunities poke out [their] head everywhere. We don’t even have to do the work. It’s almost like God is here Himself… Of course He is, but we feel it almost tangibly.”

“I’ve started to realise the more open I am about my religion, the more questions people ask and the more Bibles I hand out,” he noted. “It’s become easier and easier to share with Muslims: ‘We are Christians. We are here to help because that’s what Christ expects from us.’”

Offering that help in Jesus’ name is key to OM’s role in Greece and throughout Europe, according to Robert Strong*, who is coordinating OM Europe's refugee response.

“If we are not here, then some other group will pick it up and will maybe run that camp gladly, but they will not do it in Jesus’ name, and that’s where the difference is,” he stated. “I believe that right now, especially in the first couple of months when these people arrive, you have a window of opportunity to speak into their lives about Jesus. Many of them have never had that chance… This is a wide open gate for God to use us to be His hands and feet to proclaim the name of Jesus to these people.”

Would you consider serving the refugees passing through Greece? OM Greece needs people who can offer a week or longer to help. Particularly, the team needs volunteers who have the ability to speak Arabic, Farsi or Dari, who carry an international driver's license, and who are willing to share Christ's love and compassion with others.

An OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM's relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

The OM Greece team on Lesbos, headed by Hein van der Merwe, anxiously travelled by van, going from beach to beach to see where flimsy dinghies carrying the refugees might land on this day. Refugees, who are completely unexperienced in navigating, let alone in these treacherous waters, are forced by human traffickers to pilot the boats; hence the need for help.

Hein plunged into the water as soon as he spotted the black dinghy bulging with Syrian refugees struggling to make it to shore. Shouting men clung to babies and young children, while women broke out into hysteria and cried after their fearful journey.

A father handed his little girl to Hein to bring her safely ashore.

Soon, Hein returned to the water. This time, he helped a woman suffering a panic attack to make it safely out of the boat.

“I am thankful for this opportunity. There is nothing for me that compares to the feeling of helping someone in need, especially someone in the water,” said Hein, a trained lifeguard in his native South Africa.

“The waves are treacherous,” one man said. “The people placing us in the boats don’t put in enough petrol, so we drifted uncontrollably on the sea and felt we were going to drown.”

Forty-four children out of 169 people were reported to have drowned in September, according to the BBC, while making the Aegean crossing as the seas become more violent as the cold autumn weather sets in.

Fear that the conditions will only worsen caused a surge of 7,000 refugees a day last week to come ashore in Greece, the International Organization for Migration said. A one-year-old child was also found dead on a boat after it partially capsized. 

Hein expressed deep concern over the huge number of children, elderly and other vulnerable people making the journey due to conflict.

“We have no way of knowing what they have been through and what they will be going through in the next days,” he said.  

Meanwhile, other volunteers on shore offered warm greetings and comfort in Arabic and English to the new arrivals, dazed by their traumatic voyage.

“You’re going to be OK. Safe. You’re going to be OK,” one told a sobbing woman. “Your babies are safe.”

“The Messiah has protected you. He is present,” said another, as the Muslim refugees acknowledged God’s protection over them. 

The team helped shivering children change into dry, clean clothes and provided towels to the adults. Soon, they discovered that a pregnant woman’s water broke from the trauma and she needed immediate emergency assistance. Hein and a team member who spoke Arabic raced her and her family in the van to a doctor at one of the makeshift camp hospitals. On the way, they discovered the family’s heartbreak of having to leave behind two other children in Syria, as their money would only allow for one son to come along on the difficult journey. Despite the woman’s condition, the family had already walked for days from Syria to reach Turkey to board the boat. Although they were excited at the prospect of a new life, they seemed anxious about what may lie ahead.   

The euphoria for many refugees escaping from war as they land on Greek shores is mixed with concern about an uncertain future.

“I’ve been shocked by people coming on shore asking when or where is the taxi that goes to Athens. They don’t even realise that they are not on mainland Greece,” Hein said. “They don’t even realise that they are on an island. They ask: Where are we? Which country is this?” 

As Greece continues to struggle with its own economic woes, it depends on efforts by OM, Eurorelief and others to provide food, water, sleeping bags and other basic items the refugees need. The Greek government has offered former Olympic stadiums in the capital, Athens, to house mainly Afghan refugees and others having a longer stay in the country. But it has also relied in Athens on OM Greece and the Evangelical Alliance of Churches, working in coordinated efforts with other organisations, for food supplies and distribution to the refugees.

Back on Lesbos, Hein, Peter*, a Dutch volunteer with OM, and others received a frantic call late at night from a local villager reporting that 1,000 refugees landed at a dangerous part of the coastline, known as the “Lighthouse”. The area has been a major focus of OM Greece’s assistance on the island. The team drove some of the refugees to a camp, about 70-kilometres away, where they must register. But Hein expressed frustration that more people and vehicles are needed to help the refugees, especially those arriving in the dead of night.

“We desperately need more people to help drive refugees to the camps,” Hein said. “Unfortunately, that night a number of “women, children and babies had to be left on the side of the road, without sleeping bags, food and water,” he said, unhappily. “It was not because we lack those supplies, rather we had no other vehicles or people who could drive the refugees to the camps,” Hein said. “The bus stops are filled to over-capacity so this forces the refugees to undertake the strenuous hike to the camp in Mytilini.”

OM Greece needs people who can offer a week or longer to help, as the needs are great. Particularly, the team needs volunteers who have the ability to speak Arabic, Farsi or Dari, carry an international driver’s license, and those with a willingness to share Christ’s love and compassion with others.

An OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM’s relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

*Full name not included for security reasons

The team's hearts sank when the Syrians told them that the same boat, which charged them a steep 2000 € per person for the 30-minute trip was to make another journey to bring the rest of the family from Turkey. The team had seen the harbour police arrest the pilot and had to break the bad news to them that their relatives' fate was uncertain.

And so the trials and difficulties continue for the hundreds of thousands fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan making their way to Greece's shores in the hopes of moving onward into Europe. OM Greece continues to demonstrate God's love and compassion there.

The OM Greece team on Lesbos has enjoyed chatting with the refugees—something not many other relief workers are doing.

"A young Iraqi guy approached us and excitedly told us the he, too, wanted to become a Christian," recounted the team leader, heading up efforts on the island, where many of the refugees land.

"Stunned, we immediately gave him a Christian tract in Arabic we had picked up earlier that day, and those gathered around began reading it."

Waves of new arrivals of Syrian and other refugees to Greece's shores are overwhelming relief groups and authorities in the biggest humanitarian emergency since World War II.

Despite the early onset of autumn's rains, more than 2,500 mainly Syrian and Afghan refugees, soaked and exhausted, reached Lesbos in just a matter of hours this week alone. This marks a sharp rise in the rate of arrivals making the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey, aid officials said.

Most refugees traveling in unsafe dinghies and boats, squeezing about 40 to 45 people aboard, came in the pouring rain. Some suffered from hypothermia.

Over 430,000 refugees fleeing mayhem in the Middle East already have worked their way this year from Turkey to Greece. Despite Greece's dire economic crisis, many Greeks have been welcoming the refugees even though resources are scarce and many Greeks are also looking for help.

Gabby Markus, OM Greece country leader, also coordinates humanitarian assistance provided by numerous churches in the Athens area to ensure more effective cooperation and aid on behalf of the fleeing refugees.

Government and local officials have appreciated OM Greece and the local churches' quick ability to organise Arabic and Farsi/Dari translators to help communicate with the refugees as well as the practical provision of badly needed water, clothing and cooked meals. A clothing bank, shower facility, possible WiFi/Internet access points, and a potential campsite for temporary stay by the refugees are also in the planning.

"You tell us and we will get the people," Gabby told an official of Greece's Migration Policy Ministry. As a registered Greece-based organisation and with work in 110 countries worldwide, OM is strategically placed to help the refugees in their hour of need.

This week, the Athens team has helped numerous Afghans, including Harazas, sheltering in a sports stadium after a torrential downpour drove them out of one of Athen's outdoor parks.

Inside the stadium, where colorful pup tents lined the floor, young Afghan men danced to a throbbing, ethnic beat. Their arms sliced the air and bodies spun, enrapturing Afghan and Greek onlookers alike.
Greek doctors were on hand to carry out health checks on those who made the strenuous journey from their war-torn homeland.

"We had 45 people packed inside our flimsy rubber dinghy," 20-year-old Habib told OM. It was a dangerous journey and we were very frightened. Now we're exhausted, but we must continue to move on," said the youth, with dark, intense eyes.

Other OM Greece workers participate in cooking and serving meals to refugees gathered at churches in a food-share project. They also assist in meal distributions in parks where refugees congregate in the Greek capital.

"We must help these people who have left everything behind," Gabby said.

OM Greece needs your prayer and financial support to continue and intensify its aid efforts for Syrian and other refugees fleeing conflict to Europe.

A developing OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give specifically to projects in Greece, please mark your gift to be given to Greece. To give to OM Europe's general relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

After the conference, Hein joined the Transform team in Greece, where he shared his testimony at a refugee feeding center and distributed tracts and talked to people as they traveled from Athens to Thessaloniki. He would have loved doing more evangelism, but found the Transform outreach to be a great preparation for living in Greece; it helped him understand what to expect when moving there eight months later. “Transform was one of the confirmations for my move to Greece,” Hein commented.

Called by name

A year before Transform 2014, Hein attended OM South Africa’s GO Challenge conference. He had been with OM for more than a year and looking for a country to go to, thinking it would be a Muslim or African country.

“At the conference the preacher spoke about praying for a nation and that God would call you by name and you must be obedient,” shared Hein.

The conference was held in a school and the entire hall was covered in missions materials, flags, pictures, prayer requests, maps, etc. “The preacher gave us time for private prayer and then prayed for us. As he said ‘Amen,’ the map of Greece dropped to the floor, but the [Greek] flag remained stuck to the wall. Under the Greek flag was my last name - Van der Merwe.” Hein learned that it was the name of the school’s netball captain for that year. “I asked for a nation and God called me by name!”

However, Hein ignored it as he still felt called to a Muslim or African country. At the time he was reading through Acts and the next morning he read about Paul's time in Greece. “Still I ignored it, but it stuck this time,” said Hein. Later that day, Hein told a friend about what had happened with the Greek map and flag in the school hall, so they returned there so Hein could show his friend where his name was. “When I looked at all the names of the first team netball captains from previous years, the name above my name was my mother’s maiden name,” Hein said. “I was shocked!”

That night the participants were split into six groups in order to pray around the world. Each group received a country presentation followed by a time of prayer for the country. Hein decided he would start praying about moving to Greece IF they would pray for Greece that night. And the very first country they prayed for was Greece!

Back in Greece

In March, Hein returned to Greece. In the beginning he found it rather confusing as he was unsure of his role. However, “I know I am here for the Greeks and the local people have made me feel so welcome,” said Hein. “I’m still defining my role, but in the meantime I am making as many Greek friends as possible...and learning the language.”

Please pray for Hein, the OM Greece ministries, and the country of Greece, as it is in the midst of a difficult economic and political situation. Pray that during this time of crisis in the country, the people will be stirred and will turn to the only One who can truly save them. Pray also for the Christians to realise that they are not without hope; this is their chance to share openly about God!

“It was a wonderful experience as nations gathered and worshiped God through songs, and different pastors led prayer for different troubled nations around the world,” said Gabby Markus, leader of OM Greece.

In May, Gabby contacted youth leaders in Athens, inviting them to pray and discuss organising a united prayer and worship event in the city. Sixteen people attended a vision-casting meeting the last Saturday in May at a Filipino church in Athens. Around the room, one after another, people said, “We have been praying for this for a long time.”

One woman even said, “I had a dream that I was leading worship in an event where people from many nations gathered.”

In June a worship team formed from different churches, denominations and nations and began practicing for the event, even leading worship in July during OM Transform 2013’s international night, when people from various nations represented shared aspects of their culture.

“For many of the worship team this night was an eye opener,” said Gabby. “They were introduced to the concept of nations within Greece and outside of Greece. It was as if scales had dropped from their eyes.”

On October 12 the event, United to Impact – Unity in Diversity, took place in Sporting Stadium in Athens. It’s estimated that between 600-800 people from different denominations, churches and nationalities came to worship together.

“I thought we were the only Christians in the city,” said one Filipino participant, “but when I saw the Greeks I said, ‘Where were they and we never saw them?’” The Greeks who took part in organising the event echoed the sentiment.

“I attended the event and liked it,” said one Greek pastor. “Sorry for not bringing my church. Next time we will all come.”

As a result of United to Impact, this pastor is now meeting with another Filipino pastor to discuss ways they can work together. Even more unusual in this culture, a Filipino church has intentionally partnered with a Greek church to cook and serve meals to the homeless.

Praise God for greater unity in the body of Christ in Athens due to this event. Please pray for funding to do more events in the future. For more information, contact info.gr@om.org. 

To read more about OM’s work in Greece, go to their news webpage. 

Like many native Greeks, Katie* grew up in a very traditional Greek Orthodox church. But she didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Once, when Katie was 16 years old, she had a big fight with her sister. In the middle of the night she sat up and turned the light on, because she was so troubled. Katie prayed about it and wondered, “Maybe God is real?” Then she turned off the light and went back to sleep. The next morning, the problem had been resolved.

When she was 19, Katie would go to the Greek Orthodox church and light candles and just sit.

“I don’t know what I was waiting for,” she said, “Now, I think, I was waiting for this [relationship with Jesus].”

Unbeknownst to Katie, her cousin had become a believer five years earlier and was praying for her. One day, a friend she’d known since she was six years old invited Katie to attend church with her. Katie heard someone share their testimony of their spiritual journey, and Katie understood for the first time that God was real.

She accepted the gospel and Christ as her Saviour. Soon after, Katie’s sister also made a decision for Christ.

Katie decided to get involved with the OM Transform project when she met with the OM Greece team at the stall during a mission conference in June. Despite family pressure—she didn’t tell her parents she was participating, as they would be upset—Katie chose to come to the Transform conference in Rome by herself.

When she got to the train station, Katie said she was very frightened, because there were no taxis and it was getting dark. She asked two people standing at the station if they knew a way to get to Hotel Selene, which hosted the conference. As it turns out, they were attending Transform too!

“God takes care of his own,” Katie said, with a brilliant smile.

It was the end of one journey, but just the beginning of another journey of adventure with God.

Pray for Katie and the ministry of the Transform project. To learn more, check out the Transform website and Facebook page. 

*Last name omitted for security reasons

The 2nd Evangelical Church in Athens, situated in a poor community with a high immigrant and refugee population, provides meals for over 120 people two times a week in partnership with OM, as well as sharing friendship, Christian literature and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We try throughout the year to maintain a constant presence to cultivate relationships,” said George, the pastor of the church. “I think one of the blessings one receives when you participate in such a programme is you become able to talk to your neighbour.”

Cultural barriers dissolving

The older members of this mostly-Greek church, who came as refugees to Greece in the 1920s, readily welcomed outreach to their neighbourhood. Others found it more difficult in a culture where foreigners are viewed with suspicion.

“Greece has always been a challenging place for the gospel of Christ,” he added. “Pray that the evangelical churches would see mission as a necessity, not a luxury.”

Slowly this attitude is changing. Gradually some believers are becoming more comfortable participating in these efforts and growing to understand the vision of the feeding programme, donating food and time. The church has even built a kitchen with the help of OM to accommodate the ministry, an idea that even a year ago was met with resistance.

“I certainly see the transformation from within our own church,” said Themis, an elder in the church who also helps lead the feeding programme.

The members of the church are also struggling with the results of the financial crisis, and the church does its best to help the needy among them by paying water or electrical bills or by bringing poor families basic supplies from the supermarket. But they are also finding a little extra to share with those less fortunate.

“It’s amazing to see the Greek churches taking ownership and responsibility to care for the outsiders and not just the Greeks,” said Gabby Markus, the field leader for OM Greece.

The needs of the hour

The feeding programme came about as a response to both the global and nation-wide economic crisis, and the emergence of Greece as a “gateway” to Europe for immigrants and refugees from the Arab Spring. People from at least 15 nations or ethnic groups are represented in the area surrounding the church.

“As the crisis began to deepen, we saw a greater need to formalise the programme,” Themis said. “For most people the biggest struggle is finding work.”

Many of those living in the area are there illegally, but even the Greeks find it difficult to find jobs. An estimated 27.6 per cent of the nation is unemployed, with the number closer to half among people age 30 and under. To make matters worse, a 100-per cent inflation rate over the past couple years means even those who have a job struggle to make ends meet. Many can only afford to pay rent or buy food, but not both.

“You usually have to depend on your immediate family,” Themis said, adding that sometimes whole families will live on the grandparents’ government pension. “This is a real struggle in the church and outside the church as well.”

The church is working to provide shower and laundry facilities at their drop-in centre, since many families don’t have access to water in their homes.

“One of the mistakes we make in the church is assuming we know what the community needs,” Themis said. “Some men would come to church if they didn’t smell.”

Food for the soul

As great as the practical problems are, many people who come to the church’s feeding programme and associated ministry are isolated and distant from friends and family. For them, their most heartfelt need is for friendship and spiritual nourishment. Themis said the top response from those coming to the feeding programme is they appreciate the friendship.

“We try to serve them with the dignity each person deserves as one made in God’s image,” Themis said. “This is a relief ministry, but we are also trying to build relationships.”

Several Bible studies have sprung up among both Greek and foreign participants in the programme, as a result of the Christian literature distribution and witness of the ministry volunteers. Last month, they gave out 40 French Bibles and around 20 English ones. In addition, 10-15 of the people involved in the Bible studies are now coming to the church, something Pastor George said he hopes will continue.

“I’m seeing changes in the lives of the Greek men who attend the Bible studies,” Themis said. “I’m seeing transformation in this community.”

The path ahead

It’s not an easy road for the struggling members of this community, as every day more people lose their jobs, and there is no real end to the economic crisis in sight. The church and OM Greece no longer have the funds to run previous feeding programmes in the north of Greece, one in a church with 75 per cent unemployment. But still they persevere, seeking to make a difference one life at a time.

“His love is what compels us to reach our community,” Themis said, simply. “Love automatically serves.”

Currently the project has a deficit, so the OM Greece team would appreciate prayer for God’s provision. You can learn more about the ministry of OM Greece here. 

 “I lost everything,” he said. “My wife, my job, my asylum status. I lost everything but I have Jesus Christ. I am happy because I am a child of God.”

Amon*, who fled to Greece six months ago after being imprisoned in the Middle East and denied refugee status, said he became a Christian in prison but was weak in his faith. As we talk, he shows me the white lines on his face—scars from beatings because he denied Islam to follow Jesus. Even now, he lives in danger of discovery and persecution.

“No one can bring me back to Islam,” he said. “My heart belongs to Jesus Christ.”

When Amon first came to Greece, he really struggled. Two months ago, he found the drop-in centre, which is run by OM in cooperation with a local church. He received Christian literature and discipleship, is participating in Bible studies and studying the Bible for himself, as well as attending a mother-tongue church.

“My faith was weak,” he said. “But now my faith is strong, because I read the word of God.”

In addition to the Bible study, the drop-in centre provides free coffee and tea twice a week and sandwiches on Fridays, as well as connecting people to a feeding programme run by the church in partnership with OM Greece. Amon expressed sadness for the many Greek people who think they are Christians, because they attend a Greek Orthodox church or are religious, but don’t actually know Christ.

“When you see someone has the Holy Spirit in their heart, you know they are truly Christian,” he said. “I hope God will save the people in this country and in this situation.”

Even with the help given by the church and OM, life is still very difficult for Amon. Like many immigrants and refugees in Greece, he lives in an abandoned tenement building while he applies for paperwork and refugee status in other countries.

But even with the challenges he still encounters, the smile is quick to come to his face and he is happy to share the reason for the hope he possesses.

“My hope is in Jesus Christ, because he gave me eternal life,” he said. “I don’t put my hope in this world.”

* Name changed to protect privacy. 

“I felt convicted to come back to Greece,” Anthony said, adding that at home he merely went through the motions of Christian behaviour. “I feel God brought me to Greece and Transform to bring me out.”

In 2011 and 2012, Anthony participated in summer outreaches with Transform, an OM conference and outreach hybrid reaching out to many nations in the Mediterranean. He said the experience was an adventure, a taste of the mission field, but he wanted to come discover for himself what longer-term missions would be like. In February 2013 Anthony went to Athens for a six-month term with OM Greece, with the possibility of extending that ministry into the future.

Sometimes the call to be a missionary doesn’t come in a flash of lightning. But we all have the Word of God and the obligation to share Christ with others.

“In the end, the decision was easy,” he said. “I want to carry on growing and walking with God every day. The only way you can grow is to go out of your comfort zone.”

The type of ministry Anthony’s doing with OM Greece definitely qualifies as outside the comfort zone of many Westerners. He helps serve the homeless, refugee, immigrant and needy population of Athens through drop-in centres and feeding programmes, which are run by OM Greece in partnership with a Greek church.

Twice a week the drop-in centre provides free tea and coffee, and offers sandwiches on Fridays, giving poor people in the community a chance to interact with friends or neighbours. Because in Greece it’s culturally unacceptable to visit a friend without a gift—which most people can’t afford—the drop-in centre is a neutral environment where they can get to know others without being expected to bring gifts.

Anthony said the language difference can be a barrier, but he often plays board games with people who come into the centre. He said God always manages to overcome the barriers to relationship with them, whatever those difficulties might be.

“It’s a platform to befriend and build relationships with them,” Anthony said about feeding and clothing the homeless.

The centre is located in a neighbourhood with a high immigrant and refugee population, where many people are homeless and in severe financial distress. These problems are as varied as the people, but they often stem from a high influx of immigrants—especially those from Arab nations, due to the unrest in the region—into Greece, as well as the recent economic crisis.

Though many might find it difficult to relate to people in such desperate circumstances, Anthony’s words reveal God is using Anthony’s past to help give those coming to the centre a new future.

“I understand the people who are coming here because I was a drug addict and was in prison for many years,” Anthony said. “A lot of the problems with the socially affected—I have been there. My past is the same as what many people are going through.”

God uniquely prepared Anthony to serve the “least of these” and be able to relate to their struggles, using Transform as the vehicle to bring him to a place of great need. But Anthony doesn’t consider himself to have been “called” to come to Greece. For him, this ministry is just a natural outpouring of his relationship with God.

“Sometimes the call to be a missionary doesn’t come in a flash of lightning,” Anthony said. “But we all have the Word of God and the obligation to share Christ with others.” 

“Trafficking is happening in Europe, Greece and all over the world,” said Martha, director of the Nea Zoi (New Life) ministry in Athens, Greece, which reaches out to individuals in the sex trade. “This is not a myth, it is a reality. You just have to walk with us on the streets.”

There are approximately 270,000 people trafficked in Europe, with 40,000 of those in Greece. But for workers serving with Nea Zoi, the people in the sex trade are not just statistics. They’re real people with real needs and real problems.

“I just love these girls,” says Rosie (UK), a young woman who reaches out specifically to Nigerian women working on the streets and in brothels throughout Athens.

Rosie, a worker with OM, represents the partnership between OM and this home-grown ministry. Nea Zoi is a volunteer-run ministry, aided both by believers from the community and short-term workers. OM helps provide both personnel and funding for Nea Zoi, most recently donating money raised through the Freedom Climb project to help meet special needs, like pregnancy tests or passports for women trying to leave prostitution and start a new life.

Trafficking is happening in Europe, Greece and all over the world. This is not a myth, it is a reality. You just have to walk with us on the streets.

The funds also help run Nea Zoi’s sewing class, which Rosie organises. They are designed to give skills and income to these disadvantaged women in an already-struggling Greek economy. Out of the seven or eight women involved in the class, all but one have been able to leave and are no longer working on the streets.

“She loves Jesus,” said Rosie about the remaining girl. “She just can’t work up the courage to leave.”

In a sensitive issue that only gets more complex the further one digs, this is not an uncommon sentiment. The reasons people get trapped in the sex industry are just as varied as the way they end up there.

Many women go in search of education or a job, only to discover that those “helping” them are actually traffickers. One woman involved in Nea Zoi—one of few who is educated and willing to testify against her traffickers—sought out higher education at a university. An “agent” from the university came to travel with her to the university.

“Her destination changed,” Martha said. “She was trafficked to Greece for prostitution.”

Another woman met a man on Facebook, who became her boyfriend. He ended up trafficking her out of Eastern Europe.

However, Martha said, some women do know what they’re getting themselves into—but they may see it as their responsibility to provide for their family. Some are sold by their families to traffickers, while others may be one of seven or eight children and are sending back money to pay for food or education for siblings. Women trafficked from Africa often have occult ceremonies performed over them before they leave, holding them spiritually enslaved even if they are physically free to leave.

But a lot of girls do want to get out, even if the road to freedom isn’t as simple as it might first appear.

“They don’t trust the police and are ashamed,” Rosie said. “For some girls, they try and get themselves trafficked to another country in hopes things will be better.”

Workers at Nea Zoi help women wanting to leave find jobs, and work with the authorities to obtain the necessary paperwork for the women to either return to their home country or start a new life elsewhere.

The needs are constant, but slowly, one life at a time, these followers of Christ are making a difference in the lives of those trapped in the sex industry. However, much still remains to be done.

“There is a great deal of spiritual evil,” Rosie said, who asks believers to pray. “Every story is a work in progress.”

Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn has taken advantage of the rising xenophobia. Members flaunt black shirts, Nazi salutes and a stylised swastika as their logo. With such extreme proposals as forcing immigrants into work camps and planting landmines along the Turkish border, this party won 21 seats in the Greek parliament in last year's election.

People trafficking

The anti-foreigner climate has done nothing to discourage the import of human beings for prostitution. Approximately 20,000 women—1,000 of them between the ages of 13 and 15—are caught in Greece’s lucrative sex industry.

OM Greece supports the local ministry Nea Zoi (New Life) which reaches out to people involved in prostitution. Last year, OM Greece team member Rose* met Joy*, a woman smuggled from Nigeria and forced to work in brothels to pay back her traffickers. Learning that Jane’s bosses would be away during a specific period, the Nea Zoi team succeeded in getting her out of that situation. Rose took Jane to the International Organization for Migration and helped her through the process of reclaiming her life.

Rita* was also trafficked from Nigeria, with the promise she could work on obtaining her master’s degree in Athens. Instead, the young woman found herself forced into prostitution and soon became pregnant. Once free, she hoped to get a passport for herself and her baby, so she could pursue her studies in Belgium. OM Greece—with funds provided by the Freedom Climb project—partnered with a shelter, A21, and Nea Zoi to finally make Rita’s dream possible.

OM is also using funds from the Freedom Climb to partner with the Evangelical Church of Volos, which began in January to renovate a building to serve as a shelter for abused women. Freedom Climb money channeled through OM Greece is also helping to fund a cloth bag-making project in Nea Zoi, which will generate income for the women.

Re-defining missions

OM Greece Field Leader Gabby Markus is himself a foreigner from Papua New Guinea, but he is accepted through his marriage to a Greek woman, Evie, whom he met while doing relief work in Sri Lanka.

“When I went into Greek homes I learned that they don't like ‘missionaries’, which is what they call evangelicals,” he says. “They have the mentality that missionaries are tourists living at other peoples’ expense. After World War II, the missionaries who came to Greece found the language and culture difficult, so they tended to develop ministries outside existing churches.

“Missions that come and try to drag the churches into their vision just don’t work,” he adds. “Greeks are proud and patriotic. They feel this way of doing things shows a lack of respect for churches. That’s why OM’s approach—partnering with the church to witness to the world for Christ—seems most acceptable.”

Last summer a Transform outreach team came to Greece for 14 days and formed close relationships with the people. Seven young Greeks also went on a Transform outreach to Italy.

Churches taking ownership

“A few weeks ago, an elder in my church got up after the Sunday service and told everyone, ‘When I became a Christian, I thought mission was a business. But now I know that God want us all to do missions,’” Gabby says. “That’s exciting!”

Gabby says when OM Greece partnered with a Greek church to feed unemployed, homeless people and refugees last year, the church members took it over and ran it.

“This is an amazing transformation,” he says. “Just two years ago it would not be possible to see foreigners welcomed into the churchyard to be fed. Now they feed up to 130 people from Syria, Iran, Bangladesh, Eastern Europe and many other countries each day.”

As part of the food outreach, Gabby says, OM Greece lays out books and Bibles in different languages for people to take—and they disappear. Last September OM Greece, in partnership with the church, raised funds to add a kitchen in the back of the church, so that people could get hot food instead of cold. This February they launched a second feeding programme in Piraeus port, in partnership with another church that oversees the day-to-day running of the programme.

As an extension of the feeding programme, adds Gabby, the church now also runs a drop-in centre for homeless people where they can get tea or coffee, do their laundry and take showers. OM contributed to the start-up of this project and will continue to support it as they raise more funds for the operating cost.

Birth of a Migrant Church Network

Greece’s migrant believer population now exceeds that of all the Greek evangelical believers put together. Last June a Migrant Church Network was formed, with over 80 churches participating.

“OM has been gaining access into these churches, and they have asked us to do discipleship training,” Gabby says. “Twenty-six Filipinos just graduated from the first course and a second course is planned soon. We are hoping to organise an international worship and prayer event that promotes Greek and migrant churches working together.

“The ‘ends of the earth’ has come to Greece,” finishes Field Leader Gabby with a smile. “God brought them to us! I believe He is doing a new thing.”

*Name changed

Summer 2012 in Greece saw the departure of OM Greece leaders Kees and Rahel, who have led the ministry for 10 years. Busy packing and saying emotional farewells, the family received a surprising phone call. For one year, they had tried to gain permission for a 23-year-old Romanian prisoner, John*, to be released for holiday leave. Each time, though, their application was refused, until the week they were preparing to move. Kees felt frustrated at first: “To be honest, we thought ‘Lord, so many times we tried over these past months to get permission for him to come; each time the officials refused. Now, during these days when we are extremely busy, when we cannot invite him to stay in our house, he finally gets permission. What timing is that?’”

During his visit, John stayed in the Greek Evangelical Church in Larissa instead. At the church, he interacted with various believers, attended the youth group and joined their social outings. On Monday morning, just before he returned to prison, the pastor spent time with him. As Kees arrived at the church to pick him up, John came to Kees beaming: "Now finally I am free!” That morning John had committed his life to Jesus. Though John is still in prison, he is a changed person. Members of the church are staying in contact with him. Praise God for John’s new life in Christ. Pray that he has fellowship and provision while in prison.

*name changed

As Greece teeters on the brink of economic disaster, new OM country leader Gabby Markus reports that large numbers of the middle class and poor are increasingly desperate: “Many are forced to leave their homes because they cannot afford the rent. Salaries have been decreased to the minimum 400 Euros per month while the cost of goods and services remains high or is rising. Athens news reports increases in break-ins and robberies of homes, shops and banks. The numbers of people begging on the streets have increased. Thousands of Greeks are leaving the country in search of greener pastures.”

In response, OM Greece is partnering with an Athens church to feed the homeless and immigrants. “The programme started with 20 people and is already up to 120, three times a week,” says Gabby. “It has opened opportunities to share our faith. We are now raising funds to build a kitchen to make hot meals for these people.”

Pray that Gabby will have wisdom in his new role, and that finance will come in for the kitchen. Also ask God to work His purposes in the midst of this country’s crisis so that Greeks will turn to him.

OM: Kees, can you please summarise the current situation in Greece today?

Kees: Although the economic situation in Greece remains dire, political parties seek to gain power in the midst of the prevailing chaos. With every election, new people are appointed into government based on their political loyalties and less on their professional qualifications. Hardly anybody takes responsibility for their deeds, yet they are very easy to judge others by what he or she has or has not done.

The Euro helped develop some of the country’s infrastructure, but much was lost in other pockets. Corruption has become a way of life for many, although not all benefit from the system equally. And those who have been proven guilty remain unpunished, while their bill is still being paid by those of the lowest income (the rich have their assets in off-shore companies and foreign accounts). Personal relationships are crucial if problems are to be solved.

As long as people benefitted from the system, it was never questioned. People are now either very upset for fear of losing all their “rights”, inciting acts of violence. Others realise that measures need to be taken, but they remain hard to swallow as huge cuts are made to their incomes and pensions, and property taxes are introduced. The poor condition of social services and the corrupt juridical system only adds coal to the fire.

OM: How is the local church responding to the current situation?

Kees: Ninety-eight per cent of the population is Greek Orthodox, and although many might criticise the church’s shortcomings, the institutions of baptism, marriage and burial are still practiced as a means to attain salvation. In most cases, however, what is said and done in the church has hardly any relation to everyday life. Abortion rates are extremely high and one in four men visit brothels. Materialism has also become the god of many.

We know that only Christ can bring restoration and healing to this country, and we need to share the message and biblical ethics to a society that neglected the church’s direction and authority a long time ago.

The evangelical community is very small, making up 0.2 per cent of the population. The church in general is very fragmented and divided and was inward focussed for many years. Some churches are starting to respond to the needs of the community with a deep commitment to shine God’s light in their neighbourhood and beyond. A revival is still needed in most denominations, not to mention a better understanding of what it means to live and work in unity.

We are excited to see more and more churches catching the vision to reach out to their neighbours, and more and more people understanding the need to change our way of “being church”. As the church’s income continues to shrink due to extreme economic pressure felt by many—especially those who have lost their jobs in the past months (and subsequently social benefits)—the needs of the church are growing.

OM: What are the fears and hopes for the future?

Kees: Generally speaking, there is great unrest and fear for the future. Much heated discussion is placed on the current political and economic situation. Pessimism and even fatalism are emerging. Younger people are leaving the country in search of jobs. Again, the weakest are the most desperate as they struggle to find enough food to survive. Electricity bills and rent have not been paid for months. And this is only the beginning, many fear.

Also many immigrants think about leaving Greece, but it is very hard (especially for Albanians and others outside of the EU) if there is nothing to return to. There is not a lot of hope in the political system anymore, and as religion is often one of tradition, people don’t look to the church for solutions either.

OM: How has the ministry of OM Greece changed as a result of the current situation?

Kees: As our society is shaken, OM Greece seeks to respond by sharing the message of hope through Christ, while meeting the basic needs of the most needy—the homeless, gypsies and immigrants. As the crisis is also a spiritual one, we are seeking to address this in our local church. Churches realise more and more that they need to reach out and yet often lack the necessary resources. People raise questions such as “Why do we exist as a church?”, “How should the church function?”, “What is our answer in this time of great turmoil?”, “How can we help our members that struggle to meet ends?”

With the breakdown of social services, we also see challenges and opportunities—the need for a place of refuge for battered women and their children, as well as feeding programmes. We know that only Christ can bring restoration and healing to this country, and we need to share the message and biblical ethics to a society that neglected the church’s direction and authority a long time ago.

So yes, OM Greece has become more involved in aid projects, but we lack the capacity to respond to all the requests; for example, the needs of an Albanian Gypsy group we work with have grown to an extent that even if we were to raise 1,000 Euro a month, their structural problems would remain unaddressed and ultimately nothing would change. Of course, we try to work as much as possible with the local church, but these are often small and challenged by the crisis themselves. With a small team of six adults, we need wisdom to know how to strengthen and challenge the church, while at the same time respond to the needs around us.

Please pray for the ministry of OM in Greece. Pray for wisdom as they minister in their local churches. Pray that the local churches will find ways to reach out to their neighbours in need and bring hope to the hopeless. 

As always, the OM team leader’s telephone rang a lot during the days of preparation, and the numbers of people announcing that they would come grew by the day. It promised to be one of the best-attended camps ever.

For the first time this year, many Albanians joined the camp from the first evening onwards. As cars drove into the campsite, Gezim (whose name means joy), the Albanian organiser of the camp who will take over leadership soon, approached the OM team leader with a great smile. 

Instead of the two families he had hoped for, seven families from Katerini, his hometown, had announced they would attend the camp. They all shared the same grandparents, Ylli and his wife, and were related to each other. Will we have places for so many? Gezim wondered, as the camp was almost full already. 

Never have so many openly responded to the gospel during the camp.

God worked in a very special way in this family, as at least six of them—amongst them Ylli, his wife and other adult family members—decided to become followers of Jesus during one of the meetings.

“Never have so many openly responded to the gospel during the camp,” reported the OM team leader. “As we gave our farewell speech, we could not hold back our tears. This is worth all the effort over all these years, seeing God working in the lives of our Albanian friends.” 

Ylli showed that he was serious about his new faith when he and his son asked about buying a Bible just before leaving the camp.

“While embracing Ylli, I thanked God,” said Gezim. “Although our ministry here has stopped, [God] will continue to work in ways greater than we could ever imagine!” 

Jemina (Finland) joined a Transform 2011 team to Athens, Greece. Her arrival held some surprises, which spoke powerfully to her about God’s purpose for her life.

“Looking out of the bus window in Athens, my team mate and I were somewhat surprised. The final stop for our airport bus didn't look like a normal bus stop, let alone a major bus station. A few inquiries revealed that indeed this wasn't the centre we had been heading for. The reason—not to our surprise—was another street protest blocking the city centre. Since this was Greece, a country facing a lot of unrest and hardship, we had been preparing for changes in plans.

Starting with the gospel and its power, we will eventually end up with a whole new world: the kingdom of God among us.

“Walking around a street corner, we found ourselves at a major metro station called Evangelismos. This discovery spoke to our hearts: God wants our missions trip to start with the gospel! We must not forget this, however fine our own plans for the trip might seem.

“To continue the allegory: taking the metro from Evangelismos, we then arrived at our destination, a part of the city called Neoscosmos, meaning the new world. Starting with the gospel and its power, we will eventually end up with a whole new world: the kingdom of God among us. This would be our prayer for the trip and for all our lives.”

The team of 10 joined the local evangelical church from 10-17 July in Volos, Greece. Amongst other things, they spent the mornings picking up rubbish from the streets and coast. In one morning, they gathered 104 large bags from a 150-metre area alongside a road.

“Gathering rubbish in the heat of the day, in the Mediterranean, was more strenuous than we would have thought,” remembers Theo. “Temperatures over 35˚C (95˚F) don’t help with the smell of it either!

“When the rubbish was stinking and disgusting, I was reminded of [Transform speaker] Richard Sharp's message on the street in Rome. He used rubbish as a metaphor for our stinking sin and what Jesus does with it,” continues Theo.

“Every time I would feel like turning my face away, I would be reminded of how revolting my sin must be to a Holy God; He, nevertheless, did not turn His face from us, but got down, and got His hands dirty, picking up and doing away with our sin. I am starting to think that Jesus is big in recycling, taking the stinky mess of our lives and advancing His good and loving plans—taking broken vessels like us and turning them into something useful.”

For more stories from Transform 2011, check out: www.transform.om.org.

“We Greeks used to be very proud of our heritage and culture,” says Theo. “Many people would pride themselves in being Christian Orthodox – but I haven’t heard anybody saying that for a while.”

We want to have a clear message of God’s love for everybody to understand.

Theo is a native Greek, from a country where more than 97 per cent of the population are members of the Orthodox Church. Born into an evangelical family, Theo took his faith seriously at the age of 19 when he felt a call to “build up God’s church”. Today, he fulfils that calling as one of OM’s team members in Greece, where he seeks to make the gospel “culturally relevant”.

For Transform 2011, Theo is leading a team to Athens and Volos where they are partnering with churches to serve their needs. Among the various activities planned, the team will also do something rather unexpected—pick up rubbish from the streets alongside a local church leader. By doing so, Theo hopes to send a message that is not very far from the gospel itself.

“Can you imagine an Orthodox person asking us who we are and why we are doing this? And wondering how our leader could be working alongside us too? We want to have a clear message of God’s love for everybody to understand.”

Sustainable growth

Further down the road, Theo sees two main needs for the church in Greece – building disciples and planting more churches. “We have not yet found a way to do church in a sustainable, reproducible manner,” he says. Part of the solution, he notes, is to build a generation of Christian leaders. “We need to have a proper succession of leaders in the church—that is something we’ve not had before.”

Nonetheless, while the challenges loom large, Theo believes that the ongoing crisis will soften hearts for the gospel. “At a time like this we realise that we have cast God aside. We’ve never truly been Christian, but rather nominal, cultural Christians. It was more about culture and national identity than real, transforming faith.”

Come work in the harvest

And yet, while the harvest is ready, the workers are few. For this reason, Theo urges people to pray for Greece and to think about helping the team. “We would love to have more people join us. We really believe that Greece is a fertile ground, but we don’t know how long this will last.” For more information, contact OM Greece.

“We are open three days a week, and have 'regulars', but many still only have surface-level conversations with us. That said, there are many encouragements: one such is Spiros*, an elderly gentleman who would chatter away happily about nothing.

"A few weeks ago, he started bringing up important issues and asked about faith. His life is not an easy one. Recently, a couple of us prayed with and for him, and he took home a Bible to read. I don't think Spiros has turned to Christ yet, but last week I heard him encourage another guest to take a Bible too, and carefully picking out the ones in languages she understood. He kept telling her it was ‘very important’ to read it, and quoted a passage he had just read himself!"

Pray that as Spiros reads God's word, that he would come to understand - siga-siga! - that Jesus is Lord, so that when he makes a commitment to follow Him, it will be with complete understanding and with all his heart!

Building on the success of that event, a festival is now held every summer. As relationships with local people have grown through these, their needs have become more apparent. Many residents are Albanians, with Greek-born children who struggle to find their place in either culture. Assisting their integration is proving an excellent way to practically communicate God's love.

In 2008 the church opened a community centre in Neo Kosmos, aiming to enrich the lives of local youngsters and help them adapt to Greek society. While most of the staff are volunteers from the church, OM team member Martha* is heavily involved, assisting Constantinos* a Greek believer, who runs the centre on a day-to-day basis.

Martha loves working at the community centre. She says, “We have about 45 kids who come, 90% are Albanian boys. Anyone is welcome! The centre currently offers free lessons including mathematics, computers and Greek on weekdays. These kids struggle in school as their written Greek is poor, so these lessons can really help. There are also lots of games, like table tennis, table football and a Wii. At weekends, the centre opens so the youngsters can drop in, and get off the streets. I love weekends there, because you have the chance to talk and play together, getting to know them more and show them Jesus’ love.”

It’s exciting for volunteers at the Centre when they see a young person start seeking after God. Martha continues, “One teen I pray for is called Astrit*. He came to a summer camp run by our church and I could see him interacting in Bible studies. After that he was in Albania all summer, but on his first Sunday back in Athens he came to church for the first time, and brought a friend with him. It was a joy for me to see Astrit joining in with singing and following closely during the Bible talk. There aren’t other Albanians in the church but that hadn’t deterred him from coming. We pray that the seeds of God’s word will take firm root in Astrit’s heart!”

Martha finds living locally an advantage, as she can also meet these kids and their families in their home environments. “One young boy Gezim* who comes to the centre lives right by me. One day he saw me in the street and invited me to visit his family. On a return visit to my house, Gezim and his sister could practise Greek on my computer. Small things, but valuable in building friendships and I pray for chances to tell about Jesus’ love for them.”

Before the Second World War the Gypsies in the Balkans were used to being able to travel through Greece and Albania and earn their living as basket and chair makers (made out of tree twigs). They were also known for their copper work, making pans and other material used over fires. After the war their travel possibilities were limited as Albania closed itself off during the long dark period of communism.

Many of these people, born in Greece, but now in Albania were not even able to speak the language in the beginning. The communist government tried to integrate them into the society and many started living in permanent housing abandoning the traditional gypsy lifestyle.

When Albania opened up and they were able to travel again into Greece many decided to try to build a better life here. In groups they started doing seasonal work in the Greek fields: picking tomatoes, pruning the vines, harvesting olives, clearing the cotton fields of weeds.

In the early ’90S their earnings were quite good and the work really fitted their life style, but over the last few years much of the work on the fields has being done with machines and they are struggling financially.

This is how we found “our” Pelasgia gypsies again near the town of Larissa where we live. Their circumstances were extreme difficult. Whereas a few years ago they could have earned a good amount of money, they can hardly find any work at all now. Many other immigrants from other countries have come to Greece in recent years and work for very low wages.

When we arrived at their camp to run a children’s program, as we have been doing together with CEF Greece, their very needy situation was something we could not ignore. There is no way we can share the gospel with words without sharing God’s love in a practical way.

We have been back twice since then, donating food packages with oil, rice, and flour. We were also able to collect secondhand clothes clothes. It’s not much that we can do, yet we can show them that we care and most of all, that God loves them.

As we shared this need with the Albanian believers (also immigrants) in Northern Greece money was collected and clothes were given. It was exciting to see how they participated to help these people.

It’s hard to imagine what life is like, living under plastic shanty tents in the open field. As we returned from the visit to the gypsy camp dust was everywhere - between our teeth, in our hair and our ears. We could take a shower and wash it all away, but they don’t have that luxury.

We will go away on a break soon – for these gypsies there is no break. Please pray that they will be able to feed themselves this summer.  

“Do you think these gypsies living opposite our village are a nice decoration for us?” We were shocked to hear these words as a friend contacted the local municipality in Pelasgia, Central Greece, to make an appointment with them for the next day.

As we met with two assistant mayors the next day we wondered if they would really cooperate to help the poor Gypsies that have already been living just below the rubbish dump of their village for so many years – the gypsies who are good for cheap labor gathering olives for a very low wage during the winter months. 

Yes, the local authorities made a connection for the water, but the outlet is in the middle of the town’s rubbish dump, and the water is only usable for washing their clothes.

We asked if we could work together with the council in the vaccination program for the children and what they thought about the schooling of the children. Already one generation of children has been “lost” as no child under 18 can read or write because of the lack of education.

We recognized the very complex problems there are, because there are so many Gypsy children (over 150 in this one community) and the families live as seasonal workers, so they are only coming to Pelasgia in October and leave again before the school stops. Yet, how could we help these children? Does anyone care?

Much is needed - a place where the children could receive education, volunteer teachers with a love for these children. And more than this it needs a change of attitude in many gypsy families regarding education and the way how they raise their children. It would help if these families would have a permanent place to live, but what if there are no jobs available during many months of the year?

Another question that was raised was the fact that the municipality didn’t know if the Gypsies could return to their camp place in the future to set up their shanty town.

Questions and more questions yet it mostly comes down to one thing. Do we really care? Does anyone really care? Yes, the problems are huge but in comparison with other situations much could be accomplished if only the heart attitude would be there. Please pray that God will move hearts as we are trying to help these people. He cares! 

Kosta (12) and Niko (10) came to the Albanian camp we held in September in Northern Greece. They are children of Albanian immigrants in Greece. Although they speak Albanian (which is not always the case with Albanian children here) they are more influenced by Greek culture in which they grew up all these years.

Life is tough for Albanian immigrants, especially over the last years as prices of living have gone up and work opportunities are less. Many of the parents both have to work and sometimes have two jobs each. Some of the children, therefore, are hardly raised by their parents and spend much of their time on the street or at internet cafes playing games for hours. Many of their parents themselves have hardly been raised in a healthy family environment, as they grew up in communist Albania where children were taken care of by the state from three months onwards.

These children are neither Albanian nor Greek and often feel the rejection which sadly is common in Greek society. No wonder that many of these children have personal difficulties. For Niko there is more pain added. His parents divorced lately. Maybe this is one of the reasons that he turned to heavy metal as a way of expressing himself. Possibly it's also a cry for attention, if not positive then negative.

When he arrived at the Albanian camp, he wore an Iron Maiden t-shirt with skulls and a graveyard, glorifying death. The boys didn't want to go to the Bible club, they thought it was so childish. But we insisted that as they came to the camp they had to take part. When Niko would draw he mostly drew dark pictures, lot's of black and red colors. Michalis, a worker of another Christian organization, who helped us during this camp told us how Niko changed during the camp. At first he was very indifferent. Then at one time Michalis asked him to rap a song which he had learned. After he was praised for it, he felt very cool. In the end he shared with me that he really liked the program. We pray that the Bible lessons will stick in these children's hearts, knowing that there is a God who loves them.

We thank God for the 80 Albanians- most of them believers- who came to the camp, many of them with their families.

Pray for these immigrants. We sensed a heavy atmosphere, as people were both physically as well as spiritually very tired.

Pray for Kosta and Niko and children like them that grow up in between two cultures, pray that they will find their identity in Christ.

N – No restrictions

A DAY WITH REFUGEES

It is Saturday - a normal, busy day in Athens. We have come all the way here for a day to help in a christian refugee centre with a team from our church. It is located in the very centre of Athens, just a few blocks from a metro station. When the doors open, dozens of people are already waiting to come in. Men, women and children, of all ages shove their way in. We help the regular staff by making food packages, serving tea, playing with the children, talking to people, playing chess and backgammon…

During the afternoon break we go out for a short walk with the team from our town. There are people everywhere, so many that there is no space to walk in the sideways. People come and go, some just stand still or lie on the ground. Faces full of desperation, misery and hopelessness! Many people are clearly high on drugs or drunk, the smell is terrible and there is dirt everywhere. Some wear dirty cloths, some normal clothes. Some just lie in the street on a blanket. We do not see Greek written, instead, Arabic and other scripts fill the windows and shop signs. It’s hard to understand that we are still in Greece. We see very few women on the street. People really seem “…harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

The whole day I feel really heavy and sad. For me, only visiting this area for a day, there just seems to be so much distress and hopelessness present. You almost can touch it! However, we are so happy and thankful to God that just here, in the midst of all this misery, there is a centre, where people can get attention, food, drink, a shower and most of all, hear about the God, who created the heavens and earth and who loves them all deeply.

PLEASE PRAY: 

- for the Helping Hands ministry to refugees (which is part of International Teams) and their ongoing outreach to this section of Greek society. Pray for the many lives that are impacted! 

- for us as OM here, that we would have team members who would work part-time with this significant ministry.

One of the short-term team members brought 10 wooden crosses. A friend had given them to him to give out to the kids the group would meet. This friend didn’t know that there were exactly 10 people in the team. The team decided that each person should give one of the crosses to a kid with whom they build a relationship this week.  And this is what happened on the last day.

One of them gave his cross to M, a teenager who comes to the youth centre every week. He is Albanian and came to Greece as a little boy. For the last few weeks he has been coming to the church youth group on Saturday evenings where we talk about the Bible. M is many times on his own, he doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends, if he has friends at all. He is different.

I’ll never forget the tears in their eyes when the cross was exchanged, as a sign of friendship, as a sign of love. This guy, who was only here for a week and a half, by giving the cross to M, showed his acceptance, showed that he wasn’t prejudiced against him because of appearance and through that showed Christ’s acceptance for all of us. These wooden crosses are important for many of the kids. Every Friday when I see the kids, wearing their crosses, it also reminds me of the blessed week we had together.