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Every refugee family has a story—usually a sad one. Such stories
are as common as despair among the thousands of refugees flocking to this
European country for sanctuary.
They come not only from Afghanistan but many other places people flee
because of war, misery, oppression, ethnic turmoil: Iraqis, Iranians,
Palestinians, Algerians, Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Syrians, Chechens, Gypsies,
even Burmese. They arrive by plane, in the backs of trucks, inside crates
and in the rat-infested holds of ships.
“One of the best things we can do is listen to their stories,”
says Andrew, who leads a four-person International Mission Board team
that aids the refugees. “They just need someone to listen.”
They need a lot more than that, and Andrew and his co-workers provide
a lot more. But listening is a start.
Andrew, a 32-year-old single missionary, has heard—and seen—some
painful things in the centers. Like the Iraqi man who bared his chest
to display an intricate pattern of circular burn marks from torture. Or
the Chechen who stared with dead eyes and said, “Killing people makes
you cold.”
But he’s also heard Iranian young men eagerly ask, “Can you
tell me about Jesus?” and a little Uzbek girl say, “I love God!”
after inviting Christ into her heart.
“It’s so open,” Andrew says. “You can share the
gospel with all these unreached people groups without worrying about getting
arrested.”
He takes refugees to doctor appointments or outings to parks, plays
with the children, recruits helpers to clean up trash around the centers.
He’s even broken up a few fights between members of rival ethnic
groups.
“Andrew is a very good man,” says an Afghan whose father was
beaten to death by the Taliban. “He helps us.”
He also spreads the good news of Jesus at every opportunity. At a refugee
transit center in his city, he sets up chairs and a snack table in the
kindergarten room, brews coffee and invites people in for a simple worship
service.
Thirty or so refugees from a dozen countries—a third of them Muslim—come
in. A cheerful cacophony ensues. The congregation sings “God is so
Good” and reads John 3:16 in five languages, followed by a brief
evangelistic message from Andrew. He keeps a bookshelf against the wall
well-stocked with Bibles and other materials.
“Arabic Bibles go like hotcakes,” he reports. “We’ve
probably given out hundreds of them.”
On Friday nights he screens a comedy or family movie, and invites people
to stay for another film in their native language: the JESUS film.
Sometimes the mood among Muslims in the room gets tense when the movie
reveals Jesus as the Son of God.
“Usually one will pop up and leave, then some others will follow,”
he says. “But others will look around—and stay until the end.”
To date, more than 1,200 have stayed for the entire showing, and at
least 50 have committed their lives to Christ through the film outreach
alone.
Andrew originally came two years ago to help evangelize a people group
in the area. While studying the national language, he spotted a bulletin
board notice appealing for volunteers to help the needy—including
refugees.
“I just called the number, and a week later I was in the main refugee
camp serving coffee,” he recalls.
Now he spends most of his time on refugee ministry. One challenge: locating
them. The government doesn’t divulge the locations of the refugee
centers in order to protect families from foreign agents seeking escapees—and
from local racists targeting foreigners.
By keeping in touch with refugees as they move from one location to
another, however, Andrew has found more than 70 centers in his region
alone—and personally visited at least 40.
Many remain in centers for years at a time until their asylum requests
are finally decided. Most eventually will be denied permanent residency.
If they are sent home, some will be carrying the gospel back to their
peoples.
Meanwhile, they keep coming.
You’ll find Andrew and his team of volunteers at one refugee center
or another nearly every day.
“Sometimes I ask God, ‘What can I do?’” he says. “And
God keeps telling me, ‘Just love them.’”
—Erich Bridges
For information on how to get involved in ministry to Afghans and other
refugees in Europe, e-mail refugeehelp@yahoo.com.
Also, visit www.tsilenttsunami.com.
The writer may be contacted by e-mail at commission@imb.org.
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