Loss & Comfort
As volunteers, the raw sorrow that we encounter in this camp can be overwhelming. Even for those of us who have gone through real brokenness in our lives, nothing that we encounter in the west comes close to the extreme brutality and evil that some of these refugees have experienced.
I heard another story last night about a woman whose sojourning started when her husband was murdered by the militant Islamic group Boko Haram. She fled with her kids to her parents house. Boko Haram killed her parents as well and beat her up, but for some strange reason, they didn’t kill her as well. She met someone who invited her to Turkey for a job, so she left her kids and flew to Turkey, but when she got there she was forced into sexual slavery. She finally escaped, but was imprisoned by the Turkish police for being in Turkey illegally. Finally, in prison, she met people who were planning to smuggle themselves to Greece, and somehow she got linked up with them to come to Lesvos.
Although sometimes it can seem impossible for us to meaningfully sympathize with some of these people, since we have not gone through anything close to what they have endured, I've been seeing that simple acts of compassion can go a long way: listening patiently, giving them a hug, giving them a safe place to cry and to vent, and telling them that we will pray for them.
The refugees themselves have taught me a lot about compassion. Every night they open up their tents to me, share food cooked over the campfire with me (I keep telling them that if they ever make it to America, I'll cook them some Korean food), smile at me and ask me how I'm doing...
Yesterday, a Gambian named James shared his story with me.
James's father was involved in politics in Gambia. But when the president refused to step down, even after losing the popular election, James's father started to work from the inside against the president, passing information to his political opponents. When the government found out, James's fathers was imprisoned and tortured, but he escaped to neighboring Senegal. But soldiers came to the family house again, and arrested James and his brother. They interrogated them about their father’s whereabouts and tortured them before they finally let them go. James subsequently fled Gambia. His father never quite recovered from the torture he experienced, and he died last December, while Richard was in Moria. James began tearing up as he shared his story with me. “Africa has good people,” he told me, “but the leaders are very bad. They are very corrupt. They are very greedy. It’s impossible to speak your mind in that country.”
Pence sat down with us by the fire while we were talking. He’s Congolese, and can’t speak any English, but Richard understands French, so he was able to translate for us. Pence told me that he was very thankful for me and the other Eurorelief volunteers. “You don’t have to come here, but you stay out here in the cold with us. I noticed that even when volunteers are sick, they still come out here to work. You guys are very kind. Why are you so kind? Why did you come here?”
I was a bit embarrassed because l’m painfully aware of the fact that we aren’t able to do as much for these people as we would like to. But I pointed heavenward and told him, “Jesus loves me, so I want to love others. And I think you would do the same for me."
“That’s very good. God will really bless you for that,” said Pence
“God will bless you too,” I replied
Pence shook his head and smiled. Then he put up the 10 fingers of his hands, one by one. “My family, 10 people,” he said, and then, slowly, he closed one hand into a fist, made a slitting motion across his throat, and said, “da-da-da,” miming a machine-gun with his hands. He made a sad face and drew two fingers down across his cheeks, as if he was crying.
After Pence went away, James told me,
"He is very thankful for you volunteers coming here. He is saying that we don't deserve it. But that is grace. That is what God does for us. He comes down to be with us, even though we don't deserve it. Jesus even came to die on the cross for our sins. And you guys are showing that same grace."
Read this in scripture this morning:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."