This morning I headed to the port of Athens ahead of the team and served with the Greek Red Cross. I teamed up with them distributing food, clothes, toiletries and cleaning the port terminal. It was a little difficult communicating, but with broken English from them, little phrases in Greek I’ve learned and lots of [...]
There's a lot going on in lots of different places with refugees in Athens. One of our short term teams has been there this past week and they have seen first-hand the incredible suffering and struggles of the refugees and immigrants that now crowd Greece. It's a hard place to be, but they are glad to [...]
Many thanks to everyone who has given for the refugee project transportation. The team is thrilled to be able to make it out to the prospective build sites for the new school in the Sinjar region as well as over the rough roads to the refugee camp. Being present is such an important part of [...]
Food Distribution Today, we cleaned up Victoria Square. We swept, picked out trash from among the bushes and plants and filled up four large bags. A couple of the young Algerian men helped out as they realized how disrespectful it was, culturally, to leave an older woman like Nihad, to sweep up after them. In [...]
The education challenges in the Kurdish region have multiplied this year. There are many more students needing schools than ever before, a problem exacerbated by the constant drain of teachers and school personnel hoping for a life outside of a tent in Europe. Our refugee school is a small part of this struggle. The Shepherd Medes School, which at [...]
Helping Christians Prepare to Meet and Love Our Refugee Neighbors When: March 14th, 7-9pm Learn how to meet and make friends with a refugee Practice basic greetings and customs Discover more about their faith Learn how to talk about Jesus with people from other cultures Discover how pray and study the Bible together And much more! Space [...]
Here’s an update from two of our teammates who are networking with refugee relief workers in and around Athens, Greece in order for us to be better able to serve there. Today we spent all of our time in a Park. The need there is tremendous! The majority of refugees are from Afghanistan and Algeria. [...]
Isn’t there something wonderful about going home? For me it’s one of the best things about the holiday season. But after living in Iraq for several years, home has come to mean a lot of different things. Now, it’s often the place where I am not. When I’m at my parents’ house “home” is the [...]
There are candles lit in the living room, the wind is howling outside and we had a snow day last week. Were it not for the constancy of baklava and old men in huge pants, I could think I was in the US. (Though, honestly, my city in the US has baklava and big pantsed-men in spades.) This [...]
Last year thousands of families in Iraq lost their homes to ISIS and fled to nearby refugee camps. Our teams in Iraq have been working hard to love and serve these families. Today, ISIS has been pushed back and we are excited to help the first of these families return to their homes. To help, [...]
