Stories from the Field

July 2003

Just Love Them

"Every refugee family has a story -- usually a sad one . . . They just need someone to listen."

“Andrew”* prays for power as he drives into a refugee center in Western Europe,* the back of his minivan loaded with clothing, food, toys and Bibles in various languages.

The kids spot him first and come running from the nondescript, dormitory-style building. “Mr. Andrew! Mr. Andrew!” they shout, jumping into the missionary’s arms. Parents and other adults follow. Andrew’s visits count among the few bright spots in their often-gloomy days.

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 Kurds, Afghans and other refugees in Europe, e-mail refugeehelp@yahoo.com.

The writer may be contacted by e-mail at commission@imb.org.