The life of a refugee begins with the impossible choice: To brave a dangerous journey toward an uncertain future in an effort to escape a violent and grim present day.
"Chai?" (Tea?) "Talg/Shrien?" (Bitter/Sweet?) After offering tea to an Afghan refugee family of 8, they invite us into their 8m x 5m container which they have been calling "home" for the past 22 days. The mother of the home at once instructs one of her daughters to put a pillow behind our backs and to put a tray of oranges and cookies in front of us. She also offers us the tea we just brought them. She says if we were at her home in Kabul, she would have been able to offer us more. For a moment we are speechless with tears in our eyes.
They tell us of their journey from Afghanistan to Tabanovce, Macedonia (where they are currently stuck because the borders have been closed). "We walked for 18 hours without stopping through the snow." "We saw people that were not able to continue." "We were 65 people on a boat designed for 10 people."
Despite the dangerous journey they have been through thus far and the uncertainty they are facing at the moment, they ask us about our country and our journey. The mother tries to convince us to marry her son who is living in Austria. We joke along and take photos so the son can choose between the 3 of us. We show them photos of our families, they show us photos of their family still in Afghanistan, and we take some more photos together. Immediately we are like old friends. We, followers of Jesus Christ, and they, Muslims from one of the most unreached countries on earth.
With the scenario replaying in my head I ask myself: "What is God doing?"
David Crabb writes the following in his blog about the refugee crisis:
''What if, through the senseless evil of civil war, God is bringing unreached people groups to our cities? What if, through great tragedy, God is bringing about the triumph of the gospel? Christian missionaries have spent years praying, strategizing, and risking everything to go to people in places like Afghanistan and Syria. Now, God is bringing them here.''
And we are able to freely chat to them about literally anything in their ''homes''. They are broken and we are able to give them some comfort. They are hopeless and we are able to give an account of the hope we live for and the hope that lives in us. They are traumatised and confused and we are able to offer them a prayer in Jesus’s name. We are able to listen to the troubles they are facing in this world and tell them about the One who has overcome this world.
Luke 10:2 AMP
And He said to them, The harvest indeed is abundant [there is much ripe grain], but the farmhands are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
What a huge harvest.
Through this refugee crisis God is building His Kingdom.
In this crisis God is still sovereign over us and even what the enemy means for evil, He turns it for the good.
Genesis 50:20 ESV
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive...
Eternal life.