Exclusive stories from the mission field
A Christian ministry in Greece helped a traumatized refugee mother from the Middle East obtain an appointment with a psychologist, but she also wanted to speak woman-to-woman with one of the ministry’s two directors. The refugee had left her four children, ages 4 to 13, behind. “She left her country running, trying to rescue herself,” the director said. “Her kids didn’t blame her.”
Armed men in a European capital tied up a Druze refugee from Saudi Arabia last year and were torturing him as they recorded videos demanding his family pay 25,000 euros (US$28,900) for his release. When Khaled cried out to God, his Muslim captors told him that if he was going to pray, he should pray like a Muslim to Allah. In the midst of his ordeal, Khaled found himself in an unexpected spiritual battle.
Hasan Qasim was a young, well-off businessman in a major city of Syria when police stopped him at a checkpoint five years ago. The government wanted him to rejoin the Syrian army. Qasim had completed his mandatory military service 11 years before. “They pushed me to fight again,” Qasim said. “And I didn’t want to fight.”
Two Kurdish men who had fled hardships in southeastern Turkey surprised local missionaries in Greece when they eyed books on the refugee ministry’s shelves and asked, “What are these?” When workers answered that they were Bibles, one of the men asked if there were any copies in Turkish. “I am interested to know more about God,” the refugee said. “Can you teach me?”
Local missionaries in Greece tried to protect the head and tongue of a Kurdish refugee who was suffering a major epileptic seizure in their offices.
Before the novel coronavirus struck, a Muslim refugee accepted an invitation to come to a native ministry’s Bible study at a home in Greece.
At a gathering of refugees in Greece, a native missionary’s message about hospitality and serving others struck a note with a new Christian sharing a large tent with 10 other families.
Three years after Greece signed an agreement with Turkey to discourage refugees from trampolining off Turkey to Greece, Greek facilities for receiving them are still overwhelmed – prolonging the crisis. Many of the newcomers are disillusioned with Islam and open to the gospel. Most refugees in Greece today come from Afghanistan, including Muslims who must avoid hard-line neighbors finding out they are learning about Christ.
A Muslim father of three in Syria, Achmed, dreamt that God told him He wanted him to know Him. It was unforgettable but left him uneasy, since he had no idea what the Almighty meant. Taking his family out of war-torn Syria, to Madrid, Spain, Achmed’s journey as a refugee was only beginning.
