In this three-part series “Fleeing, Fighting, Freedom: The Heart-Wrenching Story of Refugees” I recount my experiences during my month working at a refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece. “Fighting” tells the story of how refugees continue to fight for their families and themselves once they’ve arrived at “no man’s land” in the refugee camp, while applying for political asylum.
Fighting
Skin heals over shrapnel protruding from one man’s neck.
A young woman silently cries alone in the corner as I offer her a tissue.
A one-month-old baby sleeps in the open air at New Arrivals in 40 degree weather, sharing a single blanket with his mother.
Another woman with two kids is paralysed from the waist down.
A child with Cerebal Palsy is wheelchaired around behind the barbed wire fence in the disabilities section.
These are a few of the refugees I had the privilege to work with.
These are the faces of those fighting for freedom after fleeing from oppression. Be sure to check out the first article of this tri-series called “Fleeing” before reading on.
. . .
What does it look like to fight for freedom while trapped inside a refugee camp?
One man’s tent is ripped along the zipper, which allows the cold and wind at night to seep into his two person tent that crams his family of four. I spend a few hours fixing it with the only supplies we had: duct tape and a stapler.
Another man moves his ripped tent because it was being soaked by the camp’s leaking toilet water that trickles down the hill.
I gave shoes to a one-year-old whose feet are the color of charcoal since he lost his little shoes on the boat ride over.
With extraordinarily limited resources, sometimes it seems I have to say “no” more than I can say “yes” to blankets, clothes, shoes, tarps, platforms (to elevate tents off the ground) and the like. I have collectively spent hours upon hours at camp arguing with refugees that are fuming and cussing at me in all sorts of languages.
I told a man that platforms for tents wouldn’t arrive for another week or so and he responded in fumes saying: “We are not cows. We are not pigs. We are not ducks. We are humans. We need these things to survive and you are denying me. I have ten people in my family living between two tiny tents. What am I supposed to do?”
The camp is packed with nearly 6,000 refugees in a military base made for 1,800. I see these humans that are living in conditions far below the basic standard.
These people have come from the depths of hell, fleeing their homeland. Fleeing their culture. Fleeing from all they’ve ever known in life.
Then they end up here at the island of Lesvos, Greece.
The conditions are not much better.
Safer, but not better.
In response to the man who told me they are living like animals I replied,
“You are human. And I am so honored to see how you are fighting with every ounce of your being for your family.”
They may have escaped war and oppression, but the fight doesn’t end.
The small and weak don’t have a voice for themselves. They go unseen, unheard. We only have enough supplies to give everyone one of everything. Then, the strong steal and take for themselves, leaving others with nothing.
They fight for decent space and comfort among the unforgiving, crowded, feces-and-trash infested camp grounds.
They fight to prove asylum with pictures of their homes bombed, friends laying dead in the photos.
They fight weather conditions. Harsh downpours and the ungodly winds of the island. Winter is coming and the cold creeps in at temperatures dropping close to freezing at night.
They fight for freedom.
They fight for safety.
They fight for family.
They fight to be seen and heard.
They fight to live in peace.
They are weary from the journey of fleeing, and yet they still fight.
They are fighting for their lives.
For many who fight the battle for physical liberation, they come to see that there is a spiritual battle worth fighting for.
God is fighting for their salvation. He wants to give them life- abundant life.
As many of these refugees flee from the Middle East, I can’t help but see God redeeming the land in which He ultimately revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.
“You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”
~2 Chronicles 20:17
God is doing work in the Middle East despite the war and oppression. The Israelites faced oppression for 400 years before they were liberated from Egypt.
The Middle East, a heavily Islamic population, is going to be restored in the midst of this pain and suffering.
“The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes.” Deuteronomy 1:30
God was faithful to them then, He will be faithful to them now.
He is fighting for their salvation.
He is fighting to free them from corruption.
He is fighting to bring His Kingdom to this Islam-held territory.
At the moment all they can see is the fight in front of them for physical freedom.
But through this crisis God is planting His seeds. He’s sowing a huge harvest so we can all feast and rejoice in the homecoming of the Islamic people.
The refugees are fighting the good fight, but so is our Savior.
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Almost unbelievable…if I didn`t live in Colombia! Erica, we continue to pray and know that one way or another that the Lord will redeem! Mark
Tears filled my eyes as I? read your beautiful response to the man fighting for his family. Those were spirit filled words!!! Thank you for honoring him!!! If only we fought so diligently for the spiritual lives of those around us….thank you for the reminder….
Most of what we’ve seen in blogs and in our minds eye is the concerns of the flesh; the real concerns of the flesh!
But the battle is for souls and it isn’t against flesh and blood!
It’s against power and authority that we can even imagine and these powerful beings are acting as though the already own all the lost souls of the world. Well they DON’T. But that means we, everyday, must give grace to the man like you did. And at any moment that anyone will listen we need introduce them to Jesus.
I don’t get up in the morning wondering who I can introduce to Jesus but because of you I sure look for the opportunities and take more risk that before! Thanks so much for this reminder.
This race is helping a bunch of us grow, huh?