Helping hands...

Every Tuesday I join the 'helping hands' team to serve a good meal to around 140 refugees. It is always a fun time and a pleasure to be a part of the team even if it's only for a few hours. There is a real commitment behind all the work that goes on within the ministry, and it's exciting to see how God has grown the ministry and is working in the lives of the staff team, volunteers and visiting refugees. One of the highlights for me is meeting volunteer teams from churches across the globe. Currently a team from Nebraska has been serving and it has been great getting to know them. As you can see from the pictures, there is much preparation to be done before the refugees arrive. It takes just under 1 hour and a half to make the salad and whilst this is being done, the hot meal (chicken and chips or spaghetti Bolognese for example) is being prepared. At around 11:30am the team all meet together for a Bible devotion and a time of prayer. The refugees arrive at 12:00pm and by 12:45pm we are ready to serve the meal.

Salad being prepared...

Salad ready to go...

It then takes around 30 minutes to serve all the refugees before sitting down to eat a meal with one of the tables. Today I was able to talk to a lady (because she spoke good English) about her experiences. I was with another volunteer and we were saddened to hear about how she risked her life and the life of her family to flee Afghanistan. You hear the stories about 40 refugees crammed into a boat the size of a dining table, and this was very much the case for this lady. She spoke of her fear that she, her husband and children would not survive the treacherous journey from Turkey to Greece. It's difficult to imagine what one must be feeling when they are wedged in a boat drifting on the pitch black Mediterranean not knowing if they are sinking or not.

The dining room - this picture only
shows half the room.

After the meal at around 2pm there is a Bible study where all are welcome but only a small number stay. However one person out of the one hundred and forty is precious in the sight of God. One of the members of the American team shared a story that illustrates just how important it is not to lose perspective, especially when you are attempting to reach out to such large numbers of people. I think it is adapted from a poem called The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley (1907-1977). It goes something like this:

While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water. He came closer still and called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

The old man smiled, and said, “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, “But, young man, do you not realise that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The young man listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it into the back into the ocean past the breaking waves and said, “It made a difference for that one.”  

As I go about my daily life, please pray with me that I would have a similar attitude to that of the young man in the story. When playing sardines on the metro, I could be the only person who prays for that man or women next to me (invading my personal space). When teaching English to the children, I might be the only Christian they ever meet. Someone made the difference to me 7 years ago when I first came to know Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. What can I do to make a difference to someone over the next few days?