Helping Refugees in Greece — Randall Graber — Ep. 104

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Anabaptist Perspectives. I'm here in Lancaster with Randall, and you're currently in the States, but you've been serving overseas. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you serving, and what does it look like on a typical day there? Great question. So first of all, my name is Randall Graber, and married to Althea, here from Lancaster County. We have one child, Alexander, who was just born December 7th, actually. So he's about six months old. And we serve in Lesvos, Greece, with Christian Aid Ministries there.

The program is the Refugee Discipleship Center, is kind of the name of the program. We have been there about two and a half years now, since spring of 2018. So it's basically home at this point. Yeah, for us, for us it is mostly home. We feel at home there. We really enjoy the work, enjoy the people, enjoy the culture. Beautiful place as well. That's a bonus. We didn't go to Greece to, you know, go enjoy the scenery and the beautiful islands, but it is a bonus. Yeah, sure. So what does it look like? Like on a normal day, you know, how does your week start? Every day is often different. But for myself, my main responsibility with the work there is just kind of as the field administrator.

You also have to understand there's only two families there, so it's pretty small. So we do a lot of overlapping back and forth, our responsibilities. But mostly I would be responsible for the accounting, the finances, the office work, any buildings we rent or own, or any vehicles we have, maintenance, logistical stuff like that, and also program management and kind of overseeing. But for the most part, we just have the one program there, which Nathaniel Yoder, who is currently there, manages that. So you mentioned refugees, but we're talking about Greece here. So why are there refugees in Greece? Like what's the story that caused them to arrive there? In every situation, the circumstances are, they change.

They're different. For the most part, refugees are fleeing war, war poverty, governmental issues, oppression. Basically, you can kind of often tell what they're fleeing from depending on which country they're from. We have refugees from all over, from Africa. Most of them would be from the Middle East. And it also depends where at on which island in Greece. Different islands have different majority groups. The island we're on, Lesvos, the majority would be from Afghanistan and Iran. Afghanistan. So how do they get all the way from Afghanistan to Greece? Most of them will either bring bus or walking across the borders. That's a long walk. And most of the stories, a lot of people I know that have told me their stories are often fleeing, especially the borders.

The borders are very critical. They can normally bring like buses or public transportation up to borders. And then when it comes to actually crossing the border, they have to do that dark, after night, fleeing gunfire. There's a lot of crazy stories you hear from the people crossing the borders. But they would have to cross quite a few borders. And often they end up staying in Turkey as well for a while, for several years, before they eventually make it to Lesvos there. Wow. So like on a map, where are we at here? So you have Greece. I know Turkey's right there, Mediterranean Sea. You're on an island. So where do you fit in? Yeah, so Lesvos is in a very strategic location, actually.

It's like a natural bottleneck. It always has been a migration bottleneck. But it's just off the coast of Turkey. The closest point is about five, six miles from Turkey. That's where the majority of the refugees make it across. They're on their rubber rafts. They also come along the whole western, eastern side of the island there against Turkey. Some places, 12, 15 miles. As far as Lesvos, in comparison to the rest of Europe, if you look at a map, you'd think it'd be Turkey. It's so close to Turkey. So the question would be then, why are you serving Greece? Like, aren't there lots of other places along, I guess you could say, the refugee trail where these people are coming that might be more needy?

Why did you choose Greece? There's kind of two questions there. Why serving Greece? And why did I serve in Greece? Why did I choose to serve in Greece? You know, as with many other things in life, there's not only one place where the need is exactly. So we personally felt called to the work there through several events in our life that led us there. And especially Dean Taylor was very instrumental in getting us involved there. So I have a mutual friend there. Yeah, we've interviewed him a number of times. Yeah, yeah. But it is a very intense place to work.

It's a very good place to go, at least for a short amount of time. I would recommend you to go, anyone to go. The experience you get is really life-changing for a lot of people. Just seeing these people, what they're fleeing from, and the situation that they're in, even in Lesvos, which is Europe, the situation is very bad as well. And so it really, it really, it pulls your heart once you get there, you get involved, you start to know people. But there are many other places as well that have needs. So I'm not saying Greece is the only place. There's needs everywhere.

In mainland Greece, there's lots of refugees, lots of needs on through Europe. So if I'm understanding it right, Lesvos is a pretty small island. So it's more of a transit, correct? Like refugees are coming, but after a while we get full. So they at some point hopefully get to mainland Greece or the rest of Europe. Is that right? Yes.

That is true. The past couple of years, the new arrivals have been trending down. Generally speaking, the new arrivals have been coming down. But the people leaving the island and the people leaving Greece have decreased. In a lot of ways, the refugees are kind of stuck there, unfortunately. And especially the political situation, it seems like the political situation has swung a little bit more right-wing across the whole EU, really. Anymore, it makes the news if one country accepts 20 refugees from Greece. It makes the national headlines. Whereas back in 2015, you know, thousands and even millions of refugees were being accepted into the other countries. So that has also played into the dynamics why there's still so many refugees there in Greece.

And the numbers on Lesvos Island are as high or higher than they've ever been. Wow. So they're like just crunching them in because it's not, so you still have people coming, maybe less than usual, but they're still coming, but there's not as many going to their actual destination country. Exactly. There is currently, as we speak, there are more in a camp. I don't know the official number, but often most people I'm hearing say around 20,000. And then there's a few other smaller refugee camps on the island as well. To put it in perspective, Lesvos Island, they say has 90,000 Greek people on it. And Mytilene, the capital, has 30,000. And so in one refugee camp, Moria Camp, there's 20,000 refugees.

To put it in perspective. Well, that would be really taxing on the rest, like the local population. It is. So that kind of transitions to the next point then too, because how, so you're there to serve these people, these refugees in a desperate situation. They need help, granted. But how do we do that without neglecting the local populace as well, the Grecian people? You know, that is an excellent question, one that we grapple with daily or weekly there on the ground. I think the biggest thing you can do is just have that mindset as well that we're here to help the locals as well. And they are the host people, actually. You are living in their houses, their property, their land.

Over the years, they initially were very welcoming, very friendly, but the last couple of years they have been actually fairly hostile towards the refugees, towards foreigners. So we're always looking for creative ways to help them out as well. In fact, the last couple of weeks, because of the coronavirus situation, we actually converted our refugee center into a mask factory.

And we were making masks for the Greek people, the police, the firefighters. So that was kind of a way that we could give out. I feel like we made more connections and built more bridges probably in the last two months than we did the year prior just through the refugee ministry as far as with the local people. So that has been a big blessing. So it's like there's a balance there. You know, you're serving the refugees, but you're not ignoring the locals because, I mean, it is their island, I guess, after all. And I mean, it makes sense. You know, if you have a refugee camp that's almost as big as your entire capital city, that would be a little unnerving, I would think.

Yeah, there's a lot of fear. Really? A lot of fear. And there's a lot of crime as well. I mean, honestly, without Jesus in a person's heart, this is the result you have. You have fear and these issues. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, a Greek person shot a refugee with a shotgun in the back. I mean, it was far enough away that it didn't kill the man, fortunately. But it was pretty serious.

But it was there again, it was because these refugees had stolen, I think, four or five times previously off of this guy's property. They stole some sheep, stole some things. Oh wow. And so the police force is just not very adequate to manage the crime rates, especially after dark. And in fact, our refugee center there, we've probably had six to eight break-ins over the course of several months. Like, are we talking, you know, they're having difficulty getting access to even just the most basic things, you know, food, shelter, clothes, that type of thing, and that's causing these levels of desperation? That's a good question. I wouldn't say the level of desperation really is any worse than it was previously.

But the level of life that the refugees get is very, very low. You'd think Europe, they would at least have decent accommodations, but they really don't. Moria Camp is, I think it's about 12, 15 acres, and there's 20,000 people on it. So it's very densely populated.

And about three-fourths of them live in tents, I would guess. A lot of these are also just structures built from pallets. They'll put tarps over them. The bathroom facilities, I think they say it's several hundred refugees for every toilet.

So the sanitary conditions are very, very poor. They do get meals as far as food. They do provide food for them. They do get provided basic food and basic shelter, but the standard is very low, unfortunately. But looking beyond, I think one of our biggest visions for our work there is not so much the humanitarian aid aspect as they do have basics provided. The standard is very, very low and it's unfortunate. And we do offer, we do try to, when there's special situations, special needs to help out in the humanitarian aid stand or in that part of it. But our main focus is more for their spiritual health, their well-being. It's such an opportunity when people get everything taken away from them, they fled home, they fled everything, they have nothing left.

Their hearts are left asking questions. Their hearts are very open. And it has been a tremendous opportunity for God's word there. And people are very open, they're thirsty. Really nowhere else have I seen it with Muslim people, the hunger and thirst. So that's kind of, it feels like what we're trying to provide and kind of capital, or not to focus on, as it feels like that is really the most eternal impact we can have with these refugees. It really works the best when you can do both. Not really focusing on one or the other, but if they see that you genuinely care for them, you're helping them, and you're also showing them the salvation message, Jesus' teachings, they are very, a lot more receptive.

And the love that radiates from your life, they see it. So like those that are watching this, what's some way that they can get involved if they want to help? There are several organizations. If you want to get involved in Greece, there are several organizations that bring volunteers over. We do more long-term oriented stuff. We don't do short-term volunteers. One of the biggest ways you can get involved is pray. There's many ways to be involved, really. So with your time there in Greece, what is one thing you've learned from your refugee friends? The first thing that comes to my mind that I have learned is being content. It's interesting. It's maybe not the first thing that would come to your mind when you think of difficult situations and hardly the bare necessities of life are provided.

But yet I have seen it time and time again in these refugees' lives, especially the Christian refugees. You know, they have so little, but yet they're content. They're happy with where they are. It has really challenged me as an American with all the blessings we have as Americans to be content and to use our material blessings. There's many blessings that come with being American. Using these to assist these refugees, to benefit them in ways that we can, and most of all benefiting God's kingdom, building his kingdom. But that is probably one of the biggest things for me, just being content with life. So following that up then, what is one story of a refugee, say, that you find is fairly typical of what these people have been through?

That kind of takes all we've talked about, sums it up into one package. What's a story you could share with us to close this out? I have many stories running through my head, and it feels like the names, the details kind of all blur together. And I'm not a very detailed person, so I'll do my best recollecting the details. I do have one man in mind, actually, and I'll change his name. We'll call him Ali. This is not his real name, but he was from Iran in his 30s, and he had gone to school, went to college. He was a professional engineer. So he had a very well-paying job, and he was very respected. His situation, the political pressures there in Iran are very difficult.

If you don't really agree with what the government wants you to support and be a part of, you'll end up in jail. You can very easily. So there's a lot of political refugees who would be what I would consider a political refugee just because of the political situation there. So he just decided it was better off for him and his future to flee.

He entrusted all of his money, his bank accounts to one of his friends. He said, "Hey, when I get to Greece or wherever I'm going to Europe, you know, you have power of attorney and you can send it to me." And he was very well-to-do.

But he, after quite a few years, I don't remember exactly how long he made it to Turkey, he met a friend there who brought him to church. That's kind of where he was first introduced to Christianity. And it kind of pricked his interest a little bit. He didn't give his life to Christ then. Also, while he was in Turkey, his friend back in Iran that he had entrusted all of his wealth to, his bank accounts, he essentially transferred everything to his name and just disappeared.

And so he was dealing with a lot of bitterness. What do you do? He can't go back. He needed to go forward. So he dealt with a lot of difficult things in his life. Through the situation, he actually kind of discovered the freedom of forgiveness. He had never really been introduced to Christianity and what Jesus teaches about forgiveness, but he was kind of introduced to it.

He discovered the freedom of forgiveness because he was so bitter for so long. He's like, "You know, I have to give it up." And then when he came to Lesvos, Greece, he came to the facility there, to the discipleship center. He spoke some English as well, so we got to know him very well. He eventually kept coming, built a relationship, was coming to church, coming to class, and he gave his life to Christ. We baptized him there on Lesvos, and he's still there and a very active member in the church and the group there. And it was just really special, the part of his story where he discovered forgiveness. And then when he became a Christian, he was like, "Oh, this makes so much sense," because here's Jesus in the Bible talking about forgiveness, and he had never heard these teachings before.

So I really connected with him. It was really interesting. There's many refugees, many other stories fleeing a lot of hardships. A lot of refugees flee war-torn areas. Family members killed, blown up, a lot of difficulties, especially Afghanistan and Syria and Iraq. We don't deal as much with the Syrian and Iraqi refugees. There's not a whole lot of them on Lesvos. So lots of needs, a lot of opportunities. Yes. A lot of things to pray about, I guess. Yes. Wow. Wow. Well, thanks so much for taking the time to share. I really appreciate this and blessings in your work. Absolutely. Thank you, Regan. Yeah, it was a pleasure.