I had the privilege of working with Helping Hands Ministries yesterday in Athens. Helping Hands is a ministry that reaches out to the refugees here in Athens. This ministry does so much for these people its unbelievable. They have fed probably over a million people since they've been around about 20 years ago. On certain days they will give refugees showers, and many times clothe those who need new clothes. The day I went to help out, we were giving out lunch to the refugees.
Refugees live a hard life. They run away from their home country into Greece because of Greece's really loose immigration laws. The problem, however, is not getting into Greece, but finding a job once here. Many of them are widowed with children, so they've got to support their kids, but if there is no father, they are basically hopeless. They don't know if they will eat food today, sleep inside tonight, or be able to shower for months. They live to survive.
While Helping Hands tries to help with all these physical needs, they are not out to try to cure an epidemic of homelessness. When these refugees come in to eat, the volunteers will take the time and talk with them, get to know their story, converse with them as human beings, love them. The love that is shown at Helping Hands may be the only love these people have ever received, and it means everything to them. Being looked down upon, spit on, treated like dogs all their lives, and now feeling the warmth of being loved for the first time. We worry about the kids in our schools have self-esteem issues, but what about someone who has never been loved?
Most of the refugees are Muslim from Afghanistan, Albania, or other Middle Eastern countries so giving the Gospel is a tough, careful process. Words, however, are not what saves.
One of the leaders of Helping Hands told me a story when he was teaching me what to do yesterday, it went like this: One day as he was working, he was getting stressed out with all the requests that people were asking him for, clothes, food, diapers, etc..., and he had enough, so he planned on hiding out in his office just for a few minutes to just have some room to breathe. He gets to his office and there is a knock on the door. He doesn't answer it. However, the door was unlocked, and his fellow volunteer comes in with a refugee who needs extensive medical work. His hands are all torn up, his feet are absolutely disgustingly cut up and mangled, his face is swollen, and he is looking for treatment. Knowing he couldn't help this man in any way physically, and being burnt out, he just asks the man if he can pray for him. As the leader prays for this man, the Lord breaks the leader down emotionally, and he starts weeping for this refugee in his prayer. After the prayer, the refugee leaves.
Around two weeks later, as the leader is about to enter Helping Hands in the morning this refugee was waiting outside for him. What had happened is unbelievably awesome. The refugee says that no one had ever shown him love before, and the tears that the leader had shed for him meant so much, that he gave his life to Jesus. Not only that, but once he had received Jesus, all the pain in his body went away and he lives pain free.
God has called us to love the unlovable, because that's exactly what He did for us. There are millions of people in this world, in the US, in Chicago, who need to be shown this love. God can use anyone to love others, even those who are trying to hide from it. So go out of your way and love someone today because you might be the only person to do that today or even in their whole life. The Gospel is proclaimed louder through actions than any words can produce.
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