Go Beyond

The refugee crisis in the Middle East continues to prove challenging for host nations. To put the matter in a perspective we can relate to, imagine several other families moving into your home during a crisis — and then staying for an indefinite period of time. The presence of so many people in your home would certainly put a strain on your resources, not to mention your sanity.

Managing the needs of so many people in need is a challenge for the host nations, for the United Nations, and for the many agencies lending their hands to the task. But, the size of the challenge requires that everyone work together. That is the only way anything will get done.

On a smaller scale, our students have seen firsthand the value of working together to get a job done. Whether the task is distributing aid to families, sorting through two shipping containers of supplies, leading Bible clubs for kids, or doing manual labor at the House of Ruth, they have seen the value of working together to tackle big jobs.

One of the things we are leaning is that those who are committed to a cause greater than themselves are willing to work cooperatively to get things done. Every day our service teams huddle to go over their assigned task for the day, to review their game plan, and to pray. By working cooperatively, they are getting the job done.

Our students are also learning that they are not here to labor for personal reward or recognition. They want all of the glory to go to God. Every act of service done in His name helps those served to personally experience some measure of God’s love for them. And, it’s making a difference. Today, two Syrian refugees chose to place their faith in Jesus Christ.

We had a long and fruitful day of service as we worked together to help meet the needs of refugee families in Jordan. The presence of our students has given many of these families hope, brought a smile to their weary faces, and assured them they are not forgotten. I am thankful for the selfless service of our students and sponsors. By working together we are making a difference.

A firestorm was ignited in Syria in March 2011 that continues to burn out of control. No one could have imagined that the arrest of fourteen school children who had expressed sympathy for Arab Spring protestors would spark what has become one of the biggest humanitarian crises on the planet.

Since then, Syria has been embroiled in a civil conflict that has impacted the lives of millions of its people. Syrians fearing for their lives have fled to neighboring countries with little or nothing to make a new start. Jordan is one of those countries that has made provision for the welfare of refugees.

The United Nations stepped in to help. But, that is not enough to meet the challenges of providing for the basic needs of so many desperate people. The task is indescribably huge. Relief agencies from around the world have also responded to the cries for help from those who got caught in the crossfire of a civil conflict gone mad. And that is what has brought us yet once again to Jordan.

For the past several years, the people of Kingsland have had a presence in the lives of Syrian and now Iraqi families displaced from their homes by ISIS. Working with our friends at Global Hope Network International, we are lending our hands to the ongoing relief efforts. This week, a team of almost fifty Kingsland students and adults are working to care for refugee families.

Today, our team took a break from delivering aid to refugee families to help replenish supplies for these families. Two forty-foot shipping containers arrived at Global Hope’s warehouse packed with items for the refugees. Our task was to go through the hundreds of boxes and packages and sort everything out for distribution in the coming weeks. This was one big task.

Our students worked all day in the heat to sort, classify, and label hundreds of boxes. And they did it all with a cheerful heart. I loved watching our students embrace the challenge. They worked cooperatively in groups. They came up with their own ways to do the task. They divided the warehouse into zones for various types of supplies. And they got the job done.

In the morning we walked into a warehouse jumbled with piles of supplies. By the end of the day you could see the floor and access every box. What we did today will make it easier for our friends at Global Hope and the teams that will continue to come here to distribute aid. And what we did here today reminded us all that the task of caring for people in need is huge but, if we work together, we can make a difference in the lives of those who are hurting. Today, the hands and feet of Jesus were present in a hot warehouse in Amman.

Something happens when we move in the direction of people in need — our perspective changes. There is an insight that comes only from being onsite. It’s one thing to read or listen to news accounts of the refugee crisis in the Middle East but quite another to be in the same room as the people impacted by those realities. Looking into the eyes of refugees and listening to their personal stories sans any media filter does indeed deepen understanding.

This week our student team is getting the education of a lifetime as we serve Syrian and Iraqi refugees who have fled to Jordan for safety. Regardless of whether the people we serve are Muslim or Christian background, they both feel pain and bleed the same way. As Christ-followers, we are here to serve those in need without condition and without expecting anything in return. To turn a Mother Teresa quote, we are here looking for Jesus in the distressing disguise of refugees.

Our team is engaged on several fronts. First, we are delivering humanitarian aid to refugees who have recently arrived in Amman. This is, perhaps, the most emotionally intense component of our work here. Every family we visit has suffered unimaginable loss — of both loved ones, friends, and personal property. They are in the unenviable position of having to make a new start, some with nothing more than the meager stipend they receive from the United Nations.

It is important to us to not be in a hurry as we visit these families. We take the time to drink a cup of tea or strong coffee with them, to listen to their stories, and to weep and pray with them. One father summed it up best when we gave his family much needed groceries. “The real treasure,” he said, “is you and that you have come so far to care for us.” Our being onsite has given these families special insight into the unconditional love and care of Christ-followers.

A part of our team is spending time with the children of Christian-background Iraqi Christians. Like their parents, these kids left their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs. Some have missed a year or more of their education because the schools in Jordan simply cannot absorb the hundreds of thousands of refugee kids in the country. Our time with these kids has resulted in lots of smiles and laughter and something that looks more like a normal childhood. It’s a little thing but it matters much to these families.

Some of our students are also doing some practical labor at a vocational training center for refugees called the House of Ruth. Located in Moab, the homeland of the biblical character named Ruth, this center is restoring hope into the lives of many refugee women and children. The students that served there today added a section to a rock wall. This was, of course, the first time for any of our suburban students to do anything like this. Pardon the pun but they truly rocked!

Our evening worship and debriefing time was pretty cool. Several of our students shared new insights they have gained into an issue that is on the front pages of the news every week. More importantly, they are gleaning a better understanding of the fact that these refugees are people just like them. They are afraid of ISIS. They don’t want to lose their lives in a civil conflict gone mad. They are tired of the violence, whether it is Muslim on Muslim violence or ISIS threatening Christians to permanently leave their ancestral homes in northern Iraq.

The efforts of our students may amount to nothing more than adding a drop of water to a vast ocean. But, as Mother Teresa once said, the ocean would be less without that drop of water. Our students are making meaningful connections with people they never thought they would meet in a place they never imagined they would visit. As a result, they will never see the world and the people in it the same way again.

The view of our planet from outer space is awe-inspiring — a reminder of what a small piece of real estate our human species actually occupies in the limitless expanse of the universe. All of the geographical boundaries and the other things that separate us from one another are indistinguishable from space. The only thing that is certain is that God has blessed us with a beautiful place to call home.

The state of our world only becomes apparent as we zoom in. Only then do we begin to see and sense that all is not well on our planet. Only then do we begin to hear creation groaning and longing for something better. And only then do we begin to more fully understand that apart from recognizing that human life is sacred, we will utterly destroy one another and the world we live in.

Yesterday, our team of students arrived in Jordan in response to the cries of hurting humanity — refugees who have fled the civil war in Syria and the threat of ISIS in northern Iraq to find some measure of safety for themselves. What is happening in this part of the world should indeed concern us. To ignore what is happening or to walk away is paramount to the behavior of the priest and Levite who did the same in the parable of the good Samaritan.

The parable of the good Samaritan illustrates the various ways in which we regard our fellow human beings and, ultimately, why the world hurts. The attitude of the men who beat and robbed the traveler on the Jericho road was, “What is yours is mine. I’ll take it.” That is the attitude that breeds pain, loss, fear, and despair.

The attitude of the priest and the Levite who happened across the dying man was, “What is mine is mine. I’ll keep it.” And indeed they did. They did not lift a finger to help a fellow human being who was in deep pain. Martin Luther King Jr. observed that they did not stop to help because they were afraid and thought to themselves, “What will happen to me if I stop to help that man?”

The attitude of the Samaritan is the attitude that we must learn to adopt if we are to alleviate the suffering of others. This man displayed an attitude that said, “What is mine is yours. I’ll share it.” And so he did. Again, in Luther’s words, this man must have thought to himself, “What will happen to this man if I do not stop to help him?” He displayed what Luther called a dangerous unselfishness.

One of the most important things that Christ-followers bring to a world that hurts is a dangerous unselfishness. By being present in places where people are hurting, by being the hands and feet of Jesus, we can and we are making a difference. I am thankful that we are cultivating a dangerous unselfishness in our students. This month more than four-hundred of our students from Kingsland will show the world practical expressions of God’s love. I look forward to how He will use our high school grads to be His hands and feet among suffering refugees in Jordan. Thanks for your prayers.