We're currently on our flight to the South Pacific, so it seems appropriate that I should try to catch up on the last month or so of our life and our travels throughout Europe. I'll start with this post about our time working with Starfish for a month on the island of Lesvos in Greece.
We jumped right into volunteer life the days father we arrived with orientation and getting our legal paperwork settled with the local authorities.
Starfish is a non-profit that was established by locals on the Northern Coast of Lesvos last year. However, the people who initially established the organization (locals living in and around the village of Molyvos on Lesvos) have been doing the work of Starfish for a while longer than just the past year.
When refugees came from Turkey and landed along the North Coast (at beaches or struggling up rocky coasts from coves), they often made their way to Molyvos or nearby. Initially, the locals would provide a meal - for Starfish, that was out of a local restaurant - and maybe some dry clothes before the refugees started their journey by foot to the south east part of the island where they had to register with the local authorities and they would then journey onward in Greece or Europe.
The arrivals were manageable - maybe one or two boats a week sometimes, or maybe weeks of nothing. But things began to pick up last year. More and more boats started to arrive, and the locals of the North Coast realized that they wanted to get organized to better be able to extend a welcome to Greece.
You see, Lesvos has been a refugee point for a long time. Situated ao lay about 6 miles from mainland Turkey, over the past 3,000 years, many people have arrived on Lesvos when they were seeking a new life. Some of the people who live on Lesvos have parents or grandparents or great grandparents who were refugees from Turkey to Lesvos in their time.
As more people came, people who were visiting Lesvos on holiday would help out if needed in the efforts to feed and clothe the arrivals, and what was happening on Lesvos began to get out in the media and news, tourist-volunteers began to show up wanting to help do the things the locals of Molyvos were doing already: helping direct boats landing on the coastline, helping people off the boats, handing out clothes, meals, tea, and other provisions.
Over last year, these events just picked up an incredible amount of momentum - during the midst of this, Starfish became an official NGO so it could receive funding to help provide for the needs of people - cars to transport goods, storage facilities to get clothing donations organized, counter space to put together simple cheese sandwiches and fruit. And the volunteers - they were coming in larger and larger numbers, sometimes to the point that Starfish would be running orientation meetings for 20 or 30 people and the would be up to 80 or even more people on shift at a time (Starfish organized the volunteers into shifts to provide around-the-clock coverage of needs). A camp was erected in a parking lot of a night club, buses were arranged to transport arrivals to the registration center - upward of 6,000 refugees were arriving sometimes per day.
Sometimes people died - of exposure to the elements, in the water, or from being crushed by their fellow passengers on the boat. Dead bodies washed up on shore. For different time periods, people were camping in the streets of this picturesque little village because they had no where to go (before the camp that Starfish built and maintained went into operation last fall).
The sheer mass of people coming to, working in, and passing through the small fishing village of Molyvos is almost impossible for me to wrap my mind around as I heard about these events of last year.
When we arrived on May 10th, the scene that greeted us was not this chaotic - refugee arrivals had slowed down considerably since the EU-Turkey deal. Starfish had transitioned to a role of providing supplies to camps on mainland Greece and helping at a camp for underage immigrant boys that had recently be established before we arrived.
Our day-to-day tasks involved working in the store facilities sorting clothes (by winter or summer use, size, gender, etc), or working in the clothing distribution center for the locals keeping everything tidy and organized, or teaching English at the camp, or working with the Starfish Administration staff to update the website and social media accounts.
We were on 8 hour shifts six days per week, and that allowed us time to build relationships with some of the local support staff, our fellow volunteers, as well as the boys at the camp.
We had arrived in Lesvos not sure of what we would be doing and essentially trusting that since we believed God had laid on our hearts to go to Lesvos, he was in control of the circumstances and he would allow us to be used in some way.
Our month there was perhaps the most ministry-oriented single month we've experienced so far since leaving the US! Starfish is not religiously affiliated, but we found that our fellow volunteers (hailing from the US, the U.K., and a few other European countries), as they got to know us and we shared openly about our faith as God provided opportunity, asked us questions and were very keen to listen to our answers. We, in turn, realized just how encouraging we could be by doing everything we could to just show love and acceptance in the name of Jesus.
It was also good for us to engage in some of the conversations we had - it is challenging and exciting to listen to other perspectives on truth and absolutes and moral right and wrong and be able to articulate where your perspective on these subjects align with someone else, as well as clearly explaining where our views differ - and most importantly, WHY they differ.
I had a conversation one day with one of the volunteers about communication styles and the use of apologies, and how (as he advocated) when there has been a break in a relationship, it is always good to ask someone the motive of why they did whatever action they did that hurt you (I agree!). He claimed he felt that apologizing was actually a waste of time because nobody wants to intentionally hurt other people, and when you ask someone to apologize for something, it's because you the they were wrong, but maybe they don't think they were wrong after all, so it's pointless. The better way, in his mind, was to seek motive so you could better understand.
I agreed with him about some of it - seeking motive and understanding is really helpful for a relationship to be restored, however, I explained that I differed from his perspective because I did believe in an absolute right and wrong that were established by someone outside of myself - namely, God's outline of wright and wrong provided for me to follow in the Bible. I explained that because I claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I must do as he says and interpret my actions as right or wrong based on his definition provided in the Bible. So, for example, Jesus says to love your fellow Christians and to love your enemies - to love like he loves - and in 1 Corinthians 13 is tells us what that love looks like. Therefore, if I do something selfish or impatient or unkind, I have NOT acted in accord with Jesus's outline of right actions, and therefore I do need to apologize and admit that I was wrong and ask forgiveness.
Anyhow, that's just one example. We were also asked why we had so much peace and calm, and we were asked about our marriage and why we got along so well and how being married differed from dating for us, and also if we felt like our Christian Faith actually impacted our day-to-day life and choices. In responding to EACH of these questions, we felt God's presence giving us words and examples and sensitivity to how we responded to them as we tried to share our faith clearly and explain why our relationship with the Lord is the source of all that is good and beautiful in our lives.
All that to say, we really enjoyed our time on Lesvos. It was unlike anything else we've experienced as a couple in terms of the spiritual and physical setting, as well as the work, and we were so excited to witness how God used us to do things that were pretty vastly different than we'd originally thought we'd be doing but still so worth doing: serving and loving on the volunteers and the local staff.
We were so honored to be able to go and work on Lesvos!
- Dani
We jumped right into volunteer life the days father we arrived with orientation and getting our legal paperwork settled with the local authorities.
Starfish is a non-profit that was established by locals on the Northern Coast of Lesvos last year. However, the people who initially established the organization (locals living in and around the village of Molyvos on Lesvos) have been doing the work of Starfish for a while longer than just the past year.
When refugees came from Turkey and landed along the North Coast (at beaches or struggling up rocky coasts from coves), they often made their way to Molyvos or nearby. Initially, the locals would provide a meal - for Starfish, that was out of a local restaurant - and maybe some dry clothes before the refugees started their journey by foot to the south east part of the island where they had to register with the local authorities and they would then journey onward in Greece or Europe.
The arrivals were manageable - maybe one or two boats a week sometimes, or maybe weeks of nothing. But things began to pick up last year. More and more boats started to arrive, and the locals of the North Coast realized that they wanted to get organized to better be able to extend a welcome to Greece.
You see, Lesvos has been a refugee point for a long time. Situated ao lay about 6 miles from mainland Turkey, over the past 3,000 years, many people have arrived on Lesvos when they were seeking a new life. Some of the people who live on Lesvos have parents or grandparents or great grandparents who were refugees from Turkey to Lesvos in their time.
As more people came, people who were visiting Lesvos on holiday would help out if needed in the efforts to feed and clothe the arrivals, and what was happening on Lesvos began to get out in the media and news, tourist-volunteers began to show up wanting to help do the things the locals of Molyvos were doing already: helping direct boats landing on the coastline, helping people off the boats, handing out clothes, meals, tea, and other provisions.
Over last year, these events just picked up an incredible amount of momentum - during the midst of this, Starfish became an official NGO so it could receive funding to help provide for the needs of people - cars to transport goods, storage facilities to get clothing donations organized, counter space to put together simple cheese sandwiches and fruit. And the volunteers - they were coming in larger and larger numbers, sometimes to the point that Starfish would be running orientation meetings for 20 or 30 people and the would be up to 80 or even more people on shift at a time (Starfish organized the volunteers into shifts to provide around-the-clock coverage of needs). A camp was erected in a parking lot of a night club, buses were arranged to transport arrivals to the registration center - upward of 6,000 refugees were arriving sometimes per day.
Sometimes people died - of exposure to the elements, in the water, or from being crushed by their fellow passengers on the boat. Dead bodies washed up on shore. For different time periods, people were camping in the streets of this picturesque little village because they had no where to go (before the camp that Starfish built and maintained went into operation last fall).
The sheer mass of people coming to, working in, and passing through the small fishing village of Molyvos is almost impossible for me to wrap my mind around as I heard about these events of last year.
When we arrived on May 10th, the scene that greeted us was not this chaotic - refugee arrivals had slowed down considerably since the EU-Turkey deal. Starfish had transitioned to a role of providing supplies to camps on mainland Greece and helping at a camp for underage immigrant boys that had recently be established before we arrived.
Our day-to-day tasks involved working in the store facilities sorting clothes (by winter or summer use, size, gender, etc), or working in the clothing distribution center for the locals keeping everything tidy and organized, or teaching English at the camp, or working with the Starfish Administration staff to update the website and social media accounts.
We were on 8 hour shifts six days per week, and that allowed us time to build relationships with some of the local support staff, our fellow volunteers, as well as the boys at the camp.
We had arrived in Lesvos not sure of what we would be doing and essentially trusting that since we believed God had laid on our hearts to go to Lesvos, he was in control of the circumstances and he would allow us to be used in some way.
Our month there was perhaps the most ministry-oriented single month we've experienced so far since leaving the US! Starfish is not religiously affiliated, but we found that our fellow volunteers (hailing from the US, the U.K., and a few other European countries), as they got to know us and we shared openly about our faith as God provided opportunity, asked us questions and were very keen to listen to our answers. We, in turn, realized just how encouraging we could be by doing everything we could to just show love and acceptance in the name of Jesus.
It was also good for us to engage in some of the conversations we had - it is challenging and exciting to listen to other perspectives on truth and absolutes and moral right and wrong and be able to articulate where your perspective on these subjects align with someone else, as well as clearly explaining where our views differ - and most importantly, WHY they differ.
I had a conversation one day with one of the volunteers about communication styles and the use of apologies, and how (as he advocated) when there has been a break in a relationship, it is always good to ask someone the motive of why they did whatever action they did that hurt you (I agree!). He claimed he felt that apologizing was actually a waste of time because nobody wants to intentionally hurt other people, and when you ask someone to apologize for something, it's because you the they were wrong, but maybe they don't think they were wrong after all, so it's pointless. The better way, in his mind, was to seek motive so you could better understand.
I agreed with him about some of it - seeking motive and understanding is really helpful for a relationship to be restored, however, I explained that I differed from his perspective because I did believe in an absolute right and wrong that were established by someone outside of myself - namely, God's outline of wright and wrong provided for me to follow in the Bible. I explained that because I claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I must do as he says and interpret my actions as right or wrong based on his definition provided in the Bible. So, for example, Jesus says to love your fellow Christians and to love your enemies - to love like he loves - and in 1 Corinthians 13 is tells us what that love looks like. Therefore, if I do something selfish or impatient or unkind, I have NOT acted in accord with Jesus's outline of right actions, and therefore I do need to apologize and admit that I was wrong and ask forgiveness.
Anyhow, that's just one example. We were also asked why we had so much peace and calm, and we were asked about our marriage and why we got along so well and how being married differed from dating for us, and also if we felt like our Christian Faith actually impacted our day-to-day life and choices. In responding to EACH of these questions, we felt God's presence giving us words and examples and sensitivity to how we responded to them as we tried to share our faith clearly and explain why our relationship with the Lord is the source of all that is good and beautiful in our lives.
All that to say, we really enjoyed our time on Lesvos. It was unlike anything else we've experienced as a couple in terms of the spiritual and physical setting, as well as the work, and we were so excited to witness how God used us to do things that were pretty vastly different than we'd originally thought we'd be doing but still so worth doing: serving and loving on the volunteers and the local staff.
We were so honored to be able to go and work on Lesvos!
- Dani
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