As I’m sure you’ve seen in the news, Greece is in quite the pickle! It’s economy is sunk; it’s workers are striking; and all the while Greece is playing host to tens of thousands of refugees. Please continue to pray for this nation! Here’s a recent article from the BBC (read the entire article HERE):… [Read more…]
January 18, 2010
Right now we’re seeing scores of refugees from Afghanistan here in Athens: men, families, even unaccompanied minors (i.e. kids on their own, some as young as 12 years old). Although five million refugees have returned to Afghanistan since 2002, millions of Afghans still wander outside of their homeland (2.6 million in Pakistan and Iran alone). … [Read more…]
December 9, 2009
There is a garbage collectors strike in Athens! And yes, it stinks! Things aren’t too bad near our house, but in a few days we probably won’t even be able to get into our ministry center. We’ll have to shovel a clearing. You may be shoveling snow… but we’re shoveling trash! Be thankful. Here’s a… [Read more…]
November 23, 2009
There was a great article about the continuing flood of migrants coming into Greece in last week’s New York Times. Read it HERE – it’s well worth the five minutes! “Stop the boat! Stop the boat now!” the captain of the Greek Coast Guard patrol vessel yelled over the bullhorn, turning a spotlight on the… [Read more…]
November 11, 2009
In July the makeshift refugee camps in and around Patra were dismantled by the Greek authorities. Despite the governments most ardent desires, these refugees (hundreds, maybe thousands in Patra alone) have not just disappeared. Enter, Igoumenitsa (photo above). Igoumenitsa, the new Patras Thousands of migrants moved from Patras (northern Peloponnesus) to Igoumenitsa (western Greece), after… [Read more…]
October 26, 2009
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (or UNHCR – the UN refugee agency) recently sent a delegation to visit the migrant detention centers on the Greek island of Lesvos (see here or here for some context). The conditions were appalling: Both men [the UNHCR representative and a Greek government official] condemned the poor conditions,… [Read more…]
October 5, 2009
The leader of PASOK, George Papandreou First, let me be honest, I don’t know much about Greek politics. Really. I won’t pretend to understand. I do know that there was an election on Sunday. And I know that PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) has won. I don’t know if this is good or bad; I don’t… [Read more…]
September 2, 2009
An asylum seeker sleeping under a bridge in Athens (photo from the New York Times – more here) Last week, the New York Times had a great article about the “Lost Boys of Afghanistan” – a phrase referring to the thousands of Afghan boys (“unaccompanied minors,” mostly teenagers) who are traversing through Europe in search… [Read more…]
August 19, 2009
Refugees and migrants have few protections. They are especially vulnerable to those who prey on the weak and defenseless. Because refugees often don’t speak the language and have forged documents, they become prime targets for scams, mistreatment, and abduction. When I read the article below (from ekathimerini.com), my mind went to God’s words through His… [Read more…]
May 27, 2009
Here’s a recent video (22/5/09) from Al Jazeera News regarding the refugee/immigration situation in Athens. The outdoor shots in this video are on the same block as our ministry center. While this story probably isn’t getting air time in American or Northern European news, it is major news here in Greece. Please continue to pray… [Read more…]
May 25, 2009
Here’s another article from today’s eKathimerini.com about the recent intensification of tensions between some within the Muslim migrant community and some Greeks – a minority in both cases. Saturday a makeshift mosque was set ablaze in central Athens. This is in addition to the protests and violence over the weekend. Here’s a snippet from the… [Read more…]
May 25, 2009
This article in Saturday’s eKathimerini.com pretty well sums up the tensions in Athens’ refugee and immigrant community: a mix of police hostility and refugee frustration which has boiled over into protests, even violence. As the report goes, police officers randomly stopped four Syrian immigrants to check their paperwork (a regular occurrence here). Upon further search,… [Read more…]
May 13, 2009
Well, we’re back from team retreat! Thanks for your prayers. It was a refreshing time together, featuring a lot of free time, worship, prayer, and bible study. Thanks to Tim and Rachel – who lead a refugee ministry in Rome, Italy – for guiding our time in the Word. While we were enjoying our retreat,… [Read more…]
April 29, 2009
The refugee situation in Patras is quite bad. Perhaps you remember my visit last month (story and pics). The government has promised action, but so far the bureaucracy and bickering has stalled any actual movement. Now the government has a new plan that will have the illegal camps bulldozed by the end of May. Would… [Read more…]
April 27, 2009
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) recently published statistics on refugee trends in 2008. A co-work with ITeams has repackaged the data into a “Highway Snapshot” – a more accessible format, if you’re interested in an overview. Here’s an overview of that overview: There remain more than 67 million forcefully displaced people worldwide… [Read more…]
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February 10, 2010
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