15
Carelinks | Migrant Crisis Outreach
tracks to the Serbian border, get registered,
and then continue their journey northwards
towards Germany. Once they got the message
that there was soup and bread for them- there
was a surge of humanity
towards us. The younger
men wanted to grab every-
thing. It was quite a mission
to get the food to the
women, elderly and children
who were at the back. There
was no chance to video it
much. The need to try to
stop a stampede was too
urgent- bearing in mind
many of the men were
carrying knives or pistols.
We were pleased to fund
further sessions- 200 Euros
to feed and give water to
500 - 700 people [including
disposable bowls etc.].
The trains arrive every few
hours, and around 10,000
people were crossing each day whilst we were
there. We also gave tampons, wet wipes and
baby stuff to families we saw. We just hope
that those folks will remember us Christian
people who met them on arrival and helped
them, and will have noticed the stickers on
the packaging, urging them to learn about
Jesus Christ by going to our
website.
There were harrowing sights.
An old man scarcely able to
walk, stopping frequently and
in great pain; several men on
crutches or with one leg; an
invalid child in a wheelchair. A
child who had lost its parents.
A little boy so starving he ate
not only the bread and soup we gave but also
tried eating the polystyrene cup we served it
in. Old men in boys clothes. A child asleep
standing up. Mum and dad each with a child
on their shoulders, along with a sleeping bag
on their backs. A woman helping a single
woman get strapped up with a pack on her
back and a child around her neck on her front.
They aren’t allowed to use the roads, they
have to walk 2 km. along the tracks to the
Serbian registration point. And you can’t push
a wheelchair along railway
tracks with gravel and
sleepers. We captured some
of this on the videos. But we
had little time for making
videos.
One feels so helpless- we did
so little to address the need.
But our hope and prayer is
that at least some of those
people will remember us,
the soup, the bread, the
tampons, soap, wet wipes,
etc. and somewhere may
retain one of the packages
with our simple message of
Christ and our website
address, and in due course
follow up. The greatest thing
was to see our local brother
and sister so blossoming under this outreach.
Their enthusiasm is all the more wonderful
when we remember that the average person
in the Balkans is bitterly against supporting
immigrants, and there is no word even for
“grace” in the Slavic languages. But man is
never better than when he has a cause to fight
and work for. They, and we,
wanted to serve- and the Lord
opened a perfect path. How
long Europe can allow 10,000
++ migrants / day to pour in
remains to be seen; there is a
window of opportunity right
now, but how long it remains
open is unclear. Please be
inspired- to snap out of the
mire of mediocrity, move
beyond just having fleeting thoughts and
wishes to be more active for Him in this world,
and put your desire to serve before your Lord,
and do something, anything, and He will lead
you further. That is the takeaway lesson from
all this.
~ continued ...
“A new life!”? leaflet we placed
in the family welfare packs