It’s Not Over

“Finish” “Tamam” “Hallas” That’s what we would say in camp after completing a task, after a family was completely moved in and pretty ok with their new place, when convincing a person that we had to take down the structure where their neighbors used to live, or after agreeing on a temporary solution with someone. Now my time serving in Lesvos is over, and I’m back home. Before I left for this adventure, I thought this was going to be a once in a life time trip. I knew I needed to do it, and I knew it was going to be life changing; but I didn’t imagine I would long to go back. Now I’m longing to be back.  

I spent my last days on the island living on a boat. It was a great experience.  My team left before I did, so I got some extra days to hang out with my friends from the camp and say goodbye. On my last days I got to see some of the behind the scenes of camp. I got to see the warehouse where clothing and other donations are stored, and I got to attend a Women’s day. Once a week women can go to a place outside of camp to get their nails done, talk, paint, get make up done, and sometimes even get massages. During my time in Lesvos I visited a place called “The Hope Project” a lot. It’s a space open to anyone who wants to come and paint and draw. Everything is provided, they just have to do the painting. I got some painting lessons from my friends and got to spend good times with them there. It was very good to see all the organizations that contribute to camp and all the different things that go on on the island.

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish my time in Lesvos.

After all my plans to have the best last night failed, I was left with no choice but to walk back to Mytiline one last time. This was a one hour walk that I did many times from Panagiouda, the town where I was living at first, to the main city, Mytilene. I had just started to walk when I ran into a group of friends that I hadn’t had the chance to say goodbye to. It was perfect timing. That was good enough to finish my day. But as I kept walking, I saw a group of people gathered in a parking lot playing some game. Turns out I knew them and some of the closest friends I had made in camp were there! It was like a dream. I spent my last night on the island playing charades, soccer, and other neighborhood games, drinking coke in a parking lot with the very same friends I had said goodbye to that morning.  I did not expect to see them again so soon!

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So many other things didn’t go the way I expected them to.

Like that time when I finished my three-week series of only-night-shifts. I had learned so much Farsi during that time and was really excited to use it in the following shifts. It was going to come in very handy for the morning tasks. Turns out I was only dealing with Arabic families the following days. All I knew how to say in Arabic was shukran which means “thank you” and alibaba which is just slang for “thief” or “bad guy”. That was not helpful enough to deal with what I had to. I also thought I’d be done with night shifts for a while… I was wrong. Even as I planned this trip, volunteering in Lesvos wasn’t my first choice (but it definitely was the best).

On one of my days off, there was a fire that completely burned out one of the big tents that housed around 50 refugees. I happened to drive past the camp at that moment. That day, I thought I was going to leave camp with some heroic stories of how hard I worked on my day off helping out during this chaotic event. I ended up having lunch in one of the food trucks outside and walking back home because the volunteers on shift had it covered.

These are just a couple of those things that didn’t quite go as I thought they were supposed to. I learned that there are many things I don’t control and that it is perfectly fine. These were constant reminders that God is in control, always. Even when I thought “I’ve got this,” even on my days off, and even now that I’m on the other side of the world. It is because of Him and not me that so many good things are happening on the island. I’m just a small part of it.

I learned many other things. I learned to be a better listener, and to be slow to speak. To be humble always. To consider others more important than myself. To look out for the interests of others. I learned not to judge. That there’s no way to hide His love. I learned that what comes from Him is so much bigger and stronger than the evilest things in this world. I’ve understood how precious each person that has arrived on the island is. I treasured each and every person I met in camp. I learned that I don’t have the power to change the way things are, and that’s also ok. These lessons are all works in progress in my life, but this experience allowed me to grow loads in those areas.

One of the most important things I learned was that humanitarian aid without God is meaningless. We could provide better housing, give away the best heaters, pairs of shoes, new jackets, blankets, tarps, we could provide anything they need and say yes to all their requests, and that still wouldn’t be enough. It is meaningless if there is no love. Providing temporary relief means nothing if there isn’t something beyond that, like eternal life in Jesus maybe? Now that’s something that will last more than a lifetime.  

I should probably tell you that I’m already planning to go back to Lesvos later this year to keep on working with these amazing people. Again, thank you for contributing one way or another to this extraordinary story. Thanks for your donations, for your prayers, your good vibes, for buying chocolate chip cookies (there will be more of those for sure), and for reading my blog posts thoroughly.

Until next time!

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

Our service blogs will continue shortly… click here to read all my posts while in Greece!