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It is always great to come home to your content own bed after a long trip away, back to the familiarity of the place you call home. Getting To Know The Yazidis 3 Unfortunately for some, there is no place to Do Unto Others 7 call home anymore. Some would say that God At The End Of The Line 10 home is where your loved ones are. But for Heart In Colours 12 some, they have to be separated from their Hope After Border Crossing 14 loved ones.The world can be a very lonely Mountains To Beaches 15 place. A Refugee Comes To Stay 17 Speak Up For Us 18 According to the UN High Commissioner for Finding Love Without Strings 20 Refugees, 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide because of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations in 2019 alone1. Hope is the only thing they have left to hold on to. Many Interserve Partners work amongst the displaced either in their own home country or in a country where many of the displaced have been relocated to or are waiting to be relocated. In this issue, People on the Move, we have compiled some of the stories and reflections written by our Partners.They seek to show love and to bring hope a little closer to those who are displaced, helping them in any way they can through big or small ways; through hospitality, providing community to them and showing them a little bit of what God’s Kingdom looks like. I hope you will enjoy reading these stories and perhaps through it, you will see yourself as part of those who are bringing hope. Janelle Khoo Personnel Director 2019 Front cover photo credit : CharlesFred on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA 1 Figures from https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

Written by Janelle Khoo The first time I met her, she was sitting in a corner of the office. She caught the glimpse of my eyes and gave me the sweetest smile. I found out later that she is a Yazidi and has escaped from Iraq. She was captured by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) a few years ago and sold as a sex slave from one man to another until finally one day she plucked up enough courage to escape. She is now seeking refuge, waiting for the hope of a better life. Her story is not exclusive to her. There are many Yazidi women who share a similar plight. Who are these Yazidis? GtehtetiYngatzoidkniosw Photo credit : Kurdishstruggle on Foter.com / CC BY 3

Excerpts taken from The Ultimate History Project1 The vast majority of Yezidis live in the different types of Christians in a mountainous region of Kurdistan on the predominantly Muslim area would seem borders of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. The to indicate some connection between population of Yezidis, who lives in Iraq, the Yezidi and Christianity. Certainly the make up an important minority two belief systems share some customs. community.The estimated size of these Like almost all Christians,Yezidis communities varies significantly, practice the rite of baptism; immersion between 70,000 and 500,000.They are in water for purposes of ritual cleansing particularly concentrated in northern and as a sign of belonging to the group. Iraq in the Nineveh Province. As an In April, no Yezidi may marry; Orthodox ethnic group,Yezidis are Kurdish: they Christians tend not to marry in the live in Kurdistan and speak Kurdish. spring as no marriage can be performed Yet their religious beliefs are distinct in the fifty days of Lent that precede the from those of their fellow Kurds. Easter celebration. Amongst their closest neighbours, The Yezidi Feast of Sacrifice clearly Yezidis are sometimes known as grows out of the Jewish God’s demand Devil-Worshippers. Others claim that that Abraham sacrifice his son. At the they are heretical Muslims, or heretical last minute, God relents, allowing Christians. Still others believe that the Abraham to replace his son with a lamb. Yezidis are an offshoot of the Every February,Yezidis commemorate Zoroastrian religion of Persia. The truth Abraham’s experience by sacrificing a is quite complicated, as truth so often is. lamb. Other aspects of the Yezidi origin story have roots in Jewish tradition: Yezidis claim that their religion is over Yezidis believe they are descended from 6,000 years old, predating Judaism, Adam but not Eve. According to them, Christianity, and Islam.Yezidis and Adam placed his seed in a jar, creating a Christians of the region have a close son and daughter by himself without bond: In the nineteenth and early Eve’s help. These two children are the twentieth centuries, when the Ottoman ancestors of all Yezidis while Jews, Empire persecuted the Armenian Muslims and Christians are descended Christian minority,Yezidis undertook to from the children that Adam and Eve aid the Armenians as well as other created together. Christians.These close associations with 1 Victoria Lord,“History of the Yezidis” in Ultimate History Project [database on-line]; available from http://ultimatehistoryproject.com/history-of-the-yezidi.html; Internet, accessed 4 June 2019. 4

Photo credit : Catholic Church (England and Wales) on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA So the Yezidis are neither Jewish nor 20,000 and 30,000 Yazidis, most of them Muslim nor Christian yet their religious women and children, besieged by ISIL, practices reflect the influence of all of escaped from the mountain after the these belief systems. At the same time, People's Protection Units (YPG) and Yezidi beliefs contain elements of much Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) intervened earlier religious beliefs. to stop ISIL and opened a humanitarian corridor for them. Excerpts taken from Wikipedia2 Their plight received international media In 2014, with the territorial gains of the coverage, which led United States Salafist militant group calling itself the President Barack Obama to authorise Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) humanitarian airdrops of meals and water there was much upheaval in the Iraqi to thousands of Yazidi and Christian Yazidi population. ISIL has forced up to religious minorities trapped on Sinjar 50,000 Yazidis to flee into the nearby Mountain. American humanitarian mountainous region. United Nation (UN) assistance began on 7 August 2014, with groups say at least 40,000 members of the UK Royal Air Force subsequently the Yazidi sect, many of them women contributing to the relief effort. At an and children, had taken refuge in nine emergency meeting in London, Australian locations on Mount Sinjar, a craggy, 1,400 Prime Minister Tony Abbott also pledged m (4,600 ft) high, facing slaughter at the humanitarian support, while European hands of jihadists surrounding them nations resolved to join the US in helping below if they fled or death by to arm Peshmerga fighters aiding the dehydration if they stayed. Between Yazidis with more advanced weaponry. 2 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidis; Internet; accessed 4 June 2019. 5

One relief worker in the evacuation Photo credit : Bengin Ahmad on Foter.com / CC BY-ND operation described the conditions on Mount Sinjar as \"a genocide\", having witnessed hundreds of corpses. During the genocide,Yazidi men were rounded up and shot then dumped in mass graves. Captured women are treated as sex slaves or spoils of war, some are driven to suicide. Women and girls who convert to Islam are sold as brides; those who refuse to convert are tortured, raped and eventually murdered. Babies born in the prison where the women are held are taken from their mothers to an unknown fate.Yazidi children have been brainwashed and suicide among captives is common. Katy Fallon from Aljazeera reports3 Our Interserve Partner is working with \"Yazidi lands are not stable.Yazidi areas an organisation to help these Yazidis to have not been de-mined yet over 80 relocate to another country as there are percent of them are living in a still many who wish to seek asylum. miserable situation in camps. Over 3,000 Yazidi are still missing, justice has 3 & 4 Katy Fallon,“Yazidis seek church asylum as not been served and those criminals Europe's empathy for refugees wanes”, in who committed genocide and war Aljazeera Feature 29 August 2018 [database crimes against Yazidis are walking on-line]; available from freely in and around Sinjar. So how can https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/ya Yazidis return?\" zidis-seek-church-asylum-europe-empathy-refu gees-wanes-180828221815711.html; Internet; \"While many countries, UN and accessed 4 June 2019. international organisations have recognised the genocide, EU countries are refusing the asylum applications of so many Yazidis,\" says Ahmed Khudida Burjus from Yazda, an organisation which supports victims of the Yazidi massacre.4 6

ODoTuHntEo RS Photo credit : United Nations Photo on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND At the organisation where I volunteer a them. Some have their story written down few days a week doing prenatal care, on a piece of paper for us to read. When I I meet women who have fled from the examine a woman, measuring the size of horrors of war. Most women at the clinic the uterus and listening to the fetal are victims of the most heinous acts. heartbeat, I wonder—how is she coping? These women, almost all of them, are What does she think when she feels the pregnant through rape. What can one baby kick or when she hears the heartbeat say to someone who is in a situation like through the doptone (electric fetoscope) this, violated, pregnant and refugee? when I examine her? I do not know at all what this particular woman has A pregnancy, which for most people is experienced. But the empty mournful something positive, is for these women gaze I often face on these women tells me a big shame. Some of them cannot even that I probably don’t want to know too manage to tell us what has happened to many details about it either. 7

Gender-based sexual violence is one I have been able to use my profession of the hardest things I’ve met in this in roles I never could have imagined. I work. It is not only in this country have served in four different Middle that it happens but everywhere Eastern countries since 1991, working where conflict is ongoing. It is with women through antenatal care commonly used in war situations. I and family planning clinics. My driving think of the Yezidi women I met who force has been and still is to show the were captured, used as sex slaves and love of Christ to the women I meet. sent home when they showed signs of pregnancy. “How is it possible to survive and even thrive in a Middle Eastern context Ever since childhood I have stood up where women have little or no rights?” for the unprivileged in society. I had a is a question I sometimes get. First and sense of fairness that sometimes got foremost I need to say that I have felt me into trouble when “solving” respected and valued by the problems using my fists! Early in my authorities and almost all my life I wanted to follow Jesus and work colleagues. God put the love for these abroad where people did not know women in my heart. My motivation was about Him. My plan was to work in an and still is: orphanage taking care of and loving babies and small children. I wanted ‘So in everything, do to others what to become a nurse and midwife, you would have them do to you’. because surely they would deal with Matthew 7:12a (NIV) babies! Little did I know back then that a midwife just sees to it that the This verse gives me compassion and baby is born safely. But even now I empathy for those I meet.Yes, I get still have the same longing to serve tired and impatient but as I listen to the most vulnerable. So whenever I people’s stories I can’t help but keep meet people from other cultures— going. What I am doing is not so men and women—I feel this longing strange; I try to put myself in their to help. place. I know I can’t feel the same but I can show that I care. 8

This is how we as Christians can have an impact on anyone we meet. It could be as we are serving overseas or even now when we see people from other countries and faiths in our own countries, in a shop, on the bus and as colleagues at work. We need to pray for courage to take the first step. The author is an Interserve Partner and has served in the Arab world for over 25 years. “Gender-based sexual violence is one of the hardest things I’ve met in this work. It is not only in this country that it happens but everywhere where conflict is ongoing.” Published in Interserve NZ's website, September 1 2017. www.interserve.org.nz 9

GOD at the end of the line “Before the war”, Moussa* explains,“I had We are standing in a tiny upper room in hope. I was in a good school, I had my the old quarter of the city. Outside, the family. Now, every day is bad. Every day is autumn air is crisp and tinged with the the same. We are just waiting for smell of burning coal as locals struggle something to happen”. to heat their homes ahead of the winter. In here, though, it’s mercifully warm. Moussa and I have found a patch of sunlight and we are cradling tiny glasses of tea as he tells me in broken English and local dialect about his old life in Iraq. He had been in high school in Mosul when the war had come – he had wanted to go on to university and study teaching. But as fighting intensified between local security forces and tribal militias, and, later, with the group calling itself “Islamic State”, Moussa’s family knew they had to go. Hidden in the back of a truck, they crossed borders until they arrived in our city in West Asia, hoping they might return in a month or two.That was four years ago. Photo credit : captain.orange on Foter.com / CC BY-ND 10

Moussa is one of literally millions of work in the world. So a question we often people on the move out of Central Asia ask ourselves is,“What is our Father doing, and the Middle East. Fleeing conflict and even in the misery of these waiting lines?” persecution, they have escaped by any means necessary and they are searching Since we arrived four months ago, we for new places of refuge. But we’ve have seen several of the tiny local learned that life as a refugee is as much churches reaching out to refugees in about waiting at the pit stops as it is welcome and compassion. Working about moving along the highway. Our together, they make essential food and family recently moved to one such pit clothing available to thousands of stop, in a country which hosts one of the families each month.The sheer scale of largest single populations of refugees on their need can be overwhelming, and the planet. Here, refugees must quickly there is always more that could be done – learn the art of waiting.They queue for on our distribution days, the line of everything – for registration with the people winds through the United Nations or the local government, neighbourhood’s narrow streets, often in for their weekly check-in with local police, bitter cold. But we try to treat refugees for assistance at aid organisations.They sit not as numbers in a system but as people, before blank-faced civil servants and loved by God and travelling a long and patiently, haltingly, retell their stories over difficult road. We create spaces for them and over as they make their claims for to step out of the lines, to drink tea, to protection under international law. learn new skills, to talk. Some share their Moussa’s friend shows me a card for his stories more deeply, with whispered next meeting with the local government prayers in Jesus’ name. ministry for refugee aid.The earliest appointment available was for mid-2019. Back in that upper room, Moussa drops “No-one cares”, he says.“You feel you are another cube of sugar into his glass of tea dead, that you aren’t human anymore”. with a faraway look.“We’re just waiting”, he says again.“But what for, I don’t know”. This life of despair and hope is nothing With my limited language, I can’t say new to the people of God.They were much in response. But I am happy to wait brought out of Egypt (Deuteronomy with people like Moussa, and as in that 26:5–8), sat by the rivers in foreign lands perpetual waiting, we hope for new and and wept for what was lost (Psalm 137) divine beginnings. and, later, became known as “exiles” and “sojourners” whose true home is not of Joel* serves in West Asia. this world (1 Peter 1:1, Revelation 21:1–4). *Names have been changed. Migration and movement, waiting and Published in Interserve NZ's website, May 1 wandering, is one of the ways God is at 2017. www.interserve.org.nz 11

Heart in COLOUR We are a small group. Women whose daily lives are shaped by displacement hearts dream in different languages, and feelings of helplessness, gentle trying our best to communicate with guidance is necessary as we begin to gestures and borrowed words. Some transform blank pages with colour and wear colourful headscarves. Some have form. We talk briefly about an idea immaculate makeup and stylish around which we build our art-making haircuts. Some bring children. One activity: identity, happiness, home, hope, brings homemade snacks.There is a fear. We gently shape a space where warmth here which seems, for a time, to sharing is allowed and start with a soothe their loneliness and grief. We reminder that whatever we create or greet each other with kisses, pour tea, say will be met with kindness, not sit down and get out the art supplies. criticism. Our table is in a creaking upper room of This is not a class, I find myself the refugee centre. We can see the sky repeating.The beauty and benefit of and sunlight through the wood-framed our shared art making is in the process windows—the light and openness of creating together, not in the product. seem to mirror our purpose for being This is a new idea for many of them. here. We create art together and, in One young woman softly confides that doing so, I hope these refugee women she loved to draw as a young girl but will feel a lightness in their her stern father discouraged such weighed-down spirits and have a safe childish activities and forced her to space to bring their pain-filled stories marry at fifteen. Now, as she holds her into the light. I long for them to breastfeeding daughter in one arm and experience the love of the one who watches over her three-year-old son, called himself “Light of the World”. she sketches and tells me there is no time in everyday life for drawing. I can We spread out paper and simple art tell, though, by the way she carefully supplies. Nothing is complicated or moves her pencil over the page, and the technical, but to these women whose tired, wistful look on her face, that she 12

would sit here with these pencils all day So our time comes to an end. Kisses, if she could. I know that tugging feeling hugs, God willing, we shall meet again in my own creative spirit as a mother of next week”. I marvel at the gift of God in small children and my heart goes out to art making as a way of bringing healing her. and building community. Beauty from pain, creation from destruction, I pour more tea (our intercultural love community from isolation. Isn’t this the language) and watch as the women stunningly paradoxical way our depict their hearts in images and redeemer God works? colours. I see a lot of black and red—symbols of death and destruction, The author is serving long-term in of lost homes and difficult journeys. West Asia. She is passionate about There are also usually green or melding art and loving community yellowish glimmers of tenacious hope, for therapeutic and simple joys or love. Some talk about kingdom-building purposes. finding joy in the sunshine or trees, things that not even war or murder or Published in Interserve NZ's website, displacement could take from them. September 25 2017. Some speak of hope in heavenly www.interserve.org.nz paradise for a lost child, hope for a home in a new country where they can tend a garden or continue their education without fear. And I share simply why I drew my symbol of hope as an empty tomb in the middle of a rising sun. Photo credit : www.freepik.com 13

Hope after border crossing The world took notice of one lifeless child Two new Australian Interserve families on the beach, and responded with tears. are departing this year to join the Yet thousands of refugees continue to make refugee work of this church.These desperate border crossings in hope of families bring skills in trauma recovery, something better.The UNHCR estimates 4.8 special-needs education, IT and project million Syrian refugees have flooded into management, and experience with neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. asylum seekers in Australia. Experience This region, known as West Asia, is buckling tells us that as Interserve workers apply under one of the gravest humanitarian these skills, we will see innovative crises in modern memory. solutions developed.The smartphone-based system for managing The onward journey is complicated and food distribution at the refugee centre, slow at best. As time stretches on, poverty for example, was created by an and ill health become problems, and despair Interserve worker. sets in. Many have given up hope. These two families are committed to But there is hope. In West Asia, a small local long-term service –to making West Asia church with a big heart is reaching out to their home, and being attentive to what refugees, with amazing impact.They began God is doing there. We believe that this with blankets, mattresses, baby formula, and kind of investment in long-term workers gas stoves.The refugees were astounded – – who themselves are invested in a local no one else treated them like these ‘Bible body of believers – is the single most people’ did. As numbers increased, a refugee effective, sustainable and innovative centre was opened, and they now provide contribution we can make. regular food relief and programs for over 5,500 refugee families. These families are not superheroes.They are ordinary Christians who are The church knows they are in this for the responding to the world’s need and long haul.They want refugees fleeing God’s call to serve. violence and strife to find love in Jesus’ name. Multicultural Interserve teams have *Names have been changed. been serving alongside this local church for Published in Interserve NZ's website, over twenty years. May 1 2016. www.interserve.org.nz 14

Mountains to Beaches Drolma* tells her story to her new My grandfather and dad were Photo credit : Janelle Khoo friend as they sit on the beach. questioned at length.The truth is that they were sympathetic to my uncle’s My story began in a place very different cause, and they knew too much. My to here. My family lived on “the roof of grandparents decided that they and the world”.They are extremely religious my parents should flee. – even here, my parents are always muttering mantras as they finger their After careful planning, including beads, and I’ve had to beg Mum not to getting together as much cash as they walk down the street spinning her could, my parents and grandparents prayer wheel because it is so slipped away.They were okay while embarrassing. My uncle was a monk,– a hidden in the back of a truck that took really good monk. One problem, them towards the border, but when though, was that his monastery wasn’t faced with several days of walking at allowed to have monks anymore. As if night over snowy mountain passes being an illegal monk wasn’t dangerous and hiding deep in the forest during enough, one time he stood in his the day, my grandparents turned back. maroon robes on the town square and Mum and Dad made it though, despite told everyone who would listen that he Mum’s growing belly. Mum says that hoped that His Holiness could one day the night they met their contact near come back to lead our people. Of the river bordering Nepal was both the course, my uncle was arrested. It’s good highlight and the low point.They love that he didn’t set fire to himself – some their homeland, but fear for their own lives as well as hopes for the next monks do, you know, as a public way generation propelled them on. After of showing despair. handing over a wad of money, they were each harnessed to a wire running across the river. It only took a few minutes to be pulled across the churning water below to freedom and exile. 15

They made their way down to Photo credit : Janelle Khoo Kathmandu then on to North India where they registered at the centre for Tibetan Thanks for listening to my story. I’m sure refugees and waited … and waited … my parents won’t let me to go to youth and waited. I was born a few months after group at your church, but it’s kind of you they arrived, and my brother followed a to ask. We’re Buddhist, of course, because couple of years later. As we grew older, we we’re Tibetan.The lama says that it went to a school for refugee children doesn’t matter what others believe where we learnt English.The day our though, so long as they are good people. parents heard that we would be given Can we still be friends, even though I’m humanitarian visas by Australia they Buddhist and you’re Christian? That’d be threw a party. awesome. That’s how I come to live near this beach. The author is an Interserve team My brother and I are sort of like member working with the Tibetan Australian teens already, even though the community in Australia. Tibetan community here holds activities to help us remember what it means to be * Drolma is a fictional character, but her Tibetan. It’s hard for Mum and Dad. Even story is based on those of many who have though they’re adults, they go to English fled their homeland and been welcomed by classes every day.There are people who Australia. will help them find jobs when their English is good enough. More information about Tibetans in Australia can be found at We’re safe and mostly happy here, but http://www.startts.org.au/media/Tibetan- Mum still cries when people talk about Consultations-Report-2016-WEB-2.pdf our hero monk uncle. We don’t know (accessed 21 February 2017). what happened to him. We did hear that our grandparents made it back safely, but Published in Interserve NZ's website, Mum and Dad don’t contact them May 1 2017. www.interserve.org.nz because they are afraid it will only lead to trouble. 16

A Refugee comes to stay What would you do if your dad put a gun “A little later, I was hanging out with my to your head and said,“If you don’t want to friends who were talking about horrible follow the faith of our family, I will kill you”? things when someone leaned into my right ear and said,‘Your name is now John This is the story of a homeless 23-year-old and you need to leave these people’. I Iraqi refugee who came to stay with us one turned around but no-one was there. I night. He had been sleeping on a bench at knew at that time God had spoken to me the local bus station for the past two and I needed to turn away from my sin weeks, but that night he came home with and the bad influences in my life. But I us so that, for at least for one night, he knew this wouldn’t be an easy road, as my could have a home-cooked meal, a shower dad leads a pretty ‘dark’ group. So when and a warm bed. Now he wants to help my dad found out about my new faith, he others by serving at the refugee centre pulled out his gun from his pocket and where we volunteer.This is his amazing held it to my head.” story of encountering Jesus … John did the only thing he could think of “I first started seeking God by attending a to save his life. He bought a plane ticket local school in Iraq. However, I was turned and fled from his family. He went from off by the violence that was promoted, so I being part of a wealthy family to being returned home dejected and eventually homeless and jobless in a city of five decided to become an atheist.Then, I million people, with no support. Although became aware of a Christian in my city we could not provide John with who encouraged me to honestly pray,‘God, everything he needed, we could if you are real, then show me’. encourage and pray with him. “What followed changed my life … I had a Adam (IT/project management) and vivid vision of Jesus carrying the cross. In Penny (special education) serve the such pain He was struggling, and I ran over church in West Asia. to help Him. But He wouldn’t let me carry His cross. He just smiled at me with an All names have been changed. unforgettable smile which I can still see Published in Interserve NZ's website, today and said,‘I’m carrying this for you’. May 1 2018. www.interserve.org.nz 17

Speak up for us Each week I visit refugees who are being detained in the Immigration Detention Centre. Having left their country in fear of their lives, they now live in a country which does not recognise them or give them any legal rights. My fears pale in comparison. When I visit my friends, I must first register visitor means you are allowed to leave my name and passport details. If we make your overcrowded cell for an hour, talk to a mistake on the form, don’t have the someone from the outside, and perhaps correct information about the person we even hear news from your family. A visitor are visiting or wear the wrong clothes, we can pray for you. It is a reminder that you are not allowed inside. People are banned have not been forgotten. from visiting, or being visited, for often unexplained reasons. It’s the kind of place One day, I went to visit my friend’s where the lower your profile, the better. husband who had been detained for more But visitors are able to bring fresh food, than a year. I had my passport, correctly toiletries, clothes and books; and having a completed forms and correct clothes, but I 18

was not allowed to visit. He and some someone to speak up for us, to be our others were in the punishment room advocate”. Isn’t there a Bible verse or two where (I later found out) he was shackled about speaking up for the rights of the and beaten. For over a month my visits weak and vulnerable? (“Speak up for those were denied. Eventually I saw one of his who cannot speak for themselves, for the friends who had also been punished. Both rights of all who are destitute.” he and my friend were now back in their Proverbs 31:8) normal cell but, though he was allowed visitors again, my friend was still on the I prayed for courage, that the commander visiting black list. would listen and understand and be kind. God gave me courage but as I approached This continued for a number of months. the commander, I did not really believe my I had tried, through other avenues, to find efforts would succeed. out what was going on but the more I learned, the clearer it became that it would But that day I learnt that God is bigger be best not to interfere. It sounded like he than my fears and weak language skills, had been set up, that officials were and certainly bigger than my lack of faith. involved and that interference would only The commander was surprised when he make matters worse. learnt of my friend’s situation. He went straight to the registration desk and Then one day, while I was visiting someone removed his name from the black list! else, my friend came to the visiting area! Somehow he had been allowed out. I wonder what other, greater things God Communicating during a visit is very could do through us if we had the courage difficult—it’s a shouting match across two to trust in him more. fences, trying to be heard above everyone else’s conversations and pleas for help. But Cat is involved with a number of it was very clear that my friend wanted me discipleship and outreach ministries. to ask the chief police commander why he She’s serving with her family long-term was still on the black list. in South East Asia. I like to say my language is good enough All names have been changed. to get me into trouble but not good Published in Interserve NZ's website, enough to get me out of trouble. I really May 1 2018. www.interserve.org.nz did not want to make it worse for my friend.Then I remembered the words of Photo credit : another detainee:“Your visits and food are Sylvain Bourdos on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA appreciated, but what we really need is 19

Welcoming GENEROSITY I found myself sitting on the floor at a low arrival of hundreds of thousands of table, eating a dish of lightly spiced immigrants looks like in practice. Aside chicken and rice. I was enjoying the from the scale, the other thing that struck hospitality of a family who had been total me was the openness of many of these strangers to me until I walked through people. Sitting nearby in a café run by their door.This offering of generous Christians that has become more like an hospitality to an unknown guest is Arabic teahouse, I got into a conversation something that is common across much with two brothers from Damascus. One of the Middle East and Asia. But I was not was a teacher, the other a civil servant. I in North Africa, the Gulf or Central Asia. I was amazed as they quickly opened up was in a small provincial town in southern and started to share at a deep level.They, Germany and my hosts were recently like so many others, had experienced arrived Syrian refugees.There were three terrible things and lost almost everything. generations of them, sharing two rooms And like so many others, they were in a building quickly converted and fitted searching for answers, answers that they out to house refugee families. Bunk beds could not find in their current religion. lined the walls and the building was full of Until they get to Europe, many of these children. Mostly they looked happy.Their people have never met a Christian. Patrick current home was temporary but Johnstone, in his book Serving God in a relatively safe and secure. Still, I am sure Migrant Crisis, makes the observation that that behind those smiles were stories of “immigrants are typically most open to horror and loss that no one should have change in the first years after their arrival to experience, let alone a small child. in new places”. This provincial town of 5000 permanent There is an amazing opportunity to reach inhabitants was a regional centre for out to these people right now. Some in the incoming refugees – 1700 of them. German churches see this opportunity and Reports of the influx of migrants into many churches are engaged – befriending Europe inevitably quickly turn to migrants, providing practical help to numbers. Large numbers. But it is only navigate the administrative complexities when you are in Germany that you begin of getting established in a new country, or to get a real feel for what the sudden teaching German. But the need far 20

Photo credit : www.foter.com outweighs what is currently being part of what God is doing in Germany, offered. All of these interactions provide either short-term or long-term? Do you opportunities to share the love of Christ have skills in cross-cultural ministry that and witness to the hope of the Gospel. you could offer to the German church? Interserve works with a partner The opportunities are great but this organisation called DMG in Germany. season will not last forever. If you sense For many years, DMG has been sending the prompting of God’s Spirit to get German workers to join Interserve involved, we would love to have a teams across Asia and the Arab World. conversation with you! And whether you But now DMG is inviting Interserve to can go or not, pray that the Lord would send foreign workers to Germany, to raise up workers for this wonderful help German churches understand how harvest field and that God’s wonderful to reach out to their newly arrived work of transformation would continue neighbours. We have responded to that in the lives of many. invitation and have agreed to recruit people for this wonderful harvest field. Accessed Interserve NZ's website, 4th July 2019. www.interserve.org.nz 21



Interserve is a community of ordinary people following Jesus Christ amongst the peoples of Asia and the Arab World. Motivated by Christ's heart of compassion and justice, and in partnership with His church, with over 800 Partners in a wide range of ministries in more than 30 countries, we share our skills and experience to change tomorrow by what we do today. Are you called to serve the nations? Can we be of service? We have openings for a variety of If you are called to serve the nations or would like our professions and skills. We also have Partners / staff to share in your church, do email or call us. Partners who are tentmakers and doing Business As Mission. If you would like to be on our mailing list or would like to contribute financially, please fill in the details slip below We offer short-term missions for those and send to the postal address who want to experience missions or email us the details. anything from 2 months to 2 years. Postal address : P.O.Box 13002, 50756 Kuala Lumpur Would you like to contribute? Tel : 603-7872 9029 Fax : 603-7872 9028 Email : [email protected] Being a faith ministry, we depend on the Website : www.interserve.org.my continued support of local churches and individual Christians to help provide for Our bank account details are as follow: the work and funding the ministry. Any Account name : INTERSERVE FELLOWSHIP BERHAD contribution, large or small, will go a long Public Bank Bhd Account No : 3-2017625- 32 way in advancing the work of the Lord. SWIFT Code (for overseas telegraphic transfer) : PBBEMYKL Each Partner who goes will need to raise Should you bank-in directly, kindly fax-in the bank-in slip his or her finances.Your contribution may to 60 3-7872 9028 or snapshot and email your transaction enable someone to go. details to [email protected] notifying what/who your donation is for. Contact Details I would like to be on your mailing list to receive future copies of Interserve Magazine Title : First Name : by post by email Surname : Address : I would like to give towards General operating fund Postcode : Supporting partner(s); add name if known Tel : Others (please specify) Email : All cheques should be payable to “Interserve Fellowship Berhad”.

P.O.Box 13002, 50769 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel : 603-7872 9029 Fax : 603- 7872 9028 [email protected] www.interserve.org.my