The moment our RCRR (ROM
Community Refugee Response) international team moved to the Hungarian and
Croatian borders in Serbia, we were under attack from Christians who did not
approve of our action. They warned us that we were “naïve and misguided.” Some
even said that we were “aiding terrorists and human traffickers.”
In their view, the trail of the thousands of refugees from
Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other people groups, including Kurds and a number
of Christians, across Europe is the result of a sinister plot to “conquer
Europe with Islam.” They often used Bible verses and questionable hermeneutics
to buttress their views.
Our team, a collaboration between the Renewing Our Minds
(ROM) initiative and EUS Serbia (IFES – International Fellowship of Evangelical Students Serbia), could not
disagree more with the concerns of fellow believers who see the current refugee
crisis as a serious threat to “European Christian culture and identity.” Our
ROM Community Refugee Response, as we called the action, involved a group of
followers of Jesus, mostly young leaders from Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Israel/Palestine,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, the U.K., and the U.S. We embraced the challenge
that if there was ever a time in Europe to demonstrate the love of Jesus toward
people in distress, this is it as Europe faces its most overwhelming challenge
since World War II.
We wanted to make a statement of love, compassion, and
empathy. The summon of Jesus was clear to us: “Whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40)…
Photo: Liviu Bocaniala in the middle between Mateja and Marko Stupar.
Author: Liviu Bocaniala
I am no hero.
I am just a
poet, a bare foot one, most of times.
The words are
my very best friends, and in some instances, my worst enemies.This is one of those instances – how
and where do you start to describe, or explain, or make one blind observer of
the whole situation understand what is really going on?
And what is
really going on?
So I thought to
myself to simply describe how I met my new friends from Syria.
I do not know
how to recognize a terrorist (unless it is bloody obvious!).So I am not really sure if there were
any amongst the people we met.All
I could tell you is that when we reached the border between Serbia and Hungary
on our first day there, we saw simple people of flesh and blood and sweat and
tears; and dreams and hopes.In
the middle of those piles of litter the miracle of a smile made more sense than
ever.The smile of a child running
around careless, the smile of a mother exercising her role with holy cadences,
the smile of a dusty dark men…the
more one would smile at us, the more tears I could feel filling up my
chest.
They soon started
rolling down my cheeks, while I offered a bag with some food and some water to
a woman holding a three months old baby in her arms.What a way to enter the world!It didn’t make any sense.“What an incredible mess!”, I turned around and told Tihomir
and then I run and hid behind the van ashamed of my tears.
Out of that
crowd, two young men approached us; again, smiling; and we started talking to
them.They were both studying
English literature back in Syria.They told us their story of the last two months’ trip until the
Hungarian border.They didn’t want
any food, or water.“There are
others who need it more”, they told us, and they actually helped us deliver
some packages.
As we were
talking, they asked me, “Do you have any coffee?We didn’t have any coffee for the last twenty days…”.Knowing my addiction to excellent
coffee, I did understand them.And
while we were preparing to leave, hugging and taking pictures with them, I went
to a tent where I’ve noticed that a charity from Romania was offering tea and
asked them if they had any coffee in their supplies.After a minute, one of the Romanians came out and handed me
the only jar of soluble coffee that somehow was hiding in their luggage.I asked my friends to hold the van for
a minute and run towards the actual border where I saw our new friends walking
after we said our goodbyes.I
spotted them in the middle of a large group, sitting quietly on the ground,
surrounded by groups of journalists, just in front of the barriers – their way
of protesting to the whole messy situation.I handed them the jar of cheap coffee, apologising for God
knows what, as if their lack of coffee was my fault.And run back to the van.
Syrian refugees stuck at the Hungarian border
Two days after
this, and about a thousand and more people later, to whom we offered water and
some supplies to help them continue the trip, in the middle of a field of corn
just around the corner from the Serbian/Croatian border, two large surprised
smiles of our two new friends greeted us from the crowd.We welcomed them as if they were old
friends.It was a short encounter
this time.They were rushing
towards the Croatian border.We
said goodbye, again, setting our hopes higher this time and promising each
other to have coffee together in a free world, in a pub in Norway.We gave them more coffee and I wrapped
my scarf around the neck of one of them…
I thank God for
this story of newborn friendship in the middle of all that panic and terror and
hopelessness.I do not know if I
will ever meet those two Syrians ever again.I do not know where they are.I do not know if they were saints or something else? I still
know next to nothing about them.
But I do know
that, if I will ever find myself walking the streets of any free city in any
free country, anywhere in a free world, and I will recognize my friends, it
will be my honour to treat them to a cup of excellent coffee.And take time and listen to their story
again. And don’t worry, I will know them by the scarf… Author: Liviu Bocaniala
Leo van Doesburg, Director
for European Affairs and Policy Advising of European Christian and Political
Movement (ECPM) talks about ECPM and its views on dignity of human life, family
values, gender equality, legalization of same sex marriages, euthanasia,
prostitution, human trafficking, quality of life, religious freedom, difference
between church and state, speaking Christina values into politics, meaning of
freedom, peace building and reconciliation. Leo
van Doesburg is External Affairs Manager for the European Christian Political
Movement (ECPM), a European political party committed to promoting Christian
Democratic values with its social expression in public life. He is actively involved in policy-making at various national and
European institutions and has offered many trainings and courses on Christian
Democracy, Freedom of Religion & Conscience, Family Values, Human Dignity
and Peace & Reconciliation. In 2011 he was awarded the Conscience and
Freedom Award for diligently promoting religious freedoms in Europe, in 2013 he
was awarded in the recognition for the fight against Roma discrimination in
East Europe by the International Romani Union. Leo van Doesburg and ECPM are our
European partners. Time 28:08 min.
