The News Stories

Grisly Discovery in Migrant Crisis Shocks Europe

Aylan’s story: How desperation left a 3-year-old boy washed up on a Turkish beach

The above stories really struck a chord in me as I thought about the desperation of the families that were involved.  These stories and similar ones in early September, along with the extent of the crisis initially got my attention. Especially since this is being considered one of the largest refugee migrations in modern times.  I wasn’t thinking about me and what could I do.  I was just following the news. We think the world is a comfortable place and that peace and progress will be the solution to man’s problems, but I knew that wasn’t the case.  For much of the world their isn't peace but the fallout of nations in strife and geopolitical posturing. 

Some of the stories I was looking at mentioned the Greek island of Lesvos.  Having been there it piqued my interest and I googled news stories about Lesvos, since I couldn't imagine the island I had driven all over had any type of refugee activity, though I knew it was only a few miles off of the Turkish coast.  I was shocked that 1000s of refugees were arriving on the island by raft/boat every day.  Later in November the average per day would be 7,000 arriving on an island that has a population of 86,000.  I began to follow every news story about Lesvos.  The occurrence of drownings became so routine that most of them didn’t even make headlines.  Like all tragedies the consumer becomes numb and moves onto other things.

How many are aware that last Thursday 45 drowned on the way to the Greek island of Kos?

45 Migrants Drown as 2 smuggling boats sink off Greece

In the fall I began to pray for the refugees and the people who are trying to help them.  I thought and prayed that somehow I could help.  I thought about going.  I didn’t think of it in real terms.  I thought that by the time I could plan to go, that the crisis would be over, though I knew there were millions of refugees in Turkey and coming from Afghanistan I expected that the small volunteer groups already operating on the island would be replaced by larger organizations with a process to handle the situation.  When I read 7,000 a day in November, continued drownings and the families that have left everything.  I realized this was not going away.

This is why I must go to Lesvos.  Next how I made up my mind.