Perspectives from a SHORT TERM WORKER at the Oasis

Arriving in Vienna over a month ago as a short term missionary who would be working at the Oasis, I really had no idea what to expect. I was going to be staying for two months in a foreign country, not knowing the language, not knowing the people, and not even knowing the specifics of what my work was to be. Serving refugees. Is that handing out soup to street people? Is that arguing about Islam with Iraqi’s? Is that trying to treat diseased people living in shanties? Not exactly.

Coming to the Oasis has taught me a great deal in just a few weeks but one of the most important things that God has shown me through my experiences is that refugees are not all the same and there is not one simple way to serve them. Through God’s direction and much prayer, however, the Oasis tries to reach this broad spectrum of people in a number of creative ways.

In my time here, the Oasis has continued to reach refugees with Christ’s love through its long term ministries. Clothing room continues to be successful, as hundreds of men, women, and children have received much-needed clothing items in the past month. Although the demographic has shifted to predominately Arabic-speaking refugees in the last few weeks, the Oasis has also continued to spread the Gospel every week through both a worship service and showings of Christian films in different languages.

New programs at the Oasis have recently begun to blossom as well as the Friday morning German classes have expanded greatly in just the past few weeks growing from one or two students to near twenty in recent sessions. In addition, a Russian team of short termers have begun two Russian children’s camps for Chechen refugees that seek to teach Biblical truths through the use of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. These new programs are reaching new groups of people in innovative ways and I am excited to see how God will continue to use them in the future.

Arriving at the airport, I may have had no idea how to serve refugees but today I can see that there is no limit to the number of methods that God will use to reach the unsaved. Working at the Oasis, I can see that God’s power is unlimited if you just let it work. 

Matthew Huff