A welcoming smile, a listening ear. Little things.

A welcoming smile, a listening ear. Could so simple a thing mean much to anyone? Along the Refugee Highway these things mean a lot. Take a moment to walk in the shoes of a Refugee.....
Having fled real danger in your homeland with only the possessions you carry, you find yourself at the mercy of strangers and other dangers along the way. Where can you go? You have left family and friends, a homeland, a culture, a place in society where you belonged. Perhaps after some months or years you arrive safely in a country that is still receiving refugees. Many things are strange to you. The food, the clothing, the language and the culture are all different from what you know. You receive shelter and food and for this you are thankfull. But you are not safe yet. You must be patient and wait some months or years before you receive a positive for your Asylum application. 

Perhaps you are not so fortunate and you find yourself in a foreign country where you are placed in a prison, treated poorly, even beaten. After 3 or 6 months you are released but only after you sign a document written in a langauge you don't understand. You then continue on in the hope of finding a country where you will be safe, and where you can begin a new life. 
You are travelling the Refugee Highway.

Is it any surprise then that simple hospitality means so much to a refugee? The offer of tea and coffee and time to listen to their story. Help with finding the cheapest simcard for a phone so they can make contact with family. Help with finding the local doctor. Help with a few items of clothing. Someone to pray for your application for Asylum or for your wife and children stranded in another country. Someone who cares when you are struggling physically and mentally to adjust to so many different things in a new country.

I have not walked in the shoes of a refugee. I have only heard some of their stories. I really don't know what it's like, but it starts to make sense, the comments that my wife and I and other Oasis workers hear from time to time. These are some of them;

Iranian woman - "I love coming to the Oasis, it makes me happy to be here."

Syrian woman - Question - "Do you have many friends here?"
                        Her answer - "No, the Oasis are my friends".

Syrian woman - "Here there is love in everyones heart." 
                        (after further contact and conversations) 
                        "I will visit again soon because I loved you with all my heart."

For some refugees the Oasis is a temporary refuge. Ultimately there is only one real, lasting refuge in this life and the next. 
I leave it to Psalm 46 to explain.

1 God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

                                                    Psalm 46:1-7

Colin & Rebekah Lyons