A bi-monthly update from World Mission, a ministry of the Presbyterian Mission Agency
The Mission Matters column addresses the impact of Presbyterian mission in the world and the issues that affect mission co-workers, the people we walk alongside and assist in service to God, and our partners around the globe.
A Desperate Hope
March 2024
Ellen Smith is a mission co-worker who serves as the regional liaison for Central and Eastern Europe. To learn more about Ellen’s ministry and subscribe to her letters, visit her Mission Connections page.
It has been a season of travel that began in mid-January with the Matthew 25 Summit in Atlanta. I did not know what to expect from the summit, but it proved to be extraordinary — so many Presbyterians gathered to explore ways to engage more deeply in the call of Matthew 25.
Issues of migration and militarism fit within the Matthew 25 foci. I worked with colleagues in Central America to look at migration into both Europe and the United States and the militarized barriers that exist. In some cases, as at the Belarusian border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, the migrants themselves have been militarized. Whatever the cause that drives people to leave their homes, families and friends, they make the journey with hope, often a desperate hope.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, my focus has been on people on the move (not just Ukrainians). People are on the move globally for many different reasons, such as full-scale war, the threat of violence, environmental disaster and poverty.
Following the summit, I flew to Rome for a partner consultation titled “People on the Move.” It was hosted by the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, the PC(USA), the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Reformed Church of America. The consultation brought together the voices of migrants and partner organizations in the Middle East and Europe to explore the root causes of migration, the challenges migrants face upon arrival in a new country, and the ways partner organizations provide welcome. It was a powerful gathering and a privilege to hear from the migrants themselves, who had all made difficult journeys. The consultation concluded with discussions about advocacy work in both Europe and the United States.
Following the consultation in Rome, Area Coordinator for the Middle East and Europe Luciano Kovacs and I met in Zagreb, Croatia, to explore the Balkan route of migration into Europe. It is one of many routes, just as there are different routes of migration into the United States. We traveled with Serbian staff members of Church World Services, driving from Zagreb to Bihać (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
The border between Bosnia (not the EU) and Croatia (the EU) is one of the longest in Europe. Migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, and other countries have traveled through Turkey, Bulgaria, and Serbia to reach Bosnia and approach the Croatian border. It is a hostile border, heavily militarized to keep the migrants out. Border guards regularly destroy people’s cellphones and take their money, often beating them before pushing them back across the river into Bosnia.
Migrants keep trying. They have not come on the journey to go home again. It’s called “the game,” a very hard game that desperate hope drives them to keep “playing.”
Luciano and I met a group of young men who had just been pushed back. Cold, hungry and discouraged, they were ready to return to the refugee camp so that they could recover before trying again. We visited the camp the next day and saw acres of containers in the middle of nowhere. The camp is an improvement over the previous setup because the containers provide shelter from the elements, but it is not a place to stay. The goal of migration always remains.
Children are the most vulnerable. Smugglers are ready to take what they have and pass them off to traffickers. If they make it to their destination, they are likely to find themselves in new refugee camps. Hope is a hard thing to hold on to, but they are driven on by the family left in the circumstances that started their journey.
In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we connected with a center run by the PC(USA)’s partner Mediterranean Hope. This center welcomes migrants, providing hot tea, fresh clothes and kindness along the way. Sometimes the migrants they welcome are new arrivals; at other times, they are people who have returned from being rejected at the border and need to recuperate before trying again. Another center, a shelter for unaccompanied minors, is run by the Jesuit Refugee Service. They have space for 20 boys, and they were getting ready to welcome a new group that would take them to capacity again. From Afghanistan, there was one boy who fled because his family was being killed by the Taliban, and another who fled because the Taliban was trying to recruit him. One is Sunni and one is Shia, but they don’t fight. They have enough. They are warm, they are fed, they are safe and they are met with kindness. May they find the same at the end of the journey they are on.
We need a new narrative for the people on the move, and we need to think about what welcome should look like. The current narrative tells us migrants are dangerous and a threat. President Lukashenko of Belarus has forced people across its border as a threat to the European Union. We have migrants coming to our border. Can we receive them as the human beings they are — people in need, seeking hope? Can we make sure that they are warm, fed and safe? May we think about what Jesus intended in welcoming the stranger.
Peace to you this day,
Ellen Smith
Mission co-worker
Presbyterian Church (USA)
March, 2024