My grandson Justin Reese is taking a trip to volunteer at one of the refugee camps on a Greek Island. – Ron McGatlin

My grandson Justin Reese is taking a trip to volunteer at one of the refugee camps on a Greek Island. Please pray for Justin on the trip and for his wife and children at home. This is a firsthand learning experience for all of us to get more direct information for understanding the reality of the refugee and asylum seeker’s situations. We at OpenHeaven.com will be posting future news of Justin’s findings. – Ron McGatlin

From Justin Reese

Hello Everyone,

In January, I’ll be going to the Greek island of Lesvos to volunteer with EuroRelief  at a refugee camp.

Over the past few years, Rae and I have become increasingly burdened by the needs of refugees and asylum seekers. These are people just like us, with careers and dreams and hobbies and families, who had to flee their homes, their towns, their countries. Chased by war and persecution. Changing continents, cultures, languages, looking for a safe place, for peace.

If you do any Googling, you’ll find it’s not a pleasant stop. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved — well, most people involved — it’s terribly overcrowded with very poor living conditions. Currently, more than 14,000 people are living in and around a former prison built for 3,000. And more people arrive every day.

The process of seeking asylum is long, slow, and often frustrating. These camps are where the process starts for families entering the E.U. via Turkey, and often where much of it takes place. We want to do what we can to make that process as tolerable, as welcoming, as peaceful as possible. To help provide a short refuge on the way to, we all hope, a new home.

So, first, if you don’t already know, I’d love for you to learn about the plight and process of refugees and asylum seekers. You can skim (or dive into) the data here, and I highly recommend World Relief’s excellent primer “Seeking Refuge”, or the even shorter “8 Things You Should Know About Refugees”. (There’s also this excellent FAQ on the U.S. refugee resettlement program, though U.S. policy has deteriorated further since it was published in 2017.) I’m far from an expert on this, but I love learning and talking about it, so if you have any thoughts or questions, please reply!

• If you would like to help with the cost of the trip. Plus, three weeks of no self-employment income. We can live on savings for this part, but every gift helps.
If you’re able and willing to give toward this trip, you can use pretty much any method:

• $reefdog via the Cash app
• paypal.me/reefdog for credit card or PayPal
• Apple Pay, check, cash, etc.
• If none of these methods work for you, gifts can be made at OpenHeaven.com website for more information on giving go here: https://www.openheaven.com/contact-us/ And be sure to mark your gift for Justin Reese project.

There’s also a laborious way of giving in a tax-deductible way, so let me know if that interests you. And of course, I’m happy to give an accounting to anyone at any time.

Please consider this, and if you aren’t able to give now, consider (1) praying and supporting the trip in spirit, and (2) looking into one of the many other ways to get involved with refugee and immigration outreach. (There’s probably a refugee resettlement agency field office or immigration services NGO near you; let me know if you need help finding one!)

Thanks for reading this far, all you wonderful people. As a reward, here’s a lovely video EuroRelief put together about their volunteer efforts. It provides an additional perspective to most coverage of the camps, a reminder of the perseverance and joy that persist even in persecution.

— Justin Reese