With the refugee crisis developing dramatically along Serbia’s border with Hungary and Croatia,
Volker Sachse from OM Montenegro spent nine days in neighbouring Serbia from 12th-24th
September. He partnered with local churches, OM colleagues and other organisations, to discover the
best way of helping. Each day Volker recorded his activities and feelings onto a micro-blog, painting
a vivid picture of a dire situation, yet with glimmers of hope in Jesus.
This first article shares extracts from Volker’s diary as he travels from Belgrade to the Hungarian
border…
September 12th at 2313 I’m in Belgrade. About 2000 refugees around the train station.
Waiting for relatives, buses or trains to go north. Not everyone has enough money to pay
for tickets. Not many police around, nor any organisation here to help. I talked to people
from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. Kids everywhere. One thought I had: we can give one thing for
free – our time. Time to talk, to play with the kids. Tomorrow I will visit one church, where
the folk are ready to distribute clothing on Monday.
September 13th at 2132 Today I went to the Church of God in Belgrade. The Sunday school
kids collected clothes and small toys to give to the refugee children around the train station
on Monday/ tomorrow. Had good talks with the church people about their response to the
crises. I go to Novi Sad tomorrow.
September 15th at 2210 Went to Hungarian border at Horgos this morning with two local
pastors and my Serbian friend Dejan. We’d bought 600 loaves of bread but we found
already 2000 to 3000 people waiting at the border, so we broke the bread into 1200 halfloaves
to give away. Not many organisations present. No water, no toilets. Bought two
vanfuls of bottled water to distribute – just not enough. A local Pastor had some Arabic
Bibles in his hand. A young man from Iraq came up with a big smile to say they are Christians. What a joy on both sides.
September 16th at 2157. Awful day. We gave out food and water again, other organisations
too. 5000 people were there. Then came that moment when someone shouted: “ the
Border is open”. Many were running, I with them to see what was happening. When I
arrived in front of the fence the Hungarians were deploying tear gas and water cannon.
Everyone went back to their tents. Later in the evening buses came but people were too
scared to use them. My mother came to my mind. She was a refugee in 1944 fleeing from
Kaliningrad over the frozen Baltic sea with her family to Germany. She was 6 at this time.Many people died. Now looking at the children from Iraq, Afganistan, Syria – I see my mother. How could I not try to help?
In the next instalment of diary extracts, we follow Volker as he visits refugees at a camp in
Serbia near the Hungarian border, then at a crossing into Croatia.
A developing OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial
entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM’s relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local
OM office.
***************************************************************************
Serbian Border Diary (2)
In this second set of extracts from his micro-blog, Volker Sachse from OM Montenegro
continues his fact-finding visit to refugees along the Serbian border, partnering with local
churches and colleagues from OM Moldova.
As you read, please pray for God’s direction as Volker prepares to return to Serbia on 6th
October. He will lead two teams from OM Lifehope in the U.K., following the refugee path in
order to provide practical help in partnership with churches and other organisations.
September 21th at 2239 Just arrived in Subotica near Hungarian border. I’m here to form a
spontaneous ‘team’ with four guys from OM Moldova. We had a planning meeting with
pastor Tibor. Tomorrow we start collecting some aid from a warehouse and bring it to a
camp with mostly people from Afghanistan. We will see what else happens – Balkan style!
September 22th at 1605 The M&M (Montenegro Moldova) team is working the whole day
with two local churches in Subotica. We organised clothing for the families, brought food to
a refugee camp in an old factory. We gave out the first anti – trafficking flyers in Farsi and
Arab; whole families were reading it together. Highlight was a group of young Afghanis
reading Matthew 5 with the pastor while sitting on the ground. One guy read the Bible in
Farsi; he had tears in his eyes. Another young man said that he would like to believe in
Jesus. After that they got their stuff together and started walking to the Hungarian border.
Now we are on our way to load the van with UNHCR tents to bring tomorrow to the
Serbia/Croatia border.
September 23rd at 2133 Got some food from an Albanian bakery in Subotica this morning,
then went to the Serbian/Croatian border crossing at Šid/Bapska – around 500 people were
waiting for the border to open. We worked together with Samaritans Purse and other
organizations. Constantly people arrived by bus. Before dusk we set up a big military tent for
some volunteers who want to spend the night there. My heart broke when I saw families
arriving after sunset. It was totally dark and there were now about 5000 confused people,
asking “What now?” No one had a tent for the night. It’s so hard not knowing how to help.
Tomorrow we will go again.
September 24th at 2141 The whole day we handed out food and hygiene; we had bought
almost every rain poncho from local markets. At least one person in each family speaks very
good English, makes it easy to communicate. We gave out 500kg food and several other
things. It is easy to connect with other organizations, but not easy to plan anything, because
no one knows where to go the next day. The pastor we partnered with got many great
opportunities to share, and to give literature and New Testaments in Farsi. I was impressed
by how well the people from Afghanistan received and read this material while waiting at
the border. Croatia was letting people slowly cross the border but it is still a 5km walk to a camp. Still buses are coming from Belgrade, each with 100 people. Now the heavy rain starts, it’s getting muddy. It’s hard not to go again tomorrow…
A developing OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial
entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give to OM’s
relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local
OM office.
lifeintheshortstaycarpark 