outreach.

Refugee camp food is not like home cooking

Each week refugee women cook a meal of their choosing at this Adventist church

Inter-European Division (EUD)

[Europe] Somewhere in Europe, about 150 refugee women with their children live in an accommodation for immigrant women. Close living quarters for women with trauma does not produce peaceful relations. Not to mention, the food served there is not what they are used to eating. These women are ready for something different.

Enter a young woman from the church located near the refugee camp. She works at the accommodation as a caregiver and sees a need. She is creative and makes a plan. Each week the caregiver and the pastor’s wife invite twelve refugee women to join them in the church kitchen to cook a meal of their own choosing. This outreach gesture is enjoyed by the refugee women, and the conversations with the caregiver and the pastor’s wife are helpful and friendly. Immigrant women look forward to the invitation to cook in the church kitchen.

By now it became obvious to the women of the church that they needed to reach out in more ways to the refugee women. The perfect opportunity for the first project came quickly. Women's Ministries of the church gave tokens of love to the 150 women in the accommodation for Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2019.

The women of the church prepared long-stemmed roses for individual distribution to each immigrant woman. They removed thorns and surplus leaves and attached personal cards written with the chosen Bible verse. The roses were packed and delivered to each room.

Many of the recipients were astonished that such a verse is in the Bible: “You are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you” (Isaiah 43:4, NIV). These displaced women expressed joy to receive the token of love.

June 15, 2019 is World Refugee Sabbath in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. ADRA Europe is particularly focused on the needs of refugees. Visit ADRA.eu/refugee

• Watch the TNN video with story for World Refugee Sabbath 2019, here.
• Watch the ANN broadcast reporting for World Refugee Sabbath 2019, here.
• Watch the TNN video from Belgrade, Serbia for 2018, here.
• Read the TNN report about ADRA's new publication, "Room for Women," filled with stories as told by refugee women, here.

Reported in Mosaic newsletter, 2019, Q2, Summer issue