A Refugee Young Adult Community Born Around the Table

November 2024 – September 2025

By Kelly Mehee Shin

Refugee young adults, EM mission team members, and members of Athens Grace Church gathering together in Athens during the growing young adult ministry.

The Arrival of the EM Short-Term Mission Team

oung adults gather near a refugee camp in Greece as the ministry team leads an outdoor time of music, fellowship, and outreach.

In November 2024, a group of young adults from the English Ministry (EM) of our home church in the United States came to Greece as part of a year-long commitment to serve in different mission fields.

They stayed with us in Greece for approximately three months, from November 2024 through January 2025, serving alongside us in our ministry among refugees.

They did not come simply as visitors.

They joined us in visiting refugee camps, served through praise and worship during Sunday services at Athens Grace Church, helped prepare food for refugees, and participated in many different areas of ministry.

For those three months, they lived close to the refugee community, spending time with families, listening to their stories, and serving them in practical ways.

It was during this time that something unexpected began.

A Small Table Opened Through Korean Food

Ministry volunteers and members of the refugee community share a joyful moment together during a gathering at Athens Grace Church.

The EM young adults came up with a simple idea. They decided to invite several refugee young adults to the apartment where they were staying and introduce them to Korean food.

At first, it was a very small gathering. Only one or two refugee young adults came. They ate Korean food together, played games, laughed, and began getting to know one another.

As they continued meeting, the initial awkwardness gradually disappeared. Sitting around the same table and sharing food created a natural place for friendship.

Eventually, deeper conversations began. The refugee young adults talked about leaving their homelands, the difficulties of living in Greece, the uncertainty of not knowing which country they might eventually call home, and the struggles they carried as young people living through displacement.

As trust grew, they also began reading and studying the Bible together. What had started simply as a meal and a time of friendship gradually became a Bible study gathering.

From One or Two to More Than Ten

Refugee young adults and ministry volunteers gather in a home, where friendship and community begin to grow through time spent together.

The small gathering began to grow. One young person invited a friend. That friend invited someone else. Before long, more than ten refugee young adults were regularly gathering together. At that time, Athens Grace Church did not have a separate young adult ministry.

No one had begun this gathering with a carefully designed plan to establish one. Yet through a small table in an apartment, God was naturally forming a new community of refugee young adults.

Korean food brought people to the table.

Around the table, friendship began. Friendship created a place where people could share their hearts. And within those relationships, God’s Word began to be shared.

In this simple and unexpected way, a refugee young adult community began to form within Athens Grace Church.

The Fellowship Continued After the Mission Team Left

Refugee young adults and ministry volunteers worship together at Athens Grace Church, singing and sharing faith across cultures and backgrounds.

A growing community of refugee young adults and ministry volunteers gathers at Athens Grace Church for fellowship, worship, and friendship.

In January 2025, after completing approximately three months of ministry in Greece, the EM short-term mission team left to continue the next part of their year-long mission journey.

But the young adult gathering could not simply end when they left. Relationships had already been formed, and the refugee young adults wanted to continue meeting. So we took responsibility for continuing the ministry.

We kept using food as a bridge for fellowship, just as the EM team had done. Sometimes we made gimbap. On other days we prepared jjajangmyeon, bibim-guksu, and other Korean dishes.

We cooked together, ate together, talked about life, studied the Bible, and prayed for one another. As these relationships grew deeper, some of the young adults naturally began attending Sunday worship at Athens Grace Church.

Some who had first come simply to enjoy Korean food and meet friends were now coming to church, listening to God’s Word, and learning more about God and Jesus Christ.

May 4, 2025 — A First Fruit on the Church’s First Anniversary

Then came a day we will never forget. On May 4, 2025, Athens Grace Church celebrated its first anniversary. One of the refugee young adults who had become connected to the church through the young adult fellowship was preparing to leave Greece and move to France.

Before beginning this new chapter of his journey, he made a personal confession of faith in Jesus Christ. On the very Sunday that Athens Grace Church celebrated its first anniversary, he was baptized at our church. It was an especially meaningful moment for us.

On the day our small refugee church celebrated its first year, a young person who had come into our community through this ministry publicly confessed his faith and received baptism. Soon afterward, he left Greece for France, carrying his new faith with him into another country and another chapter of his life.

September 2, 2025 — A Baptism by the Sea

Several months later, we witnessed another precious fruit of this ministry. A young man from Afghanistan, who had been part of the young adult fellowship, continued learning the Bible and participating in the church community. Over time, he came to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior. Then, on September 2, 2025, he publicly confessed his faith and was baptized by the sea.

Watching this young Afghan refugee stand before the open sea and confess his new faith was a moment we will never forget. What had begun with a simple invitation to share Korean food in a small apartment had now become something much deeper.

The table had led to Bible study. Bible study had led to the church. And through the church community, young people were coming to personal faith and baptism.

Reflection — What God Began Around a Small Table

Refugee young adults and ministry volunteers share an evening meal at a neighborhood restaurant in Athens, strengthening friendships formed through months of fellowship.

Looking back, there was a beautiful continuity in this young adult ministry. In November 2024, the EM young adults from our home church came to Greece and opened a small table of fellowship.

In January 2025, when they left Greece to continue their mission journey, we continued the relationships they had begun.

On May 4, 2025, the first anniversary Sunday of Athens Grace Church, one young refugee was baptized before leaving for France.

And on September 2, 2025, another young man from Afghanistan confessed his faith and was baptized by the sea. None of us could have planned all of this from the beginning. Someone prepared the table. Someone cooked the food. Someone invited a young refugee. Someone listened to his story. Someone opened the Bible with him. And someone else continued the relationship after the first mission team had gone.

The person who plants the seed is not always the person who sees the fruit. Yet God connected all of these small acts of service and used them to bring forth faith in the lives of these young people.

“A meal became a meeting.

A meeting became a friendship.

Friendship opened the door to God’s Word.

The Word grew into faith.

And faith was finally expressed through baptism.”

We had never begun with a plan to establish a young adult ministry. A few young people had simply invited refugee young adults to gather around a small table in an apartment. But God used that table. A conversation that began over a roll of gimbap opened someone’s heart.

That conversation became a Bible study. The Bible study became a community. The community led people into the church. And within that community, new confessions of faith were born. We shared food around the table, but God was building a new community of faith.