From the Church to the Refugee Camp

April 2 to 4, 2025

By Kelly Mehee Shin

Refugee families, children, Athens Grace Church members, and ministry teams gather together during the Grace Encounter and VBS retreat at CosmoVision near Athens.

From the Church to the Refugee Camp

By the time Athens Grace Church had been established for nearly a year, God was already leading our ministry beyond the walls of the church.

As we cared for refugee families living in Athens, our hearts were continually drawn to refugees living in camps outside the city. One of the places we visited regularly was Malakasa Refugee Camp, approximately an hour from Athens.

Life in a refugee camp can involve long periods of waiting and uncertainty. Many families have limited opportunities for employment, education, recreation, or meaningful activities while waiting for decisions about their future.

Our visits were never something we did alone. Local church members, missionaries, and ministry partners joined us as we visited Iranian and Afghan refugees and sought to respond to both practical and spiritual needs.

We brought clothing, shoes, food, school supplies, and other necessities. For children, even simple activities, games, and balloons could bring moments of laughter into an otherwise difficult day.

But we did not want to bring only material help.

We wanted to bring friendship, encouragement, prayer, and the hope of the Gospel.

We listened to people's stories, prayed together, sang worship songs, opened the Bible, and gradually built relationships. People who had once been strangers became friends.

From the Camp to One Gathering

Those relationships eventually opened the door to something much larger.

A ministry team from LA Grace Korean Church, together with ministry partners from Grace Churches in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, Germany, as well as team members from Korea and Greece, gathered at AMG International's CosmoVision near Koropi, Athens, for a special Grace Encounter program.

This time, the gathering was not only for members of Athens Grace Church. Iranian and Afghan refugees whom we had come to know through our visits to Malakasa Refugee Camp were also invited.

Two buses were arranged—one bringing participants from Athens and another bringing refugees from the camp.

For the first time, people we had visited in the refugee camp and members of Athens Grace Church were traveling to the same place to worship, learn, pray, and share life together.

Grace Encounter and VBS

Refugees, church members, and ministry teams worship together during the Grace Encounter gathering at CosmoVision.

Approximately 130–140 people, including participants and ministry teams, gathered together. Around thirty refugees came from the camp, while approximately twenty refugee members of Athens Grace Church also participated.

Adults joined the Grace Encounter program, spending time in worship, God's Word, prayer, and spiritual reflection.

At the same time, the children participated in a special Vacation Bible School (VBS) program. They played games, sang, learned Bible stories, participated in activities, and enjoyed the freedom of being together in a large and welcoming environment.

For children accustomed to the limitations of camp life, simply having a safe place to run, laugh, play, and make new friends was itself a gift.

One Community from Many Places

Refugees, church members, and ministry teams worship together during the Grace Encounter gathering at CosmoVision.

What made the gathering remarkable was not simply its size.

Refugees from Malakasa stood alongside refugee believers from Athens Grace Church. Ministry partners had traveled from the United States, Germany, Korea, and other places. Adults and children from different languages, cultures, and life experiences gathered in the same place.

We ate together.
We worshiped together.
We studied God's Word together.
We prayed together.

For those few days, the distinction between those who had come from the refugee camp and those who had come from the church became less important.

We were simply one community before God.

The Church Goes to Where the People Are

Looking back, we realized that this gathering had actually begun much earlier.

It began when we first went to the refugee camp carrying clothes, food, school supplies, and small gifts for children.

We returned again and again.

We learned people's names. We listened to their stories. We prayed together and opened the Bible together.

Eventually, some of the people we had first met inside the refugee camp boarded a bus and joined the church community for worship, fellowship, and the Word of God.

That experience reminded us of an important truth:

The Church cannot always wait for people to come through its doors. Sometimes the Church must first go to where the people are.

We went to the refugee camp to meet people.

But through those encounters, God brought people together and began forming a new community of faith.