“If I go back, they will kill me.” During the last months of 2015, variations of these words were repeated over and over to me at the Idomeni border camp for refugees. Idomeni, located on the Greek side of the border between northern Greece and Macedonia, had begun receiving an influx of refugees late in the summer. Working with a Pentecostal organization, my coworkers and I made our first trip to the border from Thessaloniki in August, at which point we already saw hundreds of individuals camped out on and around a set of train tracks. Groups of asylum seekers were allowed to cross the border into Macedonia at intervals, after which they could make their way further north or west across Europe. Greece’s poor economic situation at that time was well known, so most were hoping to eventually settle in other places, such as Germany or Scandinavia.

Helping refugees in Greece and Nevada has given me a different perspective on views I hear from many US Christians today.