New Column From Norris Burkes

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Shorter version of column 4th sunday Oct 17


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Editors: This is the shorter version. Please let me know if you want me to send a photos separately



A Walk in the Woods

Osarumen Osama works for a Brussels charity called Serve the City. Last month I asked him to take me to what remains of the famous refugee camp at Calais in Northern France.

"Are you sure you want to go?" he asked.

I lied and said Yes.

A few days later, we disembark the train in Calais and take a taxi to the camp. The French have officially closed the camps, so the ground that once housed tens of thousands of people, according to Care for Calais, an immigrant charity, now contains around 1,000 refugees. The majority are Eritreans, Ethiopians and Afghans, mostly men with a few isolated teens.

We randomly choose an immigrant standing about the entrance and ask him to escort us into the camp. He does. However, when we get inside, I don't see any offices or tents. I see only trucks dispensing potable water to a few dozen men filling their old plastic jars. There are portable toilets and showers as well.

This isn't a camp. These men are stragglers, those who have fallen between the proverbial cracks. Like the soldiers trapped at nearby Dunkirk in WW2, they can sometimes glimpse the Dover cliffs of freedom.

"Is this all of it?" I ask our unofficial guide.

He points into the forest not yet bulldozed.

"In there," he says. "Come."

Osama nods in agreement, whispering for me to stay close.

We walk through the woods along a muddy trail to find a dozen men smoking cigarettes, squatting around a campfire.

They give me an examining eye from my Keen® boots to my blue Gore-Tex® raincoat. I don't belong here. I'm an invader in their world who doesn't speak their language, literally or figuratively.

Gratefully, one man speaks English, so he translates the desires of the group. Many of them have been here for months and even years because they don't have the necessary immigration papers. They want to go to England or America in hopes of making more money.

Osama responds with a mixture of French and English, repeating what he often tells immigrants in Belgium. "England is overcrowded," he says. "Stay in France where some of you already know the language. Or go to Croatia or Kosovo where you can build your own dream and be rewarded for it."

It's a message many find unacceptable. They believe they'll find utopia in an English-speaking world.

We are interrupted by a man announcing the arrival of lunch trucks and take that as our cue to start our return trip home.

A month later, I'm living on the other side of the Channel in England where I daily encounter refugees that came through these camps. They're polite, curious, and hardworking. They're here to drive a taxi, start a kabob stand, or go to school. Some are professionals seeking national certifications to retain the profession they worked in their home country.

Sounds like many of the same reasons my ancestors settled in Texas.

As the Apostle Paul said, "But for the Grace of God, this would be me."

How can we help?

There are many ways to help migrants, and not just those in Calais. Most organizations are asking for volunteers, supplies, clothes and, of course, money.

You can help. Do your research. Present the needs to your organization or service group. If you are active in your church, encourage them to redirect their budget helping the immigrants and thus toward becoming the church God calls us to be.

The following is a list of organizations that are helping now:

http://care4calais.org/
http://www.utopia56.com/en
https://helprefugees.org/calais/
https://www.servethecity.net/
Unicef.org

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