Heder Mission Moments: Departing Sisters, Elder Teal's eye surgery and the Refugee situation

An interesting week. Elder Teal's eye surgery and recovery in the mission home has thrown off normal routines, and probably forever damaged the relationship between these two assistants and me. (one too many nerf-gun wars between Marie and I... there's no respect left) I'll probably have to transfer both of them to the far reaches of the kingdom where they can't see or talk to other missionaries about what they've witnessed of the Heder family..

I'm looking at a small bronze battle helmet that sits on my desk in the mission office. One Saturday back in August LeeAnn and I and the girls traveled out to Thermopylae ("therm-au-poli"), the narrow canyon where Leonidas and his Spartan band fought to the last man. It's referred to as "the hot gates." Leonidas and his small force of loyal defenders made their stand there against a massive Persian army. When Xerxes' suggested that the Spartans lay down their swords, Leonidas responded, "Come and get them." That phrase is inscribed below his statute at the monument near the battle scene.

Anyway, the little helmet is a sort of rallying symbol in Greece. It's on flags, plaques, T-shirts, mugs and people's desks. It stands for fighting on, against all odds. I'm not aligning myself politically with Greece's fight with the European Union or anything... but I particularly like this little helmet as we start the new year, because we missionaries want so much to overcome the odds. After 30 years of mission work in Greece we're still waiting for a fully functional branch, a full Greek Branch Presidency, a Ward, a Bishopric... There's a lot we don't have, and a lot that could be lined up against us. But as I look at these young men and women, I like our odds, and in any case, there's no better place to make the fight.

Bill O. Heder
Greece, Athens Mission

Hello family,

Good things going on in Greece. Tonight is the first night in at least 10 days that we have not had guests or missionaries coming or going. We had 5 missionaries a senior couple and 3 sisters and former missionaries and humanitarian volunteers that needed a place to stay and rides to the airport. We will miss our sister missionaries, they each spoke 3 languages and were able to translate a lot for our Spanish and French members. Without a senior couple up in Thessaloniki the missionaries will need to take on more responsibility with the Branch Presidency. Elder Teal and I (and his companion) were at the doctor for the 3rd time in 5 days and everything is healing well and he should be back to normal soon. The girls are always happy to help the missionaries - lots of laughing.

I was standing in line at the meat counter just the other day and it made me laugh about how I had Bill stop by the store to get more mozzarella cheese for our lasagna dinner and the store was so busy because of the holidays and Bill called me and said he had just picked his number and it was 79 and they were on 24. That still makes me laugh, no I did not make Bill stand in line that long, we made due with what we had but they do take their cheese and meats seriously.

We were able to help out a group of young ladies that had gone to the island of Lesvos and when they came back we had them for dinner and then got them to the airport the next morning. They had quite an experience to share. We helped get them to the ferry on Christmas day and they began their journey. I thought I would share a little of their story.

Lesvos is a very large island that is a popular tourist destination with beaches, markets, castles and many charming places but in the last year it has become a place where a half a million people seeking refuge have tried to pass through. They said that there were lots of people from England and other parts of Europe were there wanting to help but a lack of coordination between the various NGO's makes it difficult. Part of the problem is that there are to many short term volunteers and the challenge of managing all of the physical donations pouring into the island but getting the supplies to the refugee's is the biggest issue. They said that there were almost too many volunteers, which is nice to hear that people are trying to help but coordination and organization is a huge problem. They tried to help with translation in a station where people would come stand in line hoping to get the right paper work to travel into Greece. Some would wait all day and still not get help and then just have to come the next morning and try again. The weather was rainy a few days and it made it very difficult and cold and there was no shelter. All refugees must officially register at the government-run registration center called Moria before leaving for Athens. Many are frustrated and the police that are in charge are not kind and helpful. They said when the volunteers earn the police trust more gets accomplished in a day. It just broke their hearts how tough the conditions were for so many and communication is the biggest problem and not enough facilities to provide shelter.

An NGO called Starfish has boats go out looking for boats or people that have capsized. Another NGO called Lighthouse is a receiving camp about 20 feet from the beach complete with a hot tent for drying, a doctor, clothes and food. They told us about a Eastern European woman who's lived in Greece for 20 years who transformed her home in Molyvos into a huge sorting warehouse for clothing donations. While they were there a boat with 67 people capsized and most were lost at sea and that was really hard for the workers. The numbers have slowed down a bit because of the cooler weather but reports have shown that 3 - 5,000 refugee's a day are trying to come into Greece. Lesvos is the closest island to Turkey and that is why so many are attempting to cross there. They talked about the shores just being littered with piles and piles of abandoned lifejackets and deflated rafts.

Maybe many of you have already heard about this on the news but I thought I would share what we are learning and experiencing even though it can be hard to hear. Of course we all want to do more. Prayers for better coordination efforts are needed and donating to the church humanitarian aid efforts are the best way to contribute. They have full time staff at the Europe Area headquarters in Germany making sure the money goes to organizations that will use it for the most good. We get a Migration Crisis Update at least once a week from them. I thought I would share just a few lines of some of the reports so you could see some of what is going on.

Much love,

LeeAnn

Sister Heder

Greece Athens Mission

-- Dozens of transport containers have been converted into homes for 1,500 people in the new section of the Jungle camp in Calais due to open today. (Daily Mail)

-- A 10-foot high, razor-topped fence is being built along Macedonia's border with Greece, as a first "line of defence" against the thousands of migrants arriving into Europe via the Balkans every day. (Express)

- The IOM estimates that 3,771 migrants died while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe last year. (AP)

-- A total of 2,710 refugees arrived at the port of Piraeus on Wednesday morning via ferry boat. Specifically, the Ariadne transported 1,310 refugees from Mytilene, while the Blue Star Patmos transported a total of 1,400 refugees from Mytilene and Chios. (Tovima)

-- Turkish authorities said they found the bodies of 27 migrants, at least three of them children, at two separate locations on the Aegean coast on Tuesday. (Reuters)

- A barge carrying 25-30 migrants capsized off the coast of Greece early Wednesday morning, resulting in the death of at least eleven of the passengers, including four children and one newborn infant. Fifteen of the passengers were saved by rescuers while another two are still missing, according to Greek authorities. (Breitbart)

-- At least 18 migrants drowned when their overcrowded boat sank in the Aegean Sea on 24 December on the way to the Greek island of Lesbos in the latest tragedy involving refugees seeking to enter Europe. The wooden boat capsized in high waves two miles off the Bademli coast in the Aegean, the private Dogan news agency reported. The Turkish coastguard recovered the bodies including several children from the sea, and were hunting for another two who were missing. A one-year old baby was among those rescued. (AFP)

-- In UK, for the first time in 6 years, the number of people seeking asylum has surpassed 5,000 per month. (RT)