Reflections on Macedonia
By Rev. Julie Yarborough
Christ Church
April 18, 1999
ll, as most of you know by now, my husband Jeff and I received a
phone call on a Tuesday night almost two weeks ago inviting us to go on
a fact-finding mission to Macedonia, which was leaving in less than 48
hours.
We were invited to be a part of the CitiHope International assessment
team, to visit refugee camps in Macedonia and to visit with United
Methodists in Skopje and Strumica to determine what needs, if any,
could be met by CitiHope.
CitiHope is a PVO that works primarily in countries that were part of
the former Soviet Union.
Its mission is to provide humanitarian medical and nutritional aid to
areas in need. For this particular project to aid refugees in
Macedonia, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) had agreed
to offer a substantial grant.
The purpose of our trip would be to determine specific areas of need
and to lay the groundwork for a $6 million air shipment of
pharmaceutical supplies to be delivered within the next few weeks.
The night I got that phone call, I was on my way out the door to a
pastor-parish committee meeting.
When I mentioned the possibility of my participation in this trip, I
was met with a resounding, "Of course you should go!"
Thanks to Bill Campbell, who agreed to pinch-hit for me and preach last
Sunday, my schedule was quickly rearranged and I started packing.
Before we knew it, we were on our way along with four other people, one
of whom was Art Keyes, the Director of a PVO called International
Relief and Development, and a childhood friend of Joe and Sue
Salisbury! Its a small world. (Art says hi, by the way!)
Before Jeff and I left we typed a letter that we sent by e-mail to
everyone on our address list.
That e-mail quickly spread and even before we left we received many
responses that people would be praying for us and our mission.
I can honestly say that I felt blanketed by prayers throughout our
trip.
It was almost a visceral feeling.
Not once did I feel afraid or in danger.
I knew that people all over the world were praying for us
even people that we did not know.
And doors were literally opened for us every step of the way.
Let me give you a couple of examples: All of the hotel rooms in Skopje
and for miles around, were occupied.
We did not know where we were going to sleep. Yet, when we arrived, our
host announced that he and his wife had made plans to sleep elsewhere,
and we would be welcomed to stay in their house.
We couldnt have asked for a better arrangement.
We even had access to CNN, e-mail and a fax machine.
Shortly after we arrived we also learned that our hosts brother-in-law
is th
Macedonia is a lovely country, and seems much more like Western Europe
than I was expecting.
We didnt experience any hostility from the Macedonian people and it was
hard to believe that we were less than 100 miles from a war zone,
although we could hear rumbling sounds in the distance that were most
likely bombs, and we could hear NATO jets flying high overhead.
We were also pleasantly surprised to visit the refugee camps and to see
that they were running fairly smoothly by the time we arrived.
We had read and seen stories about Blace, the temporary camp in the
field on the border between Yugoslavia and Macedonia and we expected to
find the refugees living in horrible conditions.
Although the camps are less than ideal, everyone has enough to eat,
clean water to drink, mostly adequate medical care, tents in which to
sleep and by the middle of last week they even had even access to cell
phones.
But the lives of the refugees are far from normal. Families have been
separated and we heard many stories of oppression, scare tactics,
looting and burning of houses, rape and killings at the hands of the
Serb forces.
As we heard these stories of brokenness, we, like the disciples on the
road to Emmaus who recognized the Risen Christ in the brokenness of
bread, also felt the Lord's presence burning within us. The Risen
Christ was revealed to us in the faces of the people we met the
refugees, soldiers in the refugee camps, humanitarian aid personnel,
government officials, children in hospitals, street kids, and United
Methodists in Macedonia.
We chose to enter the camps prominently as Christians.
Jeff, Michael and Paul wore their clerical collars and I wore a large
cross around my neck.
We wanted to be agents of healing in the midst of great pain.
We wanted to be a visible presence of God in the midst of such
suffering.
We also wanted to reach out to our Muslim brothers and sisters and show
them that there are Christians who care about them and are praying for
them.
We were warmly received and had many wonderful conversations about
faith, God, and prayer with Muslims and with Christians.
We also heard about a couple of acts of grace that reached across
religious boundaries:
-
The Italian Catholic NATO soldiers set up a prayer tent for the Muslim
refugees, lined up in formation with all of the other tents in the
camp.
When they learned that it needed to be set up facing east, they took it
down and set it up again.
-
The Israeli doctors from the Red Star of David delivered a Muslim baby
On Easter Sunday.
There were several other holy moments that Id like to share with you:
At one point, as Jeff and I were talking to a couple of NATO army
chaplains, a young married couple walked up to us.
Iliriana and Ruzvelt saw Jeffs collar and thought he was a Catholic
Priest.
With excitement they said in English, "We are Catholics too!"
We talked with them for a while and learned that they were very worried
about their parents, who were still in Kosovo.
Iliriana and Ruzvelt had been in the Brasda camp for four days.
Before that they had spent four days on the border in Blace without
enough food or water and no shelter from the sun and the rain.
They called Blace "Hell" and told us that twenty babies died
there from exposure and dehydration.
We offered them some chocolate Easter eggs and Iliriana smiled as her
eyes filled with tears.
"Easter eggs!" she cried.
"I didnt get to have any Easter eggs this year.
We celebrated Easter in Hell."
At that point, my eyes filled with tears.
Iliriana and I really connected and we spent the rest of the afternoon
together.
She translated for me and because of her, I was able to find Gezims
cousin!
Gezim is the ten-year-old boy who came to Summit in October to have an
operation.
He lived with the Gelbers while he was here and Id promised Rosemarie
that I would do what I could to find out about him and his family.
I told Iliriana that I was looking for the Shehu family from Urosevec
and she told me that the newest group of refugees that had just arrived
an hour earlier was from that area.
We walked over to the intake area and she began asking everyone we met,
"Do you know the Agim Shehu family?"
About the tenth person she asked said, "Yes, my wife, Mejrane, is
Agims niece."
We found her surrounded by her five small children and learned that
Gezim and his family were still in Kosovo.
They had tried to cross the border three days earlier, but were turned
back.
She thought they would try again soon.
The children looked
One more story: Iliriana came with us to a tent and translated for us
as we sat with a Muslim family and heard their story.
Solomon, an elderly man, was living in a tent with his two daughters,
his daughter-in-law, and his four grandchildren.
His oldest son was in Germany, one son was fighting with the KLA and
his youngest son, a 12-year old, was killed while fighting for the
resistance.
Their house had been burned to the ground and everything they owned was
destroyed. They had also witnessed a baby being stabbed to death.
They felt very lucky to be alive and were grateful to be in Macedonia
in the Brazda camp.
After listening to their story, we offered them some chocolate Easter
eggs.
We told them that Sunday had been our High Holy Day, and that these
eggs symbolized new life, new hope, and spring.
We passed the eggs around the tent, and the moment felt very
sacramental. Solomon looked at his egg and said, " I will not eat
this.
I will save it to remember."
We said, "You can ea
I have never really liked those little praying hands, but I will never
look at them again without remembering the Kosovar Refugees.
As we left the camp that day, Iliriana said to me, "Since we left
Kosovo, I have cried every day. Today is the first day that I have
smiled."
I told her that I was going to tell her story when I got back home, and
I asked her what she would like for me to tell people in the United
States.
"Tell them to pray," she said, "And tell them thank you,
thanks for everything."
Results of our findings:
-
Camps have enough pharmaceuticals, but refugees need better nutrition
and mental health care.
-
Hospital in Tetovo will be providing all acute care needs for refugees
in Macedonia, both those in host families and those in the camps.
-
CitiHope will send airlift of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals by
end of June.
On Thursday evening April 22, at 7:30 p.m., Dr. Michael Christensen,
Chairman of the Board for CitiHope International, my husband Jeff and I
will be giving a presentation and hosting a prayer vigil at Drew
University in the hall of Sciences, room 4.
All are invited.
Also, if you would like to contribute to the needs of the refugees in
Macedonia, donations may be sent to CitiHope International, P.O. Box
38, Andes, NY 13731.
Contributions may also be made to United Methodist Committee on Relief
(UMCOR) International Disaster Response # 982450-8.
Checks, earmarked for "Kosovo Emergency," may be placed in United
Methodist Church collection plates or mailed directly to UMCOR at 475
Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115.
Credit card donations may be made by calling UMCOR at (800) 554-8583.
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