Freedom Through Facebook

By Josie Oldenburg, SEND International

Bill and Joan Ginther know that switching on the news or scrolling through Facebook just might change their lives.

“If you watch the news and do nothing, you should stop watching the news,” Bill said. “That’s how we operate.”

And that’s why, several months into the refugee crisis in Europe, they found themselves slogging through the muck, delivering hard-boiled eggs and apples to refugees stuck in Macedonia.

Soon after they became aware of the refugee situation, the Ginthers saw a SEND Facebook post inviting people to serve refugees living in two hastily organized camps along a train track in Macedonia, near the border with Serbia.

They went to the so-called “mud camp,” populated by 472 people who had made it to Serbia but were pushed back.

“We were immediately overwhelmed with the needs and the desperation,” Bill said. “We thought, ‘What can we do? We are just a couple of people.’ But we realized these people needed a listening ear. So we started to listen to people, to talk to people, to ask if we could pray with them.”

***

During their time in Macedonia, Bill and Joan developed a close connection with Tahir* who fled from Syria with his two siblings.

Tahir was close to earning his law degree when their region of Aleppo was bombed; 10 people died in their apartment building. The family decided to send the children away; Tahir’s parents stayed behind to care for their own elderly parents.

The Ginthers tried to meet the family’s physical needs, delivering clothes and healthy food.

One day Tahir asked, “So, why are you here? What brings you all the way from Canada?”

“That’s a great introduction to say that we believe God sent us here to be with you, to listen to you, to be his presence here,” Bill said.

During their time in the camp, Bill prayed that Tahir and his siblings would have hope beyond their surrounding circumstances, that they would have hope for a home beyond this earth.

And then Bill and Joan left.

***

Once upon a time, that would have been the end of the story. But Bill is on Facebook. So is Tahir.

“These are ordinary young people. They have cell phones. There are a hundred phones lined up, waiting to be charged by the generator in the camp,” Bill said. “If you’re on Facebook, you can be found, and you can stay in touch.”

So, they did. Using Facebook Messenger’s voice-call capability, they started talking every other day.

One day, Tahir told Bill: “I would be interested in what you have.”

“I would be more than happy to pray with you now,” Bill responded.

“Just give me one night just to think about it.”

Early the next morning, Tahir phoned Bill: “I’m ready. I’m ready to make your God mine and to accept him as my own personal savior.”

“I had the pleasure of leading him to the Lord by phone,” Bill said. “God can use social media. And he did.”

***

Tahir has been on fire, eager to share his newfound faith and to grow. He asked for an Arabic Bible and received a New Testament.

“He wasn’t satisfied,” Bill said. “He asked: ‘Wait, isn’t there more?’ I told him there are one-year Bible reading plans. He said, ‘A year? Why would it take that long?’

“There are up to 60 million refugees in the world,” Bill said. “They are forgotten people. Unless someone goes to bat for them, they are lost in the system.

“These are people with lives and real feelings and hearts who are waiting to know the Lord. They are individuals created by God who deserve something better.”

*Not his real name