Shower Ministry

Anne Perdicaris is a TEDS graduate, we became friends in the course of her taking Field Education courses. Anne is now serving in Athens, Greece at the Athens Refugee Center sharing the gospel of Jesus with refugees, many from Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. There are increasing number of refugees that are from Africa also. Most of them are Muslims. In her recent newsletter, I read this most amazing story about their "shower ministry", I would like to share it with you, maybe God will bless you through Anne's words and her work in Athens. The following are Anne's own words:

It seems like just yesterday that I arrived in Athens, but time is quickly flying by. My prayer is that every day, I’ll allow the Holy Spirit to keep me near to our Lord, and to work in and through me to show the many refugees at the Athens Refugee Center (ARC) how they can have that same nearness with Him.

There’s so much to tell you about what God is doing at the ARC, so much evidence of Christ being shared and so many remarkable, touching incidents that occur here.

One of these happened a week or so ago during the ARC’s “shower ministry.” This ministry allows the refugee men—many of whom aren’t privy to showers of their own—to clean off the grime of living, working, and often sleeping on Athens’ very dirty streets.

To you and I, cleaning up is a given, a basic need, but for the refugees, the 7-minute stream of hot water that the ARC provides is nothing short of a luxury.

Of course, as a woman, I’m not out and about when the shower ministry is in gear. Instead, I’m in the ARC’s office, getting ready to teach the new believers’ class. But I can hear the whole process through the thin walls: the missionary guys warmly welcoming the refugee men, the refugees’ grateful murmurs as they take a towel and soap, the whoosh of the shower jets, and the genuine glee and gratitude that the men express as they leave the ARC and step out onto the street clean, with renewed dignity.

One man who came to the shower ministry, perhaps an African from Somalia, seemed to glow with gratitude after his shower. "Very nice,” I heard him gush to one of the male missionaries. “I’ll never forget it! Yes, I'm clean now, very nice."

Last week, my roommate Susie told me that a Somalian mother and her children (the same family that I told you about in my last letter) wanted to use the showers. I thought to myself, can you imagine the shame it must cause this woman to ask strangers—foreigners and folks whom your own religion considers to be “unclean” (as some Muslims believe non-Muslims to be) to use their shower?

But the woman came, looking world-weary, toting her garbage bag of possessions, trailed by her thin, solemn-eyed, very perceptive children. As Susie turned the showers on, I was surprised to hear something that I never thought I’d hear: children’s laughter, and singing in the shower! These kids, so sad and serious, were laughing and singing in the shower, delighted at being clean again, and perhaps delighted at having this one element of their normal life restored, if even for 10 minutes one afternoon.

I stepped out of the office to see the kids getting dressed in the new clothes that Susie had given them. Iman, the little daughter, was thrilled with her new Halloween-themed socks. She leaned over, giggling, and looked at us from her upside-down position—the sort of playful gesture that any normal little girl might do, and suddenly little Iman and her family became much more human to me. I saw how giving a cup of cold water—or, in this case, a warm shower and clean clothes—in Jesus’ name, can restore life to weary, hopeless people. The mother hugged us tightly as she left, reminding me again of how so little can mean so much to those in need. Please, pray for Iman and her family. Pray that she and her mother and siblings will find physical and emotional rest and security in Greece. And, that they will find ultimate peace and healing, and new life, in Christ.