Sept 2018. Christian Journal for Global Health, 5(2):37-42.

FIELD REPORT

Living the Gospel Through the Feet of a Refugee: Sharing

Abraham’s Hope in Kindness and Humility

Dale Roemer Agnera

a MD, Clarkson Family Medicine Residency-Nebraska Medicine, USA

The hope and humility of the gospel took on

new meaning for me one night in a Central European

free-clinic for refugees. With a Syrian refugee

translator, we treated fellow sons and daughters of

Abraham from Syria, Iraq, and additional refugees

from throughout areas of Asia. Many years prior,

our young family lived for two years in Asia Minor,

better known as modern-day Western Turkey. We

studied and traveled the biblical lands of the Seven

Churches, Israel, Galatia, Cappadocia, and many of

the coastlands in Greece and Turkey along Paul’s

missionary journeys. This current migration is along

these areas.1 I even visited areas near Haran and

Antioch, bordering Syria. Haran is where Abraham

briefly sojourned.2 Antioch is where early believers

demonstrated God’s grace and were the first to be

called Christians.3 It is easy to study and travel; it is

difficult to truly practice humility as a daily way of

life. A special grace and insight took place that

evening upon, figuratively, washing and clothing the

worn feet of a refugee. The kindness and honor

practically demonstrated moved our translator to

honestly inquire about the Light and Hope of

Abraham, as Abraham’s hope is briefly recounted

below:

By faith Abraham obeyed . . . And he went

out, not knowing where he was going . . .

living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs

with him of the same promise. For he was

looking forward to the city that has

foundations, whose designer and builder is

God . . . and having acknowledged that they

were strangers and exiles on the earth . . .

But as it is, they desire a better country,

that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is

not ashamed to be called their God . . . And

all these, though commended through their

faith, did not receive what was promised,

since God had provided something better

for us, that apart from us they should not be

made perfect (Hebrews 11:8-10, 13, 16,

39-40).
4

SO'JOURNER, n. A temporary resident; a

stranger or traveler who dwells in a place for a time.

For we are strangers before you and

sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our

days on the earth are like a shadow, and

there is no abiding (1 Chronicles 29:15).
5

. . . his {Abraham’s] faith was "counted to

him as righteousness." But the words "it

was counted to him" were not written for

his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be

counted to us who believe in him who

raised from the dead Jesus our Lord . . .

(Romans 4:22-24).

For I consider that the sufferings of this

present time are not worth comparing with

the glory that is to be revealed to us. For

the creation waits with eager longing for

the revealing of the sons of God. For the

creation was subjected to futility, not

willingly, but because of Him who

subjected it, in hope that the creation itself

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Sept 2018. Christian Journal for Global Health, 5(2):37-42.

will be set free from its bondage to

corruption and obtain the freedom of the

glory of the children of God (Romans 8:18-

21).

Thousands of Abraham’s descendants from

Syria and Iraq with those from Afghanistan and

additional locations throughout Central and

Southeastern Asia are making an arduous, and often

treacherous, journey to Western Europe. Most have

been traveling through Turkey, on to Greece, and

from there traversing Central Europe for Western

Europe.1 The reason for this modern-day Exodus is

manifold and caught in a whirl-wind of terminology

that often defines political hearts or fears.6 Many

feared for their lives due to ongoing war, conflicts,

and persecutions in their homeland, often facing

insecurities of food, safety, and justice. Some

ascribe mostly economic motives to the migration.7

Escaping to lands largely free from hunger and

violent political upheaval is likely much more

prevalent a reason for migration than singularly

partaking in the European Union’s economic “Four

Freedoms”8 of free movement of goods, services,

capital, and labour.9 Perhaps, many may not be much

different than Naomi, who sojourned during a famine

with her husband and sons in Moab (Jordan),10

returning only with Ruth, a Moabitess and the future

great-grandmother of King David.11 Yet most

refugees are unaware of the hope and freedom

promised to Abraham and his descendants of

promise. That evening, middle-aged men and

women, families, teens, children, and a few

unaccompanied young men often wore expressions

of muted anxiety while awaiting their next leg of

travel; worried for the family left behind and looking

for family and a hope laying ahead of

them. Biblically speaking, they were (are) on a

sojourn for a new hope, even if their journey is more

or less like Jacob’s escape to Haran as a single man,

fleeing a brother intent on his death.12

The lands of Turkey and the Mediterranean

coastlands of Paul’s journeys have remained in my

heart, which often stirs when I have seen news

reports of this current migration navigating on land

and sea where we once visited. Now many years

after our family’s two-year employment in Izmir

(Smyrna), Turkey, we now made plans to visit our

daughter studying abroad in Central Europe. She

learned of the free-clinic for refugees and that I

might be welcomed to assist upon our visit. I jumped

at the opportunity to briefly serve the ongoing

migration funneling through this Central European

train station. Providentially, I work in a U.S.

Midwestern medical practice with a Palestinian

follower of Jesus. Upon learning of my plan to visit

the free-clinic in Europe, my Palestinian friend gave

me several gospels of John written in Arabic. I

prayed for an opportunity to honor my Palestinian

friend by putting these accounts of Jesus’ life to good

use.

I found a small group of dedicated local

medical professionals volunteering their time in a

make-do, field-style clinic for the refugees. The

clinic director eagerly accepted my offer to assist

them. She paired me with a single 20-something

year-old Syrian gentlemen to translate for me. He

happened to be a refugee himself that knew Arabic,

English, and likely several other languages and

dialects. He had stopped for several days along his

trek to assist others at this way-point clinic and aid

station. This way-point featured not only shelter,

food, and clothing, but also wi-fi access to try and

communicate with relatives. He wished to help

fellow sojourners on their trek while also hoping to

hear or connect with family and friends spread across

two continents.

Together we sat on clinic cots providing

advanced medical triage. This was triage with a

stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter,

urine dip-stick, and years of history and physical

exam assessments in much more austere

environments. We listened to the stories of these

refugees, these sons and daughters of Abraham. We

determined who could be treated at the clinic with

over-the-counter medicines and medical supplies

purchased from a drug store shelf and who needed to

be referred on for immediate or definitive medical

39 Agner

Sept 2018. Christian Journal for Global Health, 5(2):37-42.

attention at the local hospital. Commonly, we gave

reassurance to a mother or father that their child only

had a cold and did not have pneumonia. We

dispensed many antacids and laxatives for worried

bellies or stomachs stopped up or stressed. Many

regions through which they traveled had not been as

kind nor did not have as many resources to assist the

refugees. Several refugees had a serious illness

needing immediate transport to an emergency or

casualty department. Whether the illness be major,

minor, or mundane I strove to remember the “Father

of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us

in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort

those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with

which we ourselves are comforted by God.”13

Toward the end of the evening, a young man

came seeking medical care for his feet. He

had traveled a great distance, likely more than a

thousand miles. This traveler had no socks and,

much of the time, he told us, he had traveled without

any shoes at all. His feet had obvious sores, and his

clothes had not been washed for many days or

weeks. The shoes he had were threadbare canvas,

thin-soled, and carried a thick smell of poverty. I

carefully lifted one foot at a time for inspection and

to see how he could best care for each foot. He had

likely worn out many shoes during his

travels. Currently, the left ankle had an abrasion

created by the ill-fitting, sockless, heavily-worn

canvas shoe. The right large toe had a small abscess

on top; again, likely from not wearing socks. After

cleaning the foot, I carefully lanced the abscess with

a needle, liberating a large amount of

purulence. Careful examination found no deeper,

nor more serious, infection. While bandaging the

feet, I asked how the wounds had happened. The

translator passed on to me that the traveler did not

know for sure, as he had often been barefoot and

often times could not feel his feet.

The translator then observed something that he

had never experienced before. The aid station had

shoes to give to the refugees but had run out of the

size that the traveler needed. Our traveler wore the

same size shoe as I. Even though my trekking shoes

had many miles under them, they also were built to

last with warm, strong, breathable fabric and a good

sole. I removed my shoes and asked through the

translator to give my shoes to our traveler. The

translator tried to intervene, saying he, a fellow

refugee with more means than the traveler should be

the one to donate his shoes. I gently persisted in

giving the traveler my shoes. The translator enlisted

the nurse running the clinic, who agreed that I need

not donate my shoes. Again, I gently stood firm,

reminding them that although the clinic had socks to

give the traveler, they had no shoes that fit our young

man.

"What will you wear back to your place?"

asked my Syrian friend.

I replied, "His shoes."

I finished dressing the traveler’s wounds and

passed on bandages I brought for myself. This

included a small foot-care kit purchased earlier that

day. I then placed my shoes on the grateful traveler’s

feet to ensure that they indeed did fit. The translator

had never observed such an act before. Shoes carry

much more significance in the Land of Abraham. A

presumably respected physician had not only

donated his shoes but was going to wear

the traveler’s pungent, worn shoes home. In many

cultures, this would be a disgrace.14,15,16

Later that night, after the patients had all been

seen, my Syrian translator friend and I talked over a

cup of coffee. He was surprised to learn that I had

once visited close to his home, Haran and Antakya

(Antioch), knew many of the words he spoke, and

had also traveled and visited many of the coastlands

and Turkish cities he had also walked. I asked of his

family. He then shared his story, a story of broken

relationships and a broken home now scattered

across many lands. His father and his father’s new

wife had successfully traveled recently from Syria to

a destination European country. His birth mother

still lived back in a war-torn Syrian city; he hoped to

be able to send for her once he arrived in Western

Europe.

The translator wished to know more about how

I had come to the clinic and the kindness that had

40 Agner

Sept 2018. Christian Journal for Global Health, 5(2):37-42.

been shown. I spoke of hope, especially the hope of

Abraham. I shared that the great religions of

Christianity and Islam share a common lineage that

traces to Abraham. I pointed out to my Syrian friend

that his home-town is near one of Abraham’s homes

(Haran) where Abraham had briefly sojourned. The

translator spoke of knowing that Abraham was the

father of many prophets. I then shared of the One,

Isa, which is Jesus in Arabic, who makes Himself

known to those who seek Him. The translator asked

if I had read the book of his prophet. I affirmed that

indeed I had read an English version of the Koran. I

then explained that the Prophet born of the promise

of Abraham would make Himself known to him, the

translator, if he sought Him.17,18 This provided

opportunity to share the account of John, Jesus’ most

intimate friend on this earth, to whom Jesus referred,

“the disciple with whom He loved.”19 Just as the

shoes had been tangibly received by the traveler, our

Syrian friend gratefully accepted the Arabic version

of the Gospel of John. The act of kindness and

humility of exchanging shoes had opened his heart

to learn of Isa.

We bid our farewells that included a late-night

selfie outside the train station clinic. I then laced-up

the traveler’s well-used, odiferous shoes on my feet

and took a local train back to the hotel room. I hoped

the others on the sparsely populated train could not

detect from where the pungent smell

emanated. Sometime after midnight I reached my

train stop and slipped the odiferous shoes into a

waste-bin outside the hotel. Yet, the smell reminded

me that I had been willing to materially assist another

sojourner.

Verses of Hebrews, Matthew, John, and others

came vividly to life. I dimly understood many

aspects of the gospel in a new way. How Jesus'

humbling of Himself when He washed the feet of the

disciples took on new meaning; " . . . but [He]

emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men."20 The

translator had been willing to listen to the hope of

Abraham and Isa after he had observed a "person of

stature" humbling himself to help clothe and wash

another,21 as Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet,22

then (literally) walk in his shoes. I also better

understood the humbling of the woman who had

washed Jesus' feet with her hair in front of

others.23,24 Her hair was her dignity and washing

Jesus' feet was her sacrifice to Him. Again, the

kindness had opened a door to speak to my Syrian

friend of the hope available to all that would call

upon Him - Isa, Jesus.17,18

Additional thoughts flooded my mind,

including a story from a missionary friend that had

assisted refugees migrating between Istanbul,

Turkey, and Vienna, Austria in the 1990s. Our

friend shared the story of one December night, when

she spoke to refugees in Central/Eastern Europe

about the Christmas story, wondering if they could

relate to such a story for which they had not heard

before or have a cultural context. When she came to

the part of Mary and Joseph having to flee to Egypt

to escape the authorities seeking Jesus’ life25 and

being afraid to live in their homeland upon return

from Egypt,26 our friend realized that these refugees

with whom she ministered understood the Christmas

story in a much deeper way than she had

expected. The Christmas story spoke to them in

their current modern-day experiences of fleeing and

fearing for their lives and the life of their

Child. Jesus and His parents had also been

refugees.

The current migrations give us a real-world

opportunity to move from fear to faith. If we cannot

welcome refugees, then we will not recognize when

Jesus is in our midst.21 The act of giving my shoes is

only a fleeting moment in my walk by faith, and I do

not wish to give the impression that this type of grace

has been common. Yet, to live by faith means taking

off the old self and clothing ourselves in a humility

that comes from being transformed by Jesus’ grace;27

and by so doing, we become a fellow sojourner and

learn what it means to be like Abraham, “Friend of

God.”28

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Sept 2018. Christian Journal for Global Health, 5(2):37-42.

But you . . . the offspring of Abraham, my

friend;

you whom I took from the ends of the earth,

and called from its farthest corners,

saying to you,

. . . I have chosen you and not cast you off”;

fear not, for I am with you . . . (Isaiah 48:8-

10).

References
1. Looking for a home - Special Report on

Migration. Economist. May 26, 2016 Available

from:

http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20

160528_sr_migration.pdf.

2. Genesis 11:31-12:4.

3. Acts 11:17-26.

4. Holy Bible - English Standard Version.

Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Bibles; 2001; all

verses quoted are from the English Standard

Version, and accessible online at

https://www.biblegateway.com/.

5. KJV Dictionary Definition: sojourn [Internet].

King James Dictionary Definition Online. 2018.

Available from: https://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-

dictionary/sojourn.html.

6. Terminological Exactitudes; Special Report on

Migration. Economist. 26th May 2016.

Available from:

http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20

160528_sr_migration.pdf.

7. How many migrants to Europe are refugees?

Economist; 8th Sep 2015. Available from:

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-

explains/2015/09/07/how-many-migrants-to-

europe-are-refugees.

8. [Internet]. euABC.com. 2018. Available from:

http://en.euabc.com/word/506.

9. The four freedoms on which the European

Union is based are under threat. Economist. 9th

Feb 2006. Available from:

https://www.economist.com/node/5494628.

10. Ruth 1:1,22.

11. Ruth 4:13-17.

12. Genesis 27:41-45.

13. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

14. The Telegraph. Arab culture: the insult of the

shoe. [Internet]. 2008. Available from:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/

middleeast/iraq/3776970/Arab-culture-the-

insult-of-the-shoe.html.

15. Georges J. Honor and shame societies: 9 keys

to working with Muslims [Internet]. Zwemer

Center for Muslim Studies. 2018. Available

from:

http://www.zwemercenter.com/guide/honor-

and-shame-9-keys/.

16. Nacht J. The symbolism of the shoe with

special reference to Jewish sources. The

Jewish Quarterly Review. 1915;6(1):1-22.

Available from:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1451461.

17. Matthew 7:7-12.

18. John 11:25-26.

19. John 19:26; 20:2; 21:7,20.

20. Philippians 2:7.

21. Matthew 25:31-40.

22. John 13:13-17.

23. Luke 7:37-50.

24. John 12:3-8.

25. Matthew 2:7-17.

26. Matthew 2:18-23

27. Colossians 3:8-13

28. Isaiah 41:8

Peer Reviewed: Submitted 21 May 2018, Accepted 23 June 2018, Published 22 Sept 2018.

Competing Interests: None declared.

http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20160528_sr_migration.pdf
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20160528_sr_migration.pdf
https://www.biblegateway.com/
https://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/sojourn.html
https://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/sojourn.html
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20160528_sr_migration.pdf
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20160528_sr_migration.pdf
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2015/09/07/how-many-migrants-to-europe-are-refugees
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2015/09/07/how-many-migrants-to-europe-are-refugees
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2015/09/07/how-many-migrants-to-europe-are-refugees
https://www.economist.com/node/5494628
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/3776970/Arab-culture-the-insult-of-the-shoe.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/3776970/Arab-culture-the-insult-of-the-shoe.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/3776970/Arab-culture-the-insult-of-the-shoe.html
http://www.zwemercenter.com/guide/honor-and-shame-9-keys/
http://www.zwemercenter.com/guide/honor-and-shame-9-keys/
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1451461

42 Agner

Sept 2018. Christian Journal for Global Health, 5(2):37-42.

Correspondence: Dale Agner, Clarkson Family Medicine Residency-Nebraska Medicine,

dale.agner@gmail.com

Cite this article as: Agner D. Living the Gospel Through the Feet of a Refugee: Sharing Abraham’s Hope in

Kindness and Humility. Christian Journal for Global Health. Sept 2018, 5(2):37-42.

License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original author and source are properly cited. To view a copy of the license, visit

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

www.cjgh.org

mailto:dale.agner@gmail.com
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