You’ll never guess where we were today…the jungle!  No that’s not a typo.  We were in the jungle. Now it’s not what you think.  A jungle is a little enclave of refugees who are seeking asylum from a host country, in this case France. We visited one today with Paul Sydnor just south of Lille.  When we arrived, it was dusk and some of the men, who were mostly from the country of Eritrea (North Africa), were gathered inside one of the 4 small building structures playing cards and talking.  The buildings were very rudimentary and small, though as many as 70 people will live in this jungle at one time. They had a generator for heat and light, outhouses for bathrooms and a potable tank for water.

Because of the transience, you can visit this jungle on any given week and see some of the same people or a whole new group of people.  Paul said that most of the ones in this jungle are trying to get to England, because they either speak English or have family there; however, it is very difficult to get into England.  Most if not all of them who hop into an open bed of a truck at a nearby truck stop or who have paid to be transported in the back of a truck are discovered at the border through some pretty sophisticated equipment like infra-red body heat scanners and breath analyzers, which detect excess CO2.  They are usually sent back into France where they will repeatedly try again.
Aside from visiting these jungles to pray and encourage these people, Paul is trying to work with other churches in the area who will care for their needs while they are there.  For the longest time it has been illegal to help refugees in their plight, but according to Paul that has been relaxed somewhat.

We also visited an Armenian refuge family who live in a housing project in Lille.  They had previously been in Austria for 8 years trying to gain asylum there, but their application was rejected because their paperwork got messed up through no fault of their own.   They were forced to come to France, where they don’t speak the language, and the mother and father pretty much stay in their apartment all day while their son goes to school.  It is next to impossible for them to find work without papers, so they need the church to come alongside them and help them.

Prior to our going out with Paul, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at a local French restaurant with the whole family and since the Sydnors are still trying to master the French language, we all ordered somewhat blindly.  Thankfully, everything was delicious and no escargots were harmed in the process :-).  We really enjoyed getting to know the family, especially their two sons, Luke and Noah.  They are outstanding young men.  Noah is almost 18 and is a year away from university where he would like to study linguistics and Luke, who is almost 16, is a rapper.  You can watch some of his rap videos, which were filmed by his brother, Noah, on Youtube by searching for Luke Syndor.

Tomorrow morning we take an early train (6.54am) to Albertville, where we will visit our last REPC missionary Chris and Lori Gassler.  We are looking forward to meeting them and getting to know them better and their upcoming missionary work in Cameroon.