Day 6 - APEX (Minami)

Today we got to go through the APEX experience as a group. We went through a set up to experience a little sneak peak of life in the Middle East, a nice peaceful life. Then we were exposed to the horror of life as a Syrian refugee. We were put into groups and they were our family until the end of the experience and we had to do our best to stay together as a group. We were all just sitting in a room until we were kicked out, rushed to leave, and rushed to the immigration center. In their language, they told us to hustle and it caused all of us to panic although this wasn’t even real. After we got in, we had to give them three bottles of water to exchange it into money, and later into food coupons. We had to beg for money for the bottles and if we gave four bottles instead of three, they rejected us. The guy that was collecting the bottles asked a girl if she would help him for extra money. She accepted and started to work. She got extra cash and a food coupon but later she was told, “also I forgot to mention, you will be working for the rest of your life and you will never be with your family again.” So when her “family” came to give the three bottles, she gave her coupon to one of them to use. At the end of the experience, we gave all our money and we only got two good coupons because we didn’t count the money ahead of time. We were completely out of money to even buy food with the food coupon. So with our “family” of five, we had nothing but two food coupons. Throughout this chaos of an experience, we felt fear, anxiety, panic, and even sadness. When I sat down and thought about those that have to experience this for real, my heart broke for them. But then the people at the APEX experience brought to light that if we keep our foundation firm on Jesus, no matter what we face in life we can be bold and confident that we have everything we need in Christ. It was eye opening to see the things that I replace with Christ as my foundation. Whether it be my relationships and accomplishments. And realizing the need to give that up to Christ to free ourselves. - Minami