Recent Trevecca grad heads to Greece to minister to refugees
Last summer, Jess Govern didn’t even know what a refugee was. A week ago, she moved to Greece to minister to them.
“I didn’t even know what a refugee was until the summer before,” said Jess Govern, a 2015 graduate of Trevecca Nazarene University. “I had done this back-packing trip across Europe and met Nigerian refugees, and they shared their story with me.”
That chance encounter sparked Govern’s interest in refugee and immigration issues. Last week, the religion major left for Greece where she’ll spend the next three months—and possibly longer—living in solidarity with refugees in Thessaloniki. She’ll be working through an organization called SwissCross, a private initiative aimed at aiding the refugees.
“SwissCross has done a lot in Greece,” Govern said, explaining that many involved in the organization came to Greece independently to do boat rescues at the start of the refugee crisis. “Now, SwissCross completely controls two camps in Thessaloniki and have built schools there.
“They have started the process of making a self-sustaining community [within the camp] by creating daycare facilities and little markets and sewing corners that give the people a little bit of empowerment,” Govern continued. “I will really just be working to help make this bad situation as human as possible.”
Where deep gladness and deep hunger meet
For Govern, the progression from an interest in refugee issues to serving refugees in Greece wasn’t an overnight decision. After that eye-opening conversation with Nigerian refugees, Govern’s interest began to grow. At the time, a fellow Trevecca student, Christina Corzine, was interning with World Relief, an organization with an initiative focused specifically on providing refugee and immigration services.
Govern often found herself tagging along with Corzine to World Relief events, fascinated by the organization’s work.
“Then I heard that Trevecca was sending a team over [to Greece], and I was like ‘How do I get in on this?’” Govern said. “It was something that had been stirring in my heart.”
Govern joined Trevecca’s summer Immerse mission trip, which meant spending 12 weeks on the mission field. After a stop in Serbia, the team traveled to Katerini, Greece, where they ministered to refugees. In the camps, the team worked with SwissCross, which is how Govern found out about the organization in the first place.
“I think the moment when I realized I could do this longer than three months was my first official day in the camp,” Govern said, recalling the summer Immerse trip. “When we got there, I was met by a little girl and she grabbed my hand and started pulling me along, introducing me to people.”
The little girl introduced Govern to a group of women cooking, who brought the food over to Govern and the rest of the Trevecca team when it was ready.
“We broke bread together and it was just this really overwhelming moment for all of us,” said Govern. “It was everything I’d ever studied in my theological education of what the Kingdom of God would look like. There was just this powerful spiritual feeling that this is what I’m called to do.
“Frederick Buechner has a quote that says ‘The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,’” Govern continued. “I felt that embodied for my life so intimately within my first few days in the camp, and that feeling never went away.”
Following the path
Govern, originally from Chicago, is quick to say that this wasn’t the path she had planned to take following graduation.
“I was going to go to grad school,” Govern said. “I was hoping to get a dual Master’s of Social Work and Master’s of Divinity, which would be a four-year program, back in Chicago. At Loyola University was the hope.”
While Govern didn’t expect her life to take this turn, she says that when she looks back over her life now, she can see how God was preparing her for this ministry.
“I didn’t expect I would be doing this at all,” she said. “This call has really shocked me, but it’s been amazing. When I look back with hindsight vision, I can see that God was laying a lot of the foundation in very subtle, small ways.”
Govern left for Greece on October 7. She plans to work in Greece for three months, perhaps longer if she is granted a visa. If the visa doesn’t come through and Govern can’t remain in Greece when the three months are up, there is a high possibility that she could work with refugees in other countries, due to the connections SwissCross continues to build.
In the end, Govern says she just wants to be faithful to join in solidarity with the refugees and share their stories.
“What I’ve heard over and over again [from the refugees], is that ‘we don’t need you to give us all this stuff,’” Govern said. “At the end of the day, these are stories of people fleeing violence. They are people who need our love and respect and that’s really all they desire.”
Media contact: Mandy Crow, mmcrow@trevecca.edu, 615-248-1695