Others have been attracted by friends and relations who made the journey and are held up in the North African countries awaiting to look for boats or any possible means.There are others who only crossed and end up in migrant camps of Lampadusa in the Italian Coast.
In the name of Christian Panorama, the attempt made here is to squarely analyse and evaluate what the Christian mind is in this issue.As Christians, it is imperative that all persons at a mature age should look for gainful employment to support oneself.This is why the Christian scripture encourages responsibility and hard work for all persons.In the New Testament scripture of 1 Cor. 9:14, it is stated that “those who preach the gospel should get their living from the gospel”.Paul means that the kind of work that one involves in should give gains or rewards.The Lord admonished his apostles in sending them that the “labourer deserves his wages”.
Furthermore, in the text of 2nd Thess. 3:10-12 it is stated “we gave you a rule when we were with you, not to let anyone have any food if he refused to do any work.Now we hear that there are some of you who are living in idleness doing no work themselves bur interfering with everyone else’s.In the Lord Jesus Christ, we call on people of this kind to go on quietly working and earning the food that they eat”.The preacher and Apostle Paul speaking to the Thessalonians in this passage spell out the Christian attitude towards work.That in working one fulfils himself and attains rewarding gains as he said you work to feed yourself.
Relating this Christian concept of work to the attitude of many migrants who leave the West African shores to Europe by boat, the work that is rewarding is the one you do in your own country.Going by boat is risky and the end results are that people die in their hundreds and thousands. Even if one is successful to cross the oceans there is no guarantee of work. Rather those who cross become a liability to the European governments.
There is a lot of wisdom which as a believing people we can gain from not going by back way.Firstly there are dangers involved: dying, starving because no one is there to feed you if you do not have the money.Secondly, the risk of dying at sea and not at home sends a lot of trauma to family relations because they will lament the situation of not having a proper burial for the ones that die at sea.Thirdly, it is a fact that in Europe there is a great lack of employment so how can people go with the hope of being employed and have money?
