Refugee Stories

As I shared briefly in my last blog my team has been helping out Hope Church with refugees that are just passing through before heading to other countries. I wanted to share some of the stories of being with the refugees.

My favorite story was from like my second or third day helping at the house. I was playing with this cute little three-year-old girl. She’s a super adventurous and fun little girl. As I was playing with her, she ran outside and got on the small bike with training wheels that the house had. When she got on she started pedaling backward, obviously not knowing how to get the bike to move. So as her feet were on the pedals I pushed the bike forward. After doing that for a minute or two she realized that if she pushed her feet forward she could get the bike to move. The bike wasn’t great and it was a little big for her so she struggled to push it forward at first but she got the hang of it. Once she got the hang of it I started standing in front of her giving her a place to pedal towards. We only had the small sidewalk in front of the house to go back and forth on and there wasn’t enough space on the cement for her to turn around so I had to do that for her. After about an hour of going back and forth on that bike, I couldn’t stand in front of her anymore. She would have run me over with how fast she was starting to go. The little girl was so happy and her mom was so proud. She was watching from the front door smiling, taking pictures and videos. 

I loved getting to do this. I felt like a dad the whole time. It was nice being able to be a male figure in this little girl’s life while her dad is stuck in Ukraine because men aren’t allowed to leave. When I went back to the house the next day she was so happy to see me. She also almost killed me by throwing a rock the size of my hand, right at my face but one of my squadmates hit the rock away just in time. Then not five minutes later she hugged my legs as tight as she could. What else can you expect from a three-year-old? I think my favorite part though was near the end of that day one of my squadmates was playing tag with her as I was talking with someone else about stuff that needed to get done. She kept running back to me thinking my squadmate couldn’t get her if she was in my arms. 

It was so precious to see how much this little girl loved and trusted me. A day or two later her family left, for I think the U.K. I pray that she and her family stay safe and come to know Christ. 

Another story I have is from that same day I almost got killed by a rock. The night before a few refugees showed up at the house. One of them was an eighteen-year-old guy who I’m not sure how he got out of the country and was traveling by himself. But he wanted to practice his English with me so we talked about different things. We talked about his life back in Ukraine, where he wants to go, video games, and a few other things. Our conversation finally ended up on religion. I don’t remember much of what I said but I remember sharing a small bit of God’s Word being alive and being able to understand it through the Holy Spirit. I was just about to share the actual gospel part when we got interrupted. I didn’t have any more religious conversations with him since he left the next morning, but he did leave with one of my squadmates to go to the youth event at the church that night. I can tell God is working on him and drawing him closer to Himself. A lot of that is through the way that churches have helped him as he escapes Ukraine. He can see the love that they have shown him.

I plan on ending all of my Romania blogs this way but if you could please support Hope Church as they provide for these Ukrainian and also the local Romanians still, it would be greatly appreciated. The church’s only vacuum just broke, I think all of the vans they use to transport refugees and supplies either have broken down or are badly in need of repair, they need funds to pay the rent for the eight refugee houses, the church, and their office. Here is the link to their donation page again.