Whirlwind

I'm sitting here on my couch this morning, just saying goodbye to 8 deaf/mute Ukrainian refugees who spent the night in our house. I'm enjoying my second cup of coffee and reflecting on the whirlwind of the past few weeks. I'm fluctuating from tears to smiles. This might be because of my tiredness or maybe because the yo-yo of experiences that this time has held, or maybe and bit of both! Most of you are aware that I had a furlough in the US in January and part of February. I started off in California at the H2H headquarters. Jim, Jodi, and I spent 5 days hashing over current and future H2H items. I got a little beach time to take a deep breath and then headed to Kansas. My Mom had fallen a severely broken her right arm, so a lot of my time in Kansas was helping my parents and being there through a surgery, multiple appointments and the start of rehab. I did some speaking, met with some supporters, and saw some family and friends. While in Kansas, I was asked often about the Ukrainian/Russian tensions and how that might effect Romania. I knew that already the conflict was increasing prices of things like gas and causing US and Nato troop build ups. Overall though, at that point, Romanians weren't too concerned about Romanian safety and were going about day to day life pretty normally. I returned to Romania and hit the ground running. I needed to catch up on things that had happened and needed tended to from while I was gone plus prepare for a small team that was coming in from Michigan. Three days after I returned, Russia began attacking the Ukraine. Very quickly I became aware of an impact that I hadn't considered while in the US. The impact of refugees fleeing the Ukraine. The millions of people that would be trying to get out. My church partnered with 2 other Bucharest churches and threw down some mattresses on the floor for the first group that showed up on our doorsteps and sent out a plea for volunteers and supplies. The team of three women that were visiting readily agreed to jump in and we spent time at the church converted refugee center helping as we could around our other ministry time in visiting and spending time in the orphanages and centers that we work with. Two weeks have passed since that plea and the church refugee center has expanded to 3 locations, including our previous girls transition house in Snagov. Thus far we've had 537 refugees come through. I've been able to continue helping out at the center and be involved in the preparing our Snagov house to receive people. Other things the H2H staff and I have been involved with is transporting goods to different locations as needed, helping renovate a building to be able to house more people, transport people from the border to Bucharest, house people in our own homes, provide meals and hygiene supplies, play and care for children,and more. I've been very, very impressed with the mobilization of the Church and NGOs to rise up and offer aid. The stories that we are hearing are heartbreaking, but out of the ashes God brings moments of blessings. The beauty of the Church embodying the Hands and Feet of Christ is one of those and I've been so humbled and blessed to be a small part and a witness to it here in Romania. We don't know what the upcoming days hold. We are being cautioned by our pastors that this is marathon, not a sprint. Pray for us to have what we need to be faithful in what we can do.