The Importance of Showing Up
For many, a simple card of prayer is a wonderful and understandable expression of love and support from American Christians. Yet for the generation of Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans who were alive before 1990, other reactions rise to the surface, mainly fear and PTSD.
To understand fully what emotions people here in Poland are going through, we must go back to Soviet times. Prior to 1990, the Soviets ruled this area, including Poland and Ukraine and to be Christian was a punishable crime. One common tactic was to create cards looking much like the one from Casey of First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, TX. KGB spies and informants would bring these cards to people they suspected were Christians, as a test. If the person accepted the card with gratitude, then this was a sign of being a Christian. Not long after, the KGB would arrive and arrest the individual and family.
Hopefully, this explanation helps to convey the strong fear that is gripping this side of Europe. It is palpable across language barriers. Even strong leaders like Piotr Nowak, president of the College of Theological Studies and Social Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, feel this fear. We visited his school because we are partnering with them to provide relief to 23 women and children. Pictures to the right will help you see what your donations have already accomplished!
Piotr approached me privately with tears in his eyes and shared his feelings that were welling up from his having lived during Soviet times. Like Ukrainians who thought surely Putin would not invade their homeland, Christians here hope their worst fears will not come to pass. Yet as many people from here are doing, they are leaving just in case. That is, except for the Christians we met who are staying in Poland to help the more than 300,000 refugees who have arrived in the past three weeks.
Mark Mueller, Executive Director of The Outreach Foundation, and Tom Boone, Associate Director for Mission who is responsible for developing European partnerships, visited the college and verified our funding is being used very well. This college’s leaders are trustworthy partners, being our hands and feet where so many of us wish we could be. They are showing up to train stations and bus stops to personally make sure women and children are safe from human traffickers that are abounding in this area.
After a fruitful question and answer time with Piotr and his staff, we ate lunch with three refugee families who are living at the college. Mark and Tom played table foosball with cousins Emma and Artem, who have come from Donbas, Ukraine, in the east. We met their mothers, Nataliya and Olga. They had no idea where they would end up upon arriving in Warsaw. Angels brought them here.
Meanwhile, Outreach trustee Bob Fuller played table tennis with other children. It was a moment of normalcy in an otherwise upside down and chaotic time. “Thank you. We wish we could write to you so many cards,” Nataliya said through an interpreter. Both sets of eyes were filled with tears. Piotr said, “We saw this very heavy need coming to us and we had only faith to do it. The Outreach Foundation’s support from out of the blue was a miracle to us.”
It was important for us to show up and see how donations are actually being used in Warsaw. Yet, this was so much more than that. To say that we were touched by this visit doesn’t scratch the surface. As many find when a friend’s loved one passes, our words fail. More important is the fact that we came. In a context where there are many empty promises, The Outreach Foundation not only sent money. We showed up. You showed up. And they were astonished.
“Who are these people?” they asked. “That they would make a home for us, feed us, give us washers and dryers, provide table tennis, table soccer, and provide for our special medical needs? Who are these people who would help us with tickets for transportation? Who are these people that they would come so far, only to eat with us, hear our stories, play with our children, and show God’s love like this?” Today I am reminded of Paul’s words that in showing up, “We are the aroma of Christ to God…”
The opportunity
The Outreach Foundation has anchored with two trustworthy churches in Lithuania and Lviv, Ukraine, as well as the College of Theological Studies and Social Sciences in Warsaw, Poland.
Medical needs are very high so doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals with current documents who focus on women and children’s health are especially needed. Please pray that one pediatrician we have connected to the college in Warsaw can come next week to do the work God has laid on her heart.
Medical supplies in Ukraine are starting to be in short supply. The Outreach Foundation has worked out a network in Romania through Campus Crusade that can deliver requested medical supplies to our church partner (The Ukrainian Catholic Church) in Lviv!
City Church continues to finalize plans for a former orphanage in Lithuania, where they will bring 39 orphans and some workers from Ukraine. The plan is for them to live there for six months before making long-term decisions. The local government has agreed to partner with City Church by providing education, basic medical treatment, and some food. The orphans are arriving soon.
Trustworthy partnerships like these above have become glaringly important due to increased levels of suspicion both with trafficking and money laundering. Money remains the number one request and we are expediting these funds weekly. Please give HERE or send a check to The Outreach Foundation at 381 Riverside Drive, Suite 110, Franklin, TN 37064.
How can we pray?
1. On Facebook we have mentioned Lena Vasilevsky’s team of children’s workers from Kyiv who arrived in Warsaw last week. On Tuesday, March 22, they left for Valencia, Spain. Let us pray they will arrive safely and that they will locate a home in which to stay. They are asking if people have contacts to let us know.
2. Pray for the church leaders and volunteers who are working tirelessly and sacrificing so much. Let us be like Aaron holding up Moses’ arms to God.
3. Pray for spiritual revival in this region of the world, an area where fear of refugees is rampant and churches do not often agree with each other.
4. Pray for churches in the U.S. to take all this to heart in a deeper way so that we can walk with these dear friends for the long haul, and it will be very long.
Tom Boone
Associate Director for Mission
