Mark Finley shares 4 lessons he learned from the Ukrainian refugees in his recent visit and how they can make a difference in your life too.

<p>Mark Finley shares 4 lessons he learned from the Ukrainian refugees in his recent visit and how they can make a difference in your life too.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Four Earth Shaking Lessons Ukrainian Refugees Taught Me


My wife and I left on April 19 to minister to the Ukrainian refugees in both Poland and Hungary. Poland has had 2.5 million refugees cross the border and have been overwhelmed with the logistics of ministering to each of these refugees, but are doing a fantastic job. Hungary has about 500, 000 refugees. The reason we went was to give these refugees hope and courage based on the Bible promises, and also work with those that were ministering to them to help them to have some extra strength as they ministered. We went to minister, but we were actually ministered to.

And I'd like to share with you 4 lessons that are really earth-shaking lessons, 4 surprising lessons that we learn from these refugees. As we heard stories of them trapped in basements for days with bombs exploding. As we heard about their escape stories, coming out of these narrow corridors, seeing burned-out Russian tanks, seeing dead people lying on the street, and seeing rocket attacks, and listening to the whir of the bullets that were flying through the air, walking sometimes for hours in the shivering cold. As we listened to these stories, Our hearts were filled with pain and sorrow, but yet there was an inner strength. There was an inner courage.

Some of these refugees had to leave families behind. Some of them, most of them, women and children, came by themselves. Husbands left to fight in the war. Sons left to fight in the war. Some of them had lost loved ones.

But here are 4 vital lessons that we learned in our trip to Hungary and Poland that can make a difference in your life and mine today. The first lesson that we learned was that God gives us strength at the time that we need it most. Often, We look at people going through crisis and we say, I could never do that, I could never get through that crisis. And in our own strength we couldn't. But at the moment of crisis, when we have an experience with God, He adds strength to our weakness and enables us to get through it.

I love the promise in Isaiah 41 verse 10. It says this, fear not for I am with you. I read this promise to refugee after refugee, fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed, that's don't be confused with what's happening to you. For I am your God, I will strengthen you.

God says when you get through that crisis, I'm gonna strengthen you. When life is falling apart, I'm gonna strengthen you. When you're confused and wondering what's going on, I'm gonna strengthen you. When the night is dark and the journey is long and the road is rough and the mountain is high, I'm going to strengthen you. He says, I'll strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Here is the promise of God. He says, first, do not fear. He says, second, don't be confused.

He says, third, I will strengthen you. Fourth, I will help you. Fifth, I'm going to hold you up, and I'm not going to let you fall apart. Let me tell you some amazing stories from these refugees that claim that promise, that this promise was fulfilled in their life, that in most difficult circumstances they found strength in God. I'll call her name Maria, to protect her identity.

She was for 21 days in a dark apartment basement. There were 160 people jammed in that basement with her. She shivered in the cold. She told us that there were times that she would see her own breath. As she was in that basement, she lost consciousness of time because there were no windows there, and she was in there for that three-week period, as I mentioned, and she didn't know whether it was night, didn't know whether it was day.

Bombs were exploding all around, and she felt the earth shaking. Some people were so traumatized by what happened, they died in that basement. So here is Maria, cold, thirsty, hungry, crammed in there with 160 other people. And She told us that at night, she would sit in a corner with her Bible, and it became the corner of peace, where she was sharing the love of God, and others would gather around her and tell her to read to them. She read the promises of Christ, the promises that he would strengthen them, the promises of his second coming.

The crisis did not make her bitter, it made her better. She did not nurse her scars, she shined like the stars. Because the darker the night, the brighter the stars shine. So a crisis can either make you bitter, it can make you angry, or it can make you a better person. That's what happened to Maria.

Let me tell you the professor's story, how God showed up at the time of crisis. It's 1 thing we learn from the refugees, that when we need him in these crisis moments that God is there. He has said in Matthew 28, verse 20, lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. A professor at an Adventist college in Busha, in the Ukraine, who also was a professor at our college in Poland called Parkal Boleszka, told us that he sensed when he was in Ukraine at our college there that the Russian forces were moving in. He told 3 ladies that were at the college, look, pack your things in 5 minutes.

We've got to get out of here. They packed them in the car. They had to go through 7 checkpoints. They came to 1 checkpoint. There were 2 young men with their AK-47s.

He said all that time we were living between life and death. We saw burned out tanks, burned out cars, we saw bombed homes, we saw people dead and dying, but we kept moving ahead, moving ahead. And finally at this checkpoint, we were stopped. These soldiers had their AK-47s. They said, get out of the car, open the doors.

They checked the car, ransacked it, looked at it, had me open the trunk. He said, I opened the trunk, and he said, I didn't know what was gonna happen at that point. I didn't know if they were taking me behind the car to shoot me. And he said, I looked at 1 young man, young soldier, and I said to him something like this, you know, after this war is over and you go home, make your mother proud. Don't do anything that would disappoint your mother.

He said the soldier smiled at him. He said, go on, go on. And he said, I went on. Who put that thought in his mind to speak to this soldier about his mother and touch that tender cord in his mother's heart? You could not have dreamed up that scenario, but at that moment, God put it into mind.

So here's our first point. When we need it most, God gives strength. God gives us strength when it's most needed. We discovered that new and fresh and again and again in the stories the refugees told us. Secondly, the refugees taught us the importance of family relationships.

You know, sometimes you take a husband for granted, a wife for granted, children for granted. But when I interviewed these refugees, here's a wife who's left her husband and son behind. She's come with her 2 children. You see, the law in the Ukraine was if you're between 18 and 60 and you're a male, you cannot leave the country unless you and your wife have 3 children because they felt that it would be difficult for a woman to navigate out of the country with the 3 kids and she'd need the support of her husband. And so we interviewed a pastor's wife.

My wife got very close to her. And as she talked to this pastor's wife, there were tears just streaming down this pastor's wife's face. She has 3 children, 1 17, 1 a little girl, a little younger. She and the 17-year-old and the girl left, her son and daughter. Her husband's a pastor.

She also had a 19-year-old son that couldn't leave. Her husband and her son did not leave because her husband would not leave the 19-year-old son. She did not know whether they would survive or not. Would it be life or death? And the most important thing other than Christ in that pastor's wife's life was to be reunited with her husband, to be reunited with her son.

And you know, sometimes it's so easy to take those family relationships for granted. We learn to cherish family relationships, to cherish them in a much deeper way. A happy story. 2 sisters, they need to leave the country. 1 is in Poland and the other is still in Kiev.

She has to flee. And as she flees, her sister doesn't know if she's going to make it alive. Doesn't know if she's dead. Doesn't know if she's alive. And it's just a terrible period of separation.

There's no contact. And it comes Sabbath. And when these refugees who are Seventh-day Adventists leave the country, they look for an Adventist church to come to. And that happened to this sister. She traveled for days, rough travel, difficult time coming, finally gets across the border safely.

Her sister doesn't know that she's across the border. They both come to the Adventist church in Warsaw. And their sister sees sister. And they run, they embrace 1 another. Sister, I didn't know you were alive.

I'm so glad to see you." And they meet together in the house of God. Cherish your family relationships. Don't take your wife for granted. Don't take your husband for granted. Don't take your kids for granted.

Don't take your parents for granted. Cherish those relationships of the family. The Ukrainian refugees taught us the importance. They reemphasized that importance of positive relationships. Thirdly, they taught us that our only hope is in the coming of Jesus.

That everything earthly can be gone in a few seconds. There are people that built beautiful homes only to have them bombed out in a few seconds. There are people that spent all their life on working for a career only to have everything shattered and be dead in a few moments. The only thing that really is solid, the only thing that we can put our feet on, the only thing that gives us a positive foundation is the promise that Christ is with us today, but 1 day he will come. In John chapter 14, Jesus puts it this way.

He gives us the hope, the hope that burns in every Christian's heart. He says in John 14, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house, I'm going to prepare a place for you. My Father's house, if it were not so, I would have told you.

My Father's house are many mansions. And he says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus says, don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let the things of time crowd out the things of eternity. Don't let the things of this world darken your view of heaven.

Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, 1 day we will be with Jesus. 1 day he will return. 1 day the heavens will be illuminated with the glory of God. 1 day lightning will flash and thunder will crash and the earth will shake and Jesus will come and as the Apostle Paul says, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. First Thessalonians 4, verse 16 and 17, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with what?

Shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. You see, everything you've worked for, everything you've lived for can be gone in a moment. The only hope really is the coming of Jesus. That's something we can count on.

Something that is certain. It's as certain as the promise of God. And a promise is only as good as the promise maker. And Christ is the greatest promise maker in the world. He says, I will come again.

You know, we met with a group of Ukrainian girls. These young women were in their teens. Some of them had lived in Poland for a while, and others of them had come across the border. Many of them had come across the border. And they were singing.

And I said, sing a song for us that will cheer our hearts. And these girls began to sing and sing. And there were smiles on their faces. And we said, what are you singing about? And they said, this song goes something like this.

It can't be, it's not an English equivalent. But it goes something like this. We long for heaven. That's our true homeland. We wish we were home, but we long for heaven.

These Ukrainian girls taught me something. In the midst of sorrow, in the midst of pain, in the midst of suffering, In the midst of separation from their families, they placed their priority on heaven because they knew that that was the 1 place that was secure in their life. Everything around them had been taken away from them. But their promise, the promise of eternal life, could never be taken away from them because it was burning in their hearts. All of their earthly possessions were gone, but they still possessed Jesus Christ.

He burned in their hearts. They also taught us, the refugees and our members taught us, 1 of the things I came away with from this trip to Poland and to Hungary was that not only does God supply our needs when we need it most. But God brings people into our life to supply those needs. He often supplies our needs through people. And there was an outpouring of Christian love by our Polish Christian Seventh-day Adventists.

There was an outpouring of love by our Hungarian Adventists. We met a pastor's wife in Poland who spent day after day after day ministering to the needs of these Ukrainian refugees. You see, some of them stayed in homes, but many of them stayed in our churches. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Warsaw has taken in 600 refugees. They often stay from 4 days to 2 weeks.

And this godly woman preparing meals for them, somebody has to prepare meals for them 3 days, 3 meals a day. Somebody has to wash their clothes. Somebody has to watch the children. And I was just amazed as we went down and saw them eating, this godly pastor's wife preparing food for them, she assisting them. We've had to put a washer and dryer in the church, and they wash and dry their clothes, making little cubicles where they could put little cots in there for them to sleep so they'd have some privacy.

But there was an outpouring of Christian love in our church in Budapest, in Hungary. We visited with the refugees, visited with a lady who I'll call Marina. And she had 2 sons. Her husband was not with her. And the church, of course, was housing them and feeding them.

They were taking these kids on field trips. And 1 of the little boys, they had given him a little iPhone where he could put pictures. And he said, Pastor, you want to see my pictures? And I sat down next to him and, you know, he could speak some English and began showing me pictures of the animals at the zoo that he had gone to. And then they had crafts for the children at the church.

Somebody has to plan their meal. Somebody has to cook their meal. Somebody has to give them food. Somebody has to give them clothing. Somebody has to change the bedding.

Somebody has to wash the clothes. Somebody has to provide for the children. And there's an outpouring of Christian love, a care, concern. And I'm reminded of 1 John chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. 1 John 4 verse 7 and 8.

And here the Bible talks about the hallmarks of genuine, authentic Christianity. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. And the Bible says, Behold, let us love 1 another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God.

In this, The love of God was manifest toward us that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might have life through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son into the world to be a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love 1 another. When you look at the life of Christ, it's the outpouring of love. Jesus did not leave heaven because there was anything bad in heaven.

He left that which is good to come into a bad, twisted, sin-sick world to minister to us in love. What is Christianity? It's not giving up bad things so I can be saved. It's giving up good things in self-sacrificial service to others. I was interviewing a group of refugees at Port Kowalysta, our college, our Seventh-day Adventist College in Poland.

And as they were sharing their stories, 1 lady said, pastor, can I share? She happened to be an English teacher, so she spoke very good English. She was from the Ukraine, where she had been teaching English. And She fled from her home. It was being bombed and shelled.

And she fled to Lviv. She was not a Seventh-Day Adventist. And as she told the story, she wept. She said, what an outpouring of love in that church. She said, I was there for 3 weeks before I could flee from there to get across the border of Poland.

And she said, these people were genuine Christians. They made us feel at home. We were not refugees, but we were guests. And as I thought about that, what a demonstration of Christian love, because in fact we are all refugees. We're pilgrims, we're strangers in this world.

A world that is crumbling. A world that's falling apart. A world of sickness and suffering and death. A war of natural disasters, of famines and earthquakes and strife. A world of war and conflict.

But yet, yet, as refugees we know the greatest evacuation in the history of the world is coming. Because Jesus will return. And he is coming to take us home. 4 lessons from Ukrainian refugees. First, God gives you strength when you need it.

Open your heart to receive it. Second, never take your family for granted. Open your heart to your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, and let the love of Christ flow through you for them. Thirdly, in this life, we may give ourselves the things that are only going to slip through our fingers like grains of sand. Put your time, effort, and energy, and your heart into something that matters for Christ.

Recognize that life is fleeting and that we have this moment to prepare for eternity. And lastly, reach out in love to your brothers and sisters around you. Be the ambassador of Christ's sacrificial love. Let us pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you that at times we try to minister to others, but you said it's more blessed to give than receive, and we are sometimes the ones blessed.

Thank you that from these Ukrainian refugees we have surprising lessons. May we take them to our hearts and live for you, recognizing that soon you will come In Jesus' name, amen. Or if you

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Four Earth Shaking Lessons Ukrainian Refugees Taught Me

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