I visited the city of Mukachevo in Ukraine, where Christians from Avdiivka and Zaporizhia in eastern Ukraine have found refuge. The Danish European Mission's donors are helping to feed them, but the refugees are also packing food parcels to be sent to the east, where war is raging.
Together with a traveling companion, I meet a young man, Andrej. He has traveled far from his home, located in Donbas, which Russia has largely occupied. "I think we are 1500 km from my home," he says. He studied at the University of Zaporizhia.
When we met Andrei, he told us that something terrible had happened to his home. "Yesterday my house was hit by a Russian missile and it was only today that I saw pictures of the destruction. It's very hard. My grandfather is still in Avdiivka, but my grandmother and my mother have fled to Lithuania."
"Yesterday my house was hit by a Russian missile" - Andrei
Despite having fled and his home destroyed, Andrej has the energy to think about other refugees in Ukraine. "Here we help pack food parcels for the people in the affected areas. We pack rice, sunflower oil, flour, canned food and snacks - enough for those living in various shelters to last for a while."
The group also includes a priest who drives the food packages in vans to the eastern part of the country and finds the people in need. Andrej says: "He is one of those who enters dangerous areas at his own risk. He passes all the checkpoints and even talks to Russian soldiers so he can pass and enter the country with food for people."
He delivers them to churches that still exist there. And to basements that have been renovated for people to live in. He finds these places and gives them the food packages.
"We have contact with people who still live close to the frontline. They used to come to our churches as members, but they have stayed behind and have to lead the churches," says Andrej.
In the middle of the war, however, something very positive happened to Andrej, and he lights up when he talks about it. When he fled he had a girlfriend, but now they are engaged. "Yes, in the midst of all the chaos and panic and without even knowing, what tomorrow brings, I decided to propose to my girlfriend - who is now my fiancée. She said yes!"
"Her name is Victoria. We had known each other for two years." Perhaps the war pushed Andrei to ask Victoria the crucial question. "Yes, if it hadn't been for the war, who knows what would have happened?" he asks.
It's a good story in this time of chaos and war. Andrej concludes: "I pray that God will bring peace to Ukraine and all people in need. And that people will come to Jesus and open their hearts to hear what he wants to say to them."
