— Midweek Meditations:
thoughts, inspiration and encouragement
from ACF community members —
A reflection from Esther who has been serving people in Eastern Europe for 10 years. Currently she is in Krakow which is not too far from the border to Ukraine.
Ever have those days where it feels like you got woken back up into the reality of your surroundings?
That’s what it felt like today as me and my colleague went to a refugee shelter and a social center for Ukrainian refugees to see where we might be able to help out, bring teams and perhaps volunteer every now and then. We spent two hours at each place, hearing a big variety of stories and things they had to endure. After those two visits there were two things that stood out to me the most- firstly, I was reminded of how easy it can be to forget how many people are still suffering from this war and have the feeling of being misplaced. You hardly read or hear about people in refugee shelters anymore so that you might think that things have gotten better when in reality, it hasn’t. In the span of those 2 hours where we were talking with the person in charge of the shelter, at least 6 different people knocked on the office door asking for this or that, needing help with something etc. It was very visible to see how tired the volunteers are- especially the main leader as he is the one who solves conflicts that occur. “You can not show favoritism and have to set a strong boundary of actually helping and not pouring more into the poverty mentality” that is what Peter, the shelter director shared with us and it is very true. There are around 140 refugees living in that specific shelter and all have a various background of where they come from in Ukraine but one thing that has been already in Eastern Europe before the war is the “poverty mentality”. Now it has gotten even more intense and it makes it difficult the fine line of helping, but not helping too much. This is something I have witnessed myself many times whilst living in Moldova and Ukraine.
After 3 years, fundings for these projects and refugee shelters are running out. Sponsors and government don’t have the capacity or even don’t want to fund these shelters anymore so there is only one month left of financial resources and then 2 out of 3 shelter will be closing, with the people who live there not yet having new housing.
The second thing that stood out to me was how a decision in another country affects thousands of people in a different country.
I follow the news in the states and also read through some articles, usually I am not super interested in the “political” side of things but today I actually saw in person what consequence the decision to stop USAid funding will bring to this project I got to know about today.
Since the foreign aid funding from the has been shut down, the social center that we visited today will be needing to find new ways to keep the center open with a different source of funding. This center is amazing, twice a month they buy groceries for 150 families. They have a library, cooking class, English lessons, therapy, help out with legal documents and do so much more! Tomorrow they will hand out 2 TONS worth of meals to around 2000 people- all who are refugees. But, for this to be able to continue, people have to continue to give, not just people have to continue to be interested in it but also governments.
So will you take just a few second now to pray for all the refugee shelters and social centers that we have throughout Poland, Germany and in all of Europe? Pray for new fundings to go through, for the volunteers that have been helping since day one and for wisdom on how they can help and tackle the poverty mentality mindset at the same time, pray for the refugees that they might see a future.
And lastly, don’t forget to pray for Ukraine and its people. I would also like to encourage you to not ignore the news. Yes there are many things happening and yes it might get overwhelming to read it all but it is important to know what is happening in our world. Truth be told, the remark “is the war still going on in Ukraine? I don’t read the news anymore it’s too depressing” I have heard one too many times so don’t forget to check it out.
The ACF Midweek Meditations
are written by a diverse group of our church members with the intention to seek God’s fingerprints in our lives. They range from somber to humorous and are inspired by all facets of live and faith. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, they reflect a wide range of Christian backgrounds and spiritualities.
Each week’s text portrays the individual viewpoint of its author. They might not always resonate with everyone, and are not meant to be understood as representing the Anglican Church Freiburg as a whole. Yet, as a church that is aiming to ‘Build a Community of Grace’ we seek to practice learning from and listening to one another.
We pray that these humble ponderings add a small spark of blessing to your week.
Freiburg Anglican Church 