As our volunteer team waited for our trains to depart from Warsaw Central Station, this is how one Ukrainian woman described her reason for fleeing home. Her children were in tow, none of them knowing where their journey as refugees would take them or how long they would remain away from home.

Over the past five months, I’ve been part of a team that opened an anti-trafficking organization in Central and Eastern Europe. While there, I’ve heard the tender, personal, heart-wrenching stories of many Ukrainians. War has separated wives from husbands, brothers from families, and sons from parents. We’ve sat together in Moldova, Romania, and Poland, watching livestream videos of their homes in Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Kyiv being bombed by the Russian military.

Ukrainian homes are passed among several generations of family members. Only the threat of death, starvation, or the horrors/atrocities of the Russian occupation could convince them to leave their priceless memories and hometowns behind. Each day, Ukrainians hear air raid sirens sounding in their streets, and they see warnings pop up as notifications and map pins on their smartphones. As an American, I imagine seeing the equivalent on my phone: red dots representing incoming artillery fire from Philadelphia to Nashville, to San Antonio… all representing lives lost and cities destroyed.

Since the invasion on February 24, more than 12 million people have packed up whatever they could carry in their hands and departed home. Children carry stuffed animals and backpacks of clothes. Mothers carry family keepsakes, blankets, food rations, and official ID documents for foreign travel. Most find themselves on trains to major European cities. Some of these train rides last 10-12 hours across the blue and golden Ukrainian farmland.

Ukrainians Sheltering In Train Station

Many who arrived at Lviv boarded buses to the Polish border. These buses dropped passengers off, a long line of tired mothers and children hoping their documents would be approved as they crossed into the European Union. After inching their way through the border checkpoints, families walked downhill into Poland where volunteers served hot meals and bus drivers waited to bring them to the nearest train station. Waiting a day or two to find a train to a city to which they felt comfortable traveling was not uncommon. Many families chose (or found themselves in) a city like Warsaw or Krakow, where large refugee reception centers awaited them. These centers are the Polish equivalent of a Costco, cleared out and filled with cots and portable showers. Imagine sleeping three feet from strangers (and strangers’ crying babies). Imagine wanting to be polite but hustling for an open outlet at one of the few phone charging stations. This is normal life for Ukrainians who, five months ago, were enjoying borscht (beet soup) and deruny (potato pancakes) with their families around a kitchen table.

In the midst of tremendous suffering, Ukrainians have demonstrated remarkable generosity, courage, and selflessness. A friend of mine pastors a Ukrainian church in Poland. He addressed his church during a Friday evening prayer service, delivering an exhortation I will not soon forget: “We are not refugees, we are missionaries to Europe.” I could hardly believe this when I heard it. He delivered a powerful call to purpose in the midst of a dark time.

Tables of supplies and groceries filled the fellowship hall outside the church for those in need. Several members of the church were operating a drug rehabilitation center for Ukrainians in the city in need of this service. Others were facilitating kids’ camps and volunteering in the larger refugee centers. Almost all were sharing their small living spaces with others.

Restore Ukraine Delivering Supplies In Kharkiv

This generosity is beautiful, stunning, and unmatched. The way that Ukrainians have given to one another out of their own need has compelled me to look for any way I can contribute to their cause. I find myself wanting to set aside the lesser concerns of life on Earth for issues of longer-lasting significance. I want to hold a woman’s hands and pray with her for her family. I want to get my hands dirty rebuilding homes, businesses, and town squares. I want to share the hope of eternity with those looking for a reason to live another day. I want to create jobs and invest in the next generation of Ukrainian leaders.

As the war rages on, Ukrainians deserve our continued prayer and concentrated efforts. I hope you will join in and support organizations like Restore Ukraine which underpin basic services for so many and will soon begin to rebuild a war-worn country.

– Allison Byrd, American volunteer on Ukraine-Poland border