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 hung. 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 had 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 four lessons that are really earth shaking lessons, four surprising lessons that we learned 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, these narrow Carters, seeing burned out Russian tanks and seeing dead people lying on the street and seeing rocket attacks and listening to the were of the, of the bullets that were flying through the air and 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 a fight in the war. Sons left a fight in the war. Some of them had lost loved ones, but here are four vital lessons that we learned in our trip to Hungary and Poland that can make a difference in your life and mind 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'm 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 gonna 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 said, third, I will strengthen you fourth. I will help you fifth. I am gonna hold you up and I'm not gonna 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'd 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 what 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 sh 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 one thing we learned from the, from the refugees that when we need him in these crisis moments that God is there, he has said in Matthew 28, verse 20 law, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world, a professor at an Adventist college in Busia in the Ukraine, who also was a professor at our college in Poland called park college, told us that he sensed when he was in Ukraine at our college there, that the Russian forces were moving in. He told three ladies that were at the college, look, pack your things in five minutes, we've gotta get outta here. They packed them in the car. They had to go through seven checkpoints. They came to one checkpoint and there were two young men with their AK 40 sevens. 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 40 sevens. They said, get outta 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 one young man, young soldier. And I said to him, something like this, you know what? 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 right, the soldier smiled at him, 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 chord 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's son behind she's come with her. Two children. You see the law in the Ukraine was be, if you're between 18 and 60 and you're a male, you cannot leave the country unless you and your wife have three children because they felt that it would be difficult for a woman to navigate out of the country with the three 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 that were tears just streaming down. This pastor's wife faced. She has three children, 1 17, 1 little girl, 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, two sisters, they need to leave the country. One is in Poland and the other's still in Keve. She has to flee. And as she flees her sister doesn't know if she's gonna 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 simp avenue 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 one another sister. I didn't know you were alive. I'm so glad to see you. When 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 with the family. The Ukrainian refugees taught us the importance. They reemphasize that importance of, 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 were people that built beautiful homes only have them bombed out in a few seconds. There were 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 one 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 we were not. So I would've told you in my father's house or many mansions, and he says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again to re 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 historically, but then face to face. One day we will be with Jesus. One day, he will return one day. The heavens will be illuminated with the glory of God. One day, lightning of flesh and thunder will crash and the earth will shake and Jesus will come. And it's the apostle. Paul says the Lord himself shall end from heaven. Verse that's IANS four verse 16 and 17. The Lord himself shall descend men with a shout with the voice of the ya angel, the Trump of God, the Trump of victory death, no more famine, no more bitterness, anger, resentment, no more disease, no more cancer, no more heart disease gone war, no more love joy, peace. Fill the land. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven. With what shout with the voice of the art 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 could 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 in 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 became across the border and they were singing. And I said, sing a song for us. That'll 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. The 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 one 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. One. One of the things I came away with from this trip to Poland 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, a evidence, there was an outpouring of love by our Hungarian Adventist. 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 evidence church in Warsaw has taken in 600 refugees. They often stay from four days to two weeks. And this godly woman preparing meals for them, somebody has to prepare meals for them. Three days, three 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 wash 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 Madina. And she had two sons. Her husband was not with her. And the church of course, was housing them and feeding them. And they were taking these kids on field trips. And one of little boys, they had given him a little iPhone. We could put pictures and he said, pass, you wanna see my pictures? And I sat down next to women. 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 first John chapter four, verse seven and eight first John four, verse seven and eight. And here the Bible talks about the hallmarks of genuine, authentic Christianity. First John chapter four, verse seven and eight. When the Bible says behold, let us love. One another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Hugh does not love does not know God in this. The love of God was manifest, taught us that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might have life through him. And 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 one another. When you look at the life of Christ, it's the outpouring of love. Jesus did not leave heaven because it was anything bad in heaven. He left that, which is good to come into a bad twisted sinic 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 and self-sacrificial service to others. I was interviewing a group of refugees at port kata, our college, our feminist college in Poland. And as they were sharing their stories, one 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 shed. And she fed fled to Lavi. 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 three 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 of love, because in fact, we are all refugees where pilgrims, where 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. Cuz Jesus will return. And he is coming to take us home. Four 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 gonna 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 being ambassador of christ'ssacrificial love. Let us pray together, father in heaven, we thank you that at times we try to minister to others, but you've 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 I'm in This media was brought to you by audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio.org.

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Four Earth Shaking Lessons Ukrainian Refugees Taught Me

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