Transcript for Rares Calugar:

In 2022, we didn’t expect what will come, because we are in Romania, a few hours from the Ukraine country. So when the war started, we were just having our community center ready, thinking that we will serve the people. And this is what we did.

Because in February, when the war started, more than 250 Ukrainians came in our community center to find a safe place. I still remember the time when Oksana, a woman from Mariupol, came with Diana, her daughter, fleeing from that place and coming to our community center, because some of their friends were already here with us. And they say, come here, because we find Christians, we find good people that take care of us.

I’m Radeş Colugăr, I’m the superintendent of the United Methodist Church, and our heart is so much to serve the community around us. That’s why we built community centers in Romania, and having this in mind, what Wesley has in mind, you know, to be where the people are. So this is one of the reasons that we want to be where the people are and serve the community.

So in these places where we are, we build safe places where people can come and have support groups and journey with us, because we are also in an Orthodox environment where people know about God, but they need to journey with God. So when I started the movement in 2011 in Romania, I didn’t know that I would end up in a Wesleyan place. So I went and I studied in the seminary, and that experience was great for me, because that experience added something to already what I did in a way that served the community.

So we continue to do this in the same way, and all this year, having the Ukrainian refugees around us give us so much to think about, that what God really wants to do through us in these people that sometimes they are desperate, and they don’t have where to go. And thinking about Oksana and her daughter, and the experience that they have, because her husband being captain and being on the sea, he was desperate, thinking, where is how my wife and how my daughter it is. But now they are reunited, they have a home, they have a place, and they are so much appreciated the time when they will be with us, and they also in this time, they found God.

So all these things help us and empower us to believe that God is at work in our connection globally, and that’s why we believe that with your support, we can empower more people to do more things for the Lord, preparing them for ministry. God bless you.