Sometimes, We Need To Go

As tears fell down my new friend’s cheeks, I stepped forward and hugged her. Her heart broke with grief over the war in Ukraine and its impact on her family and community. As we held each other and cried in her hometown in Ukraine, I reflected afresh on the fact that many needs will never be met through donations alone. 

I am an OMS missionary, living in South Korea and serving the Asia/Pacific region. Since the war in Ukraine started, I have prayed and hoped I could help in some way. I sent money, but that felt incomplete to me. I heard about the needs of our OMS Hungary team on a Friday afternoon. The call requested drivers of manual transmission vans and Russian speakers to make supply runs to and from the Hungary-Ukraine border. I can drive, and my coworker Hannah speaks Russian. The next morning, we booked our tickets, and we hopped on a plane the day after that. 

In Hungary, we averaged 15-hour days, our muscles got good workouts from moving more than 4,400 pounds of food and other materials each trip, and we managed to have 3 significant car repair “adventures.” The roles we played felt vastly inconsequential in the grand scheme of the amount of need in Ukraine. Despite the overwhelming big picture, we found that being a tiny cog in a massive machine was extremely refreshing and life-giving. 

God is doing the work, and he just asked me to take a small part. I didn’t end the war, and I don’t even have stories about people making Gospel commitments because of our interactions. Instead, I had the privilege of being the arms of Jesus to a woman who needed a hug; the hands of Jesus that unstacked, stacked, and restacked boxes of food; and the feet of Jesus that drove a van for thousands of kilometers. The Gospel, “Good News,” of Jesus Christ includes more than avoidance of hell or eternity without God—it is comfort for the suffering, hope for the oppressed, love for the neglected, and sometimes, it is food for the war-ravaged people of Ukraine. 

So, why did I go? Every mission field has needs that can never be met by only sending money.

Sometimes, we just need to go.