Jeff Finley

Jeff Finley

Light + Life Executive Editor

Jeff Finley is this magazine’s executive editor. He joined the Light+Life team in 2011 after a dozen years of reporting and editing for Sun-Times Media. He is a member of John Wesley Free Methodist Church where his wife, Jen, serves as the lead pastor.

by Jeff Finley

The war in Ukraine has resulted in a major humanitarian crisis, and Free Methodists are coming together to pray and support ministries in Ukraine while assisting refugees who’ve reached other European countries.

“Europe has not experienced a humanitarian crisis like this since World War II. More than 4 million Ukrainian refugees have entered bordering countries, with another 6 million displaced,” said Josué “Josh” Fajardo, the Europe Area director for Free Methodist World Missions. “Europe is at the epicenter of the refugee crisis as the continuation of wars in the Middle East, and now Ukraine has produced nearly half of all refugees in the world.”

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“The Free Methodist Church in Europe is partnering with relief organizations to provide funding and supplies for relief efforts.”

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Free Methodists lead four ministries in the northwestern Ukrainian city of Rivne: a church fellowship, a rehabilitation home, a home for the elderly, and transition apartments. The people involved in these ministries are among Ukraine’s most vulnerable residents. While providing money and personnel for the ongoing care and safety of these residents, the Free Methodist Church also is providing temporary shelter for people displaced by the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Free Methodists have partnered with other Christians to deliver food and supplies into areas of high conflict. When possible, they have helped fellow Ukrainians travel to the relative safety of western Ukraine to stay with friends or family, or to leave the country as refugees.

Free Methodists in other European countries have helped two FM families who’ve left their homes because of the war, and they’re also assisting many other people who’ve traveled out of Ukraine since the Russian military invasion began in late February. The Free Methodist Church in Europe is partnering with relief organizations to provide funding and supplies for relief efforts.

“I believe God is doing something new in the midst of this great crisis. This will not only change the continent, but it will also change the church in Europe,” Fajardo said. “My prayer is the church will not only respond with food, housing, and medical care but will see the opportunity to engage with the gospel of transformation.”

Prayer Meeting

Free Methodists are responding to specific needs of which they are made aware through their local, national and international networks. They need additional funding to support these efforts, but their top request is prayer.

“Prayers for the safety of our workers, for the protection of the people remaining in the country, and for the end of the war are what is needed most,” said Europe Area Associate Director Larry Winckles who lives in Hungary, which hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have entered for shelter or on their way to other countries. “Pray for the refugees, who have left almost everything behind and who are dealing with the consequent trauma. Pray for those who are working directly with the refugees, and especially those involved with trauma care, both for adults and children.”

American Free Methodists are invited to join with their European brothers and sisters in Christ for an online prayer meeting for Ukraine and other European countries via the Free Methodist Church in Europe’s Facebook page on Friday, April 8, at 7 p.m. Central European Time (1 p.m. Eastern, noon Central, 11 a.m. Mountain, 10 a.m. Pacific).

 

Stopping Trafficking

Free Methodists are on the frontline of the fight against human trafficking in Europe, and concerns about trafficking have intensified with the influx of refugees from Ukraine into other countries.

“We’ve had some terrible reports, especially over in Moldova, of traffickers posing as aid workers or as pastors and enticing young women to come with them and actually to be trafficked,” said Winckles, who serves as the Free Methodist representative to the European Freedom Network (EFN), “a Europe-wide network of agencies, churches and organizations that are working in the area of combatting human trafficking and modern slavery.”

The network distributed 100,000 copies of a brochure to educate refugees about the danger of trafficking and posted QR codes at transit centers to link refugees to safety tips and emergency contact information. The brochures weren’t reaching enough of the refugees, however, and QR codes only work for people who have cell phones and know to scan the codes.

Winckles contacted Set Free Movement Director Kevin Austin, and Set Free designed two vertical banners — one in Ukrainian and one in English — with practical tips, which were provided by the EFN, to keep refugees safe. For refugees who have a cell phone, the bottom of the banner includes a QR code and a web address linking the refugees to information in multiple languages. Along with handling the design, Set Free is funding the production of the banners for distribution in Hungary.

“We will distribute them to transit points,” Winckles said. “The cooperation with EFN is that then we are passing on the graphics that other agencies can choose to use to make their own.”

Some of the people fleeing Ukraine are of other nationalities, and they face legal complications as they travel in other countries.

“There was a very large number of African and Indian students in Ukraine, and they were advised by their universities to flee,” Winckles said. “They don’t receive as many of the refugee rights that the Ukrainians do.”

The students are only given a limited time (approximately two weeks) in the country they enter and then must return to their home countries or try to go elsewhere. A Set Free volunteer in Hungary made a group of Africans from Ukraine aware of an offer from another organization to provide transportation to Portugal and housing there. Winckles explained, “The Africans liked the idea of being in Portugal but were afraid what being transported there would do to their legal status.”  

These students are among many people whose lives have become more difficult because of the war. Many Russian immigrants are facing discrimination in other countries even though they have nothing to do with the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine. Gerry McNamara, an Irish missionary in Hungary who serves as FMWM’s regional director for Central and Eastern Europe, emphasized “the need for the church to pray and respond lovingly to both Ukrainians and Russians.”

How to Give

Free Methodist leaders say the best way to help, besides praying, is to give to the Bishops’ Crisis Response Fund and put “Ukraine” in the Comments area. Donations will be used for Free Methodist World Missions’ ongoing relief efforts or transferred to trusted ministry partners. Click here to give through the fund. +

Jeff Finley

Jeff Finley

Light + Life Executive Editor

Jeff Finley is this magazine’s executive editor. He joined the Light+Life team in 2011 after a dozen years of reporting and editing for Sun-Times Media. He is a member of John Wesley Free Methodist Church where his wife, Jen, serves as the lead pastor.