07 June
Whenever I think of Ukrainians or serve them in one way or another, it is impossible not to think of my hero.
I was waiting in the cold at Siret Customs, where our Ukrainian-speaking contact was bringing me 2 mothers and 5 children for transport. A mother with 2 girls and a mother with 3 little boys, coming from the bombed Kiev area. It was March 1, not long after the war had started. The mother with the girls was quiet and calm but the one with the little boys was very nervous and scared, which was not hard to understand. To defuse the situation a bit, I asked the translator to tell them to stay calm as on our journey, I would buy them everything they needed (water, food etc). The little boy, who was about 3 and a half years old, brightened up, flashed a sweet smile and squealed with joy. His reaction, made me turn around and cry.
At the first gas station in Suceava, we stopped and bought everything they needed. They ate well and went to sleep. At the next stop at another gas station, a Petrom employee sees me taking 7 bottles of water and asks me what I do with all that water. I replied that I have 2 mothers with 5 Ukrainian children and he reacted immediately, taking a bag in which he put 7 sandwiches and told that he pays for everything, which pleasantly surprised me and I invited him to give the sandwiches to them. Again it was joy for everyone. Including my coffee, he offered to pay for it.
On my way back to Bucharest to their contacts, my contact from Custom called me to see how is that Mum with the boys, who as I said above, was very scared and nervous. I assured him that she was starting to calm down but this time I was the one who couldn’t stop crying whenever I remembered the little one’s reaction. And he explained to me that the reason why the little one reacted like that was because they had spent 2 days and 2 nights at Custom in the cold, without food and without heat, in order to be able to cross Customs into Romania, which made me burst into tears again.
Having this information, even though I don’t know his name, I made him MY HERO, and I was more motivated to serve them with even more passion.
Pray for me that the Lord will give me strength, and even if you don’t know this little boy’s name, please bear him and his family in prayer.
