What does ministry at a time of crisis look like? What are the challenges? Marzena Snarska from Bialystok in Poland shares her story.

‘It’s difficult, exhausting and draining, but we know we have God’s blessing.’ Marzena Snarska is one of those extraordinary women who just radiate hope. I’ve only been speaking to her for a matter of minutes, but already I feel we’re friends. Member of the council of her local Baptist church in Bialystok in Eastern Poland, she’s now one of a team of five people responsible for welcoming refugees from Ukraine to the church’s reception centre.

Marzena explains that their church owns a building some 70 km from of Bialystok. Housing 71 beds and equipped with all the necessary facilities, it’s used during the summer months for Christian holiday camps for children. At other times of the year, it’s unused. When news came of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Church Council immediately proposed using the building to welcome those fleeing the violence. The church members were whole-heartedly in favour. ‘There’s massive understanding in the church. We all know we’re supposed to get involved.’

The Bialystok church’s link with sister churches in Ukraine goes back a long time. ‘We’ve had a Ukrainian couple from Berdyczew in our church for many years. We’ve built relationships with the churches that their families belong to back in Ukraine. They’ve visited us and we’ve visited them. We’re close to the Ukrainian border here and, culturally, we’re very similar. Many of the people coming to us now are from the churches we have links with.’ Currently, there are 54 refugees in the centre, from Charkow, Luck, Kyiv and Berdyczew.

Welcoming people fleeing for their lives takes not just time, energy and profound compassion, it’s also a feat of co-ordination. Agneska, another member of the team, co-ordinates arrangements to collect people from the border and bring them to safety. ‘At the border, it just gets crazy,’ says Marzena. ‘A couple of days ago, Agneska had 3 families to take care of at once. She told me it took 200 phone calls to co-ordinate it.’

As for Marzena, she’s responsible for the logistics relating to the building, and for many of the practicalities needed to support the families once they have arrived. She makes trips to supermarkets several times a week to buy food, toiletries and basic medicine, and organises for deliveries from local charities offering support.

‘Of course, it all takes time,’ says Marzena. She exudes all the commitment of a passionate disciple.  ‘During the day I work as a manager in a Care Home. But I’m single, so I can be busy many hours and eat late!’ The team lives surrounded by lists of those who have volunteered: people willing to welcome refugees into their home; others willing to collect people from the border; still others offering to give or find supplies of beds, bedding or clothing. But,’ she adds with a wisdom I suspect she doesn’t always heed, ‘I know I need to rest sometimes.’

Yet the church knows it’s called to go further. There are still so many people in Ukraine who need help. The church is seeking ways of making humanitarian deliveries to those still there, where supplies are running low or running out. ‘We want to be able to help for a long as we can,’ says Marzena. ‘This is a long-term, long-distance experience.’

Marzena has some heart-rending stories to tell. ‘We have to stay on our knees,’ she urges, ‘to fight the spiritual fight.’ One of their recent arrivals is a young woman from Kyiv. She decided to leave the capital and arranged to meet two friends at the bus-stop so they could travel to Poland together. Thinking she would not be gone for long, she grabbed some money and packed just her laptop, one pair of jeans, one spare pair of socks and a change of underwear. ‘She has made it here,’ says Marzena, ‘but her two friends never did. They were shot dead on their way to the bus-stop.’

Marzena is celebrating ‘25 years since I came to know Jesus.’  ‘Do you have a Bible verse to share with us?’ I ask her. ‘Last year,’ she replies, ‘I was very sick. I nearly died. The verse which God gave to me then is one that we need for now:

‘When you pass through water, I shall be with you;

When you pass through rivers, they will not overwhelm you;

Walk through fire, and you will not be scorched,

Through flames and they will not burn you.

I am the Lord your God, your deliverer (Isaiah 43:2-3.)

Please pray for the ministry of Marzena and those like her. Pray too for all those who flee violence today, wherever they may be.

To learn more about those who are opening their homes to refugees, see also https://marycotes.co.uk/2022/03/09/lent-from-the-borderland/