ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
April 27, 2022
Last night, I reached out to Week of Compassion about their specific response in Ukraine. Week of Compassion is our denomination’s response in times of crisis. They were the ones who showed up after Hurricane Harvey, providing direct money, grants and expertise. Vy Nguyen is the Executive Director, and he called me last night to answer my specific questions. He is on his way to Geneva for a meeting with our partner churches from around the globe, yet Vy took time to call me… a local pastor in Spring, Texas. There is something really quite special about being a denomination where you are not lost in the email void or receive a generic response.
Week of Compassion sent an initial payment of $350,000 toward the $35,000,000 request by ACT Alliance (Action by Churches Together), which came from the World Council of Churches. Vy shared with me how they can no longer send buses into Ukraine to bring out families because the buses are easy targets. So folks are driving their cars across the boarder to bring families to Poland and other safe countries. These refugees are immediately connected to a resettlement center where they receive food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Specific to this care is mental health services for children and women. Our gifts are helping through Week of Compassion to provide these services. Another place where our gifts are making a difference is in Greece, where refugees are being received, and $14,000 provides six months of rent, utilities and food for a family in Greece.
In Colossians 3, Paul speaks of clothing ourselves in many different expressions of faithfulness, yet the first one mentioned is compassion. In the original Greek, the word we translate as Compassion means the aching of one’s bowels. Or we might describe it as gut-wrenching. As I watch the news coming from Ukraine, gut-wrenching or bowel-twisting doesn’t quite describe it, but it comes close. And it can leave a person feeling helpless. This is where the church is at its best. One small local congregation in Spring, Texas, won’t make any dramatic impact. But our gifts will be dramatic when they are added to the gifts coming from the Church of Finland and out of the UK and Germany and dozens of other denominations, traditions and expressions of Christianity worldwide. Partners were already on the ground in and around Ukraine, and so response is easier when you have folks who have relationships, buildings, understand the culture and know who to ask when permission is needed. The church is the people, and though our guts are twisted in sorrow, the church is making a difference.
If you want to make a donation to Week of Compassion, simply go to their website: https://www.weekofcompassion.org/donate.html.
God, bless every dollar and act of compassion in the world today. Multiply these dollars and then make sure tangible needs are met. Amen.
