Rescue Missions Continue through the Winter

Our Dear Friends,
Christmas has come around once again, following another year of war and uncertainty. Thanks to God’s grace, your prayers and your giving, the House of Hope is still standing, a beacon of light and love to those escaping from the horrors of the war in Ukraine. Likewise, the refugees who have left the country have been touched and changed by God’s people reaching out to them.

The Few talking and the Many trying to survive

While the superpowers discuss the future of Ukraine and try to sort out an “international solution” to this war, the daily pounding of bombs and missiles continues in all sections of the country and around the House of Hope. Europe is definitely against handing over lands and populations to create a Russian sphere of influence across the continent, and President Zelensky isn’t ready to hand over a significant portion of Ukraine to future Russian control.
There is a history lesson at work here. Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev all tried this – and I hear the words of Winston Churchill still ringing through history in his reply to Hitler’s so-called Peace Terms:
“To Herr Hitler, your message has been received…
You propose that Britain should … stand idle while Europe is carved up like a Sunday joint. You ask that we cast aside … duty, honour, and civilisation so that your tyranny may remain undisturbed. …
Your “new order” is not the future of Europe but the passing storm of a violent hour. …
You may believe that we stand alone. But we stand upon rock – upon the unconquerable spirit of free men and women. We stand … with all who resist oppression and with all who refuse to barter liberty for the promise of a quiet life in chains.
If you seek peace, there is a simple road: withdraw your armies from every land they have trampled. Restore the sovereignty you have stolen. Until then, we shall fight you … today, tomorrow, and for however many years are required to break the back of your ambition….” Winston S. Churchill – Prime Minister of Britain, 1939
What will President Zelensky do? (Pray for wisdom for him and those around him.)

Last year, our leaders at the House of Hope hosted a party for as many children as they could safely bring together. But joy in a war zone is fragile. Remember halfway through the celebration last year, the wail of an air raid siren ended the party. The volunteers sprang into action, gathered the children and rushed them into the bomb-proof basement, where last year, one of the leaders began singing. Soon, the children started to sing, their voices rising above the fear in a chorus of hope.

As that celebration came to an end, a young girl came forward, clutching a small doll she had received. “This is the best day ever,” she said.

This year, they are still holding fast to that mission: to bring hope to children who have lost so much. Their plan is ambitious and risky. They want to host a celebration for 300 children – orphans, street kids, and those left destitute by the war. Theoretically, gatherings are forbidden, and the ever-present danger of attack always lingers in the air. Still, they are planning with determination. They are working tirelessly leading up to the Slavic Christmas in early January. They will travel back roads in their vans to pick up what supplies they can, with the streets fraught with danger, soldiers manning checkpoints and the echo of gunfire to remind them of the danger of this mission.

We know they will pour their energy into transforming their limited resources into something magical. They’ll repair tattered toys, patched clothes, and string makeshift decorations together from scraps. “It doesn’t need to be grand,” they say. “It just needs to be filled with love.”

The day of the celebration will be cold, but the children will come in small groups so as not to attract attention. One old man will put on a St. Nicholas costume, another friend will lead games, while others serve food and warm drinks. The fear and hunger in the children will vanish for a few hours.

A Great Burden

I am still concerned for the 744,000 children kidnapped by Russian forces from summer camps in Eastern Ukraine four years back. They have now been missing from their homes for four years. Imagine the distraught parents having to live through another Christmas without their children.

One of my big concerns is to aid these children to be recovered somehow. I don’t know how this will happen, and while I ponder this, we get on with the present work to meet the immediate needs at the House of Hope and the refugees in Germany and Norway.
I am thinking and praying that perhaps the House will be one of the places of refuge for the kidnapped children before they are returned to their parents.

Our care of Refugees grows each week

Sasha, our manager, shares an account of a rescue mission of two young refugees in Norway: Two years ago, Valerie and Avril arrived from a war zone in Ukraine, having seen more in their teenage years than many people witness in an entire lifetime. After fleeing the war, they were moved far into the north of Norway – so far north that even Norwegians call it remote – in a settlement of barely 1,500 inhabitants, surrounded by silence, cold, and a landscape that looked like another world

Their parents and their little brother were placed there as well, but the family was separated, and with the enormous distances, the near-impossible travel conditions, and insufficient finances, the girls barely got to see their parents.

At some point, the girls understood that there was no future for them there. They needed work. They needed people. They needed a chance to survive. And so, with the courage that only desperate youth carry, they decided to move to Trondheim.

They rented a tiny room in a dormitory. A bed, a tiny shower, and their belongings crammed into seven square metres. Two young lives squeezed into something smaller than most storage closets.

We met them around that time, and somehow, we became their “safe adults”. There was no grand plan. We simply opened our home, fed them, and listened to them – again and again and again. Over time, something like parenting began to form – quiet at first, then stronger, deeper.

They began to thrive, Avril especially. She is a fighter, fierce and determined. She worked three different jobs just to keep their tiny budget afloat, so they could pay rent, buy food, and give Valerie the stability she needed to study and grow. She never complained. She just kept going.

But last week, something happened that touched us in a way we were not prepared for. Avril was turning twenty, and we received a call from her shortly before her birthday. “Can we come and celebrate my birthday at your place?”

We immediately said yes. They were welcome to use our home, invite guests, and celebrate freely. We would help with everything and stand by them.
“No… we don’t have anybody to invite. We just want to be with you.” There was a pause after she said it. A kind of tenderness that hurts.
The birthday celebration was small, just a cake, a warm house, and the six of us – our family and the girls. We laughed. We cried. We prayed. For a few hours, the weight they carry every day seemed to lift. They were relaxed, safe, and at peace.

What touched us most was not the celebration itself, but what it revealed. They weren’t longing for crowds or parties or a room full of friends. They just wanted a place where they didn’t have to survive, to be strong, where they could feel safe. And that is what we have tried to give them – however imperfectly – a home, a listening ear, a family table, a sense of belonging and security.

Seeing them at that small birthday gathering touched us in a way words can barely hold. It reminded us why love matters. Why presence matters. Why even the smallest acts of kindness can change a life.

For a few precious hours, two girls separated from their own parents, separated from their little brother, separated from everything familiar, sat at our table and felt like daughters.

And that… that was a holy moment.

A Refugee who is changing a generation

One of the things we are constantly reminded of is that Jesus was a refugee – Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus had to flee from King Herod to Egypt and did not return to Bethlehem, his birthplace, but to Nazareth. Being able to share that has touched many refugees and brought them to trust Jesus with their lives.
One evening, a guest visited our weekly gathering of refugees and asylum seekers and shared an observation: more than half the room were young people. We hadn’t even realised it. We had never tried to gather a crowd of youth. We simply loved them – one by one.
There is a story we once heard of a man on the edge of suicide. Nothing could break through to him, and finally, the counsellor asked, “If you had a hundred dollars, would you rip it up and throw it away, or give it to someone who needs it?”
The man answered that he would give it to someone who could use it.
“So, what about your life? Instead of destroying it, why not give it to someone who needs it?”
The man asked, “Who would want my life?”
“Jesus Christ wants your life. Give it to Him, die to yourself, and He will turn everything around.”
The young people who came to us arrived broken in ways words can hardly express. Some had fled bombed cities. Some had lost family. They were lost, depressed, shattered by trauma, trying to survive memories they never asked for. Many of them stood at the edge of emptiness, yet they found the courage to give their lives to Christ. Not loudly. Not dramatically. But deeply, sincerely, at the point where everything else had failed them.
And God began to work among them, quietly, beautifully. In the beginning, we didn’t see it. We were simply listening, comforting, praying, and trying to hold their stories with gentleness. We brought them into our homes, served them hot meals, sat with them, listened to their fears, and endured their seasons of silence, confusion, and pain.
Jesus did the rest. He took young lives, scarred by war and loss, and He began to rebuild them. He changed their hearts. He healed their minds. He awakened their spirits. Those who thought their lives had no value discovered that Christ Himself desired them.
And the extraordinary truth is that when God touches young people, He shapes the future. He rewrites a generation. He transforms the worldview, the resilience, the spiritual identity of those who will carry faith into decades to come. To witness this is humbling beyond words.
This was the result of God’s grace and of prayer. It was because of those who stood with us when we were exhausted and those who prayed for these young people when they had no strength to pray for themselves. We stand in awe of what God has done among the youth – those who came to us hurting and uncertain, and who are now standing, growing, seeking, and being transformed by the One who never gave up on them.
So, we thank you for standing with us. Thank you for supporting a work that is not simply about comforting the broken, but about forming a generation.

Thank you again for the encouragement you are to us and for being part of this work to touch thousands of others. We pray God’s blessing on you at this time when we celebrate Christ’s arrival into this world as a baby and ask that He grants you the opportunity to be a blessing to those around you as well. We appreciate you immensely.

Yours in the Spirit of Rescue,

           Dave and Margurita

“The love of Christ compels us.”

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Budget for the Month

May the glory of your name be the center on which our lives turn.
Manifest your kingdom realm, and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth,
just as it is in heaven. Our Beloved Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms,
We acknowledge you as our Provider of all we need each day.

Matthew 6:9-11 [TPT]