“When war broke out, I couldn’t not help,” said Iwona, far right. Before the refugee crisis sent more than 5 million Ukrainians into Poland, where Iwona lives with her husband, she led a routine life as the wife of a pastor. The war in Ukraine changed everything. “Without thinking, without asking anybody, I organized mattresses, I organized bedding.” As families passed through Warsaw on their journey away from war, she took them into her church for food, shelter, and support. “I have this deal with the Lord: ‘bring these people to me, to whom I can give a second life.’ If someone calls me and says, ‘I have a mother with two children, is there room?’ I say ‘yes.’ Then someone calls: ‘I have two mothers with three children,’ and I know there is no room, still I say, ‘come!’ For me, the church is people above all. I cannot imagine a different church.”
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