Day 6!

Day 6 Today was a very different day. We had been building up a few families in the hotel waiting on a train to Germany. We ended up having 2 separate family groups (13) to transport early in the morning to the train station.

We made two train station trips. First a family of eight with grandparents parents and children. Svetlana was an awesome lady that was front and center in that group of eight. She is very driven and strong and protective of her family. Sergey introduced her to Marina and Anastasia and their group of 5 and that was all we needed to do. That group of 5 was in the pack. These three strong women were totally in control and if there was any trouble we knew Svetlana would take care of them all. On to Germany!

Then we took Tanya to the church after checking her and her two girls out of the hotel. We handed her over to Elder and Sister Limb who through their contacts have arranged for hotel and food in Kraków until Monday. Then they will travel with a volunteer to Germany who will help them get set up longer term. If anyone needed the help it was this family. I have been emotional multiple times thinking of and trying to help them. They now have clothes and suitcases and a stable platform to start anew with God people at their side to support them along the way.

While getting Tanya set up and handed over a new set of volunteer drivers arrived. We helped Andria Tall and her son Jackson get oriented and prepared for their first run. They picked up a group their first day so have already hit the ground running. I’m looking forward to working with them. Having a female driver is very helpful. These women refugees are more comfortable with females.

Then we went back to the hotel one last time to pick up grandma Marina so we could transport her to the north of the city. This was kind of funny and a really cool experience. Because I don’t speak the language I just knew we were taking her to a treatment center in the mountains outside the city. I was a little worried because it felt weird that we would have to check someone into a treatment center. How would we do this intervention? Why was it up to us? Would she go willingly?

We drove to the location. It was in what I would call a state park. There was a large parking lot with trails and picnic tables and tons of trees. It was very pretty. We drove deep into the park. Near the end of the road was a huge beautiful building. As I pulled into the driveway there were three beautiful little girls sitting at the road waiting. When we drove in they started waving and running up to the car after I parked. Marina got out quickly and there were huge hugs and smiles. This was her granddaughters and her friend who had evacuated earlier. Then her daughter came running around the corner and gave her a huge bear hug.

This was not an intervention. This was an awesome Polish person that opened up their place to house refugees and was willing to add grandma Marina. I love the Polish people. So kind and just bottomless generosity.

Then we headed home. Our only mistake was keeping Tanya’s luggage in our van all day. Oops. We will be recharged for tomorrow after a great day today. Our final piece of luggage made it today! It was found in Salt Lake City. If anyone ends up coming please connect with Rob Sturgill and Solomon Smith so we can continue to bring over the few key items needed in Ukraine that are hard to get here. I do have a way anyone that wants can help. All the drivers self fund hotels for the refugees, gas, vans, food, etc. If you want to help an easy way is to pay for hotel nights for the refugees. If you want to do this message me and I’ll put you on a list of contacts. The average hotel room with breakfast is $120 US per night. Love you all. I had one generous person give me $500 yesterday. I’ll take a picture of the refuge that we put in the hotel and send it to you. You can actually book the hotel directly as well.

#missionstarfish #typeofwood Typeofwood.org

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