When war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022, our team immediately traveled to the Siret border crossing between Ukraine and Romania to assist refugees fleeing the conflict.
We began by providing food, blankets, hot tea, and essential supplies to mothers with children, elderly people, and families who had been forced to leave their homes behind.
It soon became clear that these people needed more than immediate assistance. They needed transportation, accommodation, and a safe place to stay. Many were also hoping to continue their journey to other European countries.
Our organization rented buses and, for two months, transported two busloads of refugees every day from the Siret border crossing to Cluj-Napoca.
It was an exhausting humanitarian mission, filled with long journeys, heartbreaking testimonies, and encounters with thousands of people whose lives had been profoundly affected by the war.
An Unexpected Phone Call
One morning, at around five o'clock, while our team was waiting at the Siret border crossing, Daniel Craciun received an unexpected phone call.
The caller introduced himself as David Saranga, Israel's Ambassador to Romania.
Having learned about our refugee transportation initiative, he asked whether our organization could assist a large group of Ukrainian Jewish refugees approaching the Romanian border. The Jewish community in Cluj-Napoca was preparing accommodation for them and needed help transporting them to safety.
Our team considered it a privilege and a blessing to respond to this request.
We welcomed the refugees at the border and transported them to Cluj-Napoca, where Rabbi David and the local Jewish community received them, arranged hotel accommodation, and cared for them in the months that followed.
Among these refugees was Olga, an English-speaking Ukrainian Jewish teacher whose testimony would deeply encourage our team.
Discovering God's Guiding Hand
Olga explained that she had never considered herself a religious person. Before the war, she had lived a comfortable life and had felt no need to seek God.
Yet, from the moment she was forced to flee her home, she had experienced an extraordinary sense that an unseen hand was guiding her.
She could not understand how circumstances were unfolding or how the right people seemed to appear at the right moments.
Olga’s arrival in Cluj-Napoca coincided with International Women's Day, on March 8. During a women's gathering at our local church, she was given the opportunity to share her experience.
She expressed her gratitude to our organization, to Daniel Craciun, and to everyone who had helped the Jewish refugees reach safety.
But her testimony went beyond gratitude.
She explained that, through the kindness and care she had received, she had come to recognize the hand of God. She believed that God had guided her toward people who had been sent to help her in one of the most difficult moments of her life.
Although she had not previously believed in God, the experience of fleeing the war and encountering such compassion had opened her heart to the reality of His presence.
Through practical acts of kindness, she had discovered something she had never expected to find in the midst of war: the love and guidance of God.
Serving Beyond Borders
Olga’s testimony became a powerful encouragement for our team to continue serving.
For two months, buses traveled daily between the Siret border crossing and Cluj-Napoca, bringing refugees to safety regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, or religious background.
Working alongside local churches, community organizations, and Romanian authorities, we provided transportation, accommodation, food, and essential assistance.
Through this humanitarian campaign, more than 3,600 Ukrainian refugees received direct support.
This experience reminded us that compassion knows no borders and that God can use ordinary people to become instruments of His extraordinary love.
Sometimes, a warm meal, a seat on a bus, or a safe place to sleep can become a powerful testimony of God's presence in someone's life.
More than 3,600 refugees assisted. Thousands of lives touched. One mission: to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ through action.
