Overcoming evil by doing good.

As I've closely followed the war in Ukraine I've had to dig through the rubble for the inspiring. I may be on the other side of the world, yet sorrow for this tragedy shoots across the globe like an arrow.

Here is what I've discovered that has encouraged me. The number of people in surrounding countries taking in the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees is astounding. One woman in Germany explained her mother fled from the Nazi regime. She said, “We have lived in peace our whole life. We don't know what it's like to live in war, it's shocking. Our first thought was we need to help a family so that they can feel safe. We will give them some peace, in this house.”

Poland has a map showing the number of homes who will accept refugees and how many each home can house. There is baby stroller imagery for the places who can take families with children. Since there are many refugee mothers with young ones strollers — filled with necessities — line the train station platform waiting for the arriving parents to claim as each has need.

It all makes me think of Jesus' words, “I was a stranger and you invited Me in.”

Another hugely inspiring story I read is that of a Ukrainian trucking company owned by a father and daughter who are using their refrigerated trucks to distribute food and other humanitarian supplies throughout the country. She is not huddling in a bomb shelter because the shelters “have bad internet connection.” She said, “I decided not to go … because I wouldn't know if any of my drivers need navigation help.”

And those drivers? “Some of the workers are in Kyiv, but sometimes their family is somewhere that has been bombed, so they will call and say they can't come in today because they have to go rescue their family from this place.”

Anastasia offers this side note, “We have a new department to monitor the roads. A driver is on the phone with a person in a bunker with their laptop and the person is telling them which road to go down — ‘Here you can't go, the bridge has exploded, turn left, turn right.’ It's like a live GPS that changes every minute.”

I saw a Ukrainian soldier hauling a wheelbarrow over rough ground. In the wheelbarrow, facing backward, legs dangling over the edge, was an elderly woman being pulled to safety. Another photo showed an old lady using a cane with a young soldier helping her gingerly cross a plank over the river. People helping people.

Here in the Spokane area I know of a man who has left his wife and children to return to Ukraine and help family there rescue children from their orphanage which was bombed. He's not bound by the 18-60 age mandate that requires men stay and fight. He's running toward the danger from the outside in.

These people are living out one of the toughest things to do — written long ago in biblical times — and thriving and powerful centuries later, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”