A Samaritan's Purse staff member reports from the refugee crisis in Europe
Click above to hear a brief phone interview with Samaritan’s Purse staff member, Dave Holzhauer, as he shares the needs he is seeing in Europe, how Samaritan’s Purse is helping, and ways to pray for the refugees.
“The situation here is like nothing I’ve seen before,” Dave said, “women, children, and men making their way with literally nothing.”
He is part of a multinational Samaritan’s Purse team stationed in several European countries to help meet needs of those who are suffering.
“People have been traveling for more than 30 days on foot, on boat, on buses,” he said. “It’s been a very rough road, and the needs are great.”
Dave and the group from Northern Iraq took a photo together to send back to their mutual friends.
Dave shared about a powerful meeting with a group of Yazidis at the Budapest train station. While they told him about enduring conflict and the deaths of friends and family back home in Northern Iraq, he realized it was an area he had worked in before with Samaritan’s Purse.
“As we talked about their journey and the difficulties they’ve gone through—the decimation of their home and all their belongings—we discovered that we actually knew some of the same people back in Iraq,” he said. “It was just a really encouraging moment.”
“Samaritan’s Purse is able to work with, not only helping those along the way, but we are actually still at the source of the conflict,” Dave said, referring to our work in Northern Iraq with those who have fled from ISIS.
He asked for continued prayers for our staff and church partners who are working to offer help and hope to these hurting people.
Most important, he encouraged listeners to pray for the refugees themselves.
“Many have left their families or members of their family behind and have no idea what’s in front of them,” he said. “Pray that they are surrounded by a church in their final destination who will love and care for them and will show them the love of Christ.”
