Wesleyans come from a long history of clergy and laity who labored together to meet all types of needs in their communities. From field preaching to educational pathways to orphanages, Wesleyan Church history is laden with intentional expressions of love in Jesus’ name.

For Pastor Tomas Mojzis, that loving expression has taken the form of deep immersion in caring for refugees displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His journey toward ministry has taken him around the world. Born in the Czech Republic, Pastor Tomas moved to California, received a call to faith (and then ministry) and spent several years getting ministry education and experience before returning to the Czech Republic to pastor a congregation in Poděbrady, which has found traction with young adults.

When the war in Ukraine started, their proximity to the Ukrainian border positioned them at a strategic location to help refugees resettle into new homes. As Pastor Tomas and his wife, Misha, saw the pain around them, they knew they had to help.

“We were sort of in a haze for about a day,” Pastor Tomas recalled. “And the next day we looked at each other and broke down crying — and we don’t cry. I said, ‘I have to go,’ and my wife said, ‘I know.’ So, I cleaned out my car and drove to the border.”

As Pastor Tomas drove to the border, praying and preparing himself emotionally for what he might find, he asked God to provide the exact resources Ukrainians would need to resettle. While he was traveling, Misha began doing research, finding different resources, looking for help and housing, and thinking about what would be needed that their network might be able to provide. She connected with the Ukrainian embassy, local employers and neighbors.

“Within a day, my wife and I had become a connection point for so many people,” said Pastor Tomas. “And within the first few weeks, we got the chance to provide housing for about 100 families all around the Czech Republic, within our town and the surrounding area … my wife did clothing, food drives, in her little studio. We sent six full vans to help in country and directly in Ukraine.”

Over the course of months, their network helped resettle hundreds of refugees, finding essential supplies, employment and opportunities to connect them with their new communities. Because Pastor Tomas’s congregation — and their larger work — is a project of Global Partners (GP), the mission arm of The Wesleyan Church, they have had support from GP and World Hope International (WHI) for refugee efforts, and (in WHI’s case) even more direct aid to those in conflict zones needing additional support.

Pastor Tomas is candid about the fact that this work is as grueling as it is rewarding. He meets with dozens of refugees who have settled into jobs and homes nearby. While all refugees experience significant sadness from displacement, Pastor Tomas also sees how much they have invested in their new homes and how this work has been a blessing to his congregation.

What’s gotten his congregation through this difficulty, Pastor Tomas says, is both the prayers and the action of the people. “The Czech Republic has been helping the most with refugees, with aid, with everything, pretty much, because we’re a country that understands the sting of oppression, given our own history with the Soviet Union; and yet we live in a population that’s incredibly atheistic. But our church — and the ones who’ve been leading this work have been young people.”

Even as saying “yes” to God’s invitation to love and serve neighbors has been incredibly difficult, Pastor Tomas has found faithfulness is its own reward. He and his congregation have witnessed God delivering people from circumstances that seemed like they could lead only to death into a new life, and this keeps them hanging on to hope.

As Pastor Tomas and their community continue working together to love and serve their neighbors, they ask for continued prayer — specifically for an end to the oppressive conflict, and peace for those experiencing the pain of displacement.

For more stories of those who are hanging onto hope, visit wesleyan.org/hanging-on-to-hope.

Rev. Ethan Linder is the pastor of discipleship at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana, and contributing editor at The Wesleyan Church’s Education and Clergy Development Division.