Lena steered Wim and Maaike ahead of her into the sanctuary, and by the time the villagers and refugees also made their way inside, the building was packed. The elders were bustling around the chancel, preparing to serve Communion, and it seemed like an odd time for the sacrament amid all the chaos of war. The worship service began, and the words of the hymns and the sound of voices surrounding her lifted Lena’s spirits, reminding her that she wasn’t alone. “O God, our help in ages past . . .”

“It’s natural to wonder where God is in times like these,” Papa said as he broke the bread for the sacrament of Communion. “He is here, in Christ’s broken body and spilled blood. He understands our suffering and confusion. He is here, with us.” Lena ate the Communion bread, desperate to feel God’s presence, to know He was with her, beside her.

After the service, she helped her father and the deacons assign refugee families to the various parishioners who’d volunteered to house them. Lena took in the Zylstra family. Tina, who was in her midthirties, was with her three boys ages four, six, and ten, and her mother-in-law. Tina’s husband, like Lena’s, was fighting in the army. Lena would have taken a second family, but so many people came forward to volunteer that it wasn’t necessary.

Tina had pulled a loaded farm wagon behind her truck with crates of squawking chickens tied on top of the swaying load. “We emptied our root cellar and smokehouse,” she explained, “and brought everything with us. No one knows how long we’ll be away.”

“What about your dairy cows?”

“We set them free in our highest pasture, farthest from the dike. There wasn’t time to take them anywhere else, and besides, where could they go? Now we must hope for the best.”

Lena became anxious on the ride home from the village, feeling exposed and vulnerable in the flat, open countryside. It was taking too long, their progress slowed by the heavy farm wagon and muddy road. She longed to be home, to be safe. But was any place truly safe? A deadly war was raging across her nation, and these refugee families had made it real to Lena, bringing the war to her village, her farm. Pieter wasn’t the only one who was battling the enemy. Everyone was being swept up in the fight.