Sometimes the problems people face are so overwhelming we don’t know where to begin to help. That’s the case with some dear friends who are currently living in Germany and serving refugees there. The camps are huge, dirty and there’s never enough of anything. Hope is hard to find. The people live with uncertainty about their future, if they even have a future. They’re despised by many, feared by others.

These displaced people have left behind everything they owned and all they knew to flee war, violence, and a world turned upside down. Many are living in a permanent state of shock, literally surviving from day to day.

They come from Lebanon and Syria, Iraq and Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan and Kurdistan. They speak many languages and dialects and come from disparate cultures. They’ve come to avoid being drafted into armies fighting endless battles. They’ve come because their homes no longer exist. They’ve come because their women have been raped and abused and there’s no way to feed their children.

How to begin to help them? Here is what our friends say:

“What we know to do is demonstrate the love of Jesus as we speak the truth about Him. We have meals with our friends. We pray for them. We learn from them. We laugh with them and we cry with them. It’s not so much about information as it is “revelation”—a revelation which is experienced. This makes all the difference in the world. Jesus knew this was the way to reach people’s hearts. So He lived this way. We can do no less.”

I marvel at the work being done in Germany through sheer love and commitment. The love of God is being shared one meal, one prayer and one helping hand at a time.

Here at home, we also recognize shattered lives; those who have lost hope and live on the brink of disaster. How can we begin to help them recover? What can we do to ease their pain and bring restoration?

Can it be as simple as a meal or a prayer? Can it be that listening to their stories offers hope and healing?

When the problems pile up as high as the mountains, can we simply tell people the truth about God and spend some time with them? Can we listen to them and share a bowl of soup or a cup of tea?

Sometimes the simplest acts of kindness provide the spark that lights the way forward.