Story originally reported by Erik Tryggestad for The Christian Chronicle. We are grateful for their reporting and for the opportunity to share how God’s Word continues to move across borders through faithful partners.
At a refugee hotel in Poysdorf, Austria, a small group of Ukrainian children gathered around a table filled with snacks, juice, and colorful, new Children’s Bibles.
The visitors had driven about an hour north from Vienna. They came from the Pohlgasse Church of Christ, a multilingual congregation that has become home to many Christians from Iran, Afghanistan, Africa, Ukraine, Austria, and beyond. Many of those who came to serve that day were Iranian Christians. And many of them knew what it felt like to flee.
According to The Christian Chronicle, Ibrahim, one of the Iranian believers who made the trip, had once been a refugee himself. Years earlier, after his family encountered Christ and began worshiping with an underground church in Iran, they came under pressure from the country’s morality police. Ibrahim eventually fled to Vienna, where he found the Pohlgasse church.
Now, he and other Iranian Christians are helping serve Ukrainian families displaced by war.
“I remember what they must feel like,” Ibrahim told The Christian Chronicle.
These believers did not come merely as volunteers. They came as people who had once needed welcome, safety, friendship, and hope themselves. Now, having received eternal hope, care, they are offering it to others.
Inside the hotel, Ukrainian children gathered quickly. What began as a small group became a standing-room-only crowd. The Iranian Christians served food and drinks while Reggy Hiller, a longtime member and mission worker with the Pohlgasse church, taught the children about Jesus’ resurrection, the Great Commission, and baptism.
As the children listened, they flipped through their newly gifted Ukrainian-language Children’s Bibles given by the visiting Iranians. They flipped through the colorful pages with joy. The church members soon realized they would need to bring more next time.
For EEM, this is the heart of the mission: God’s Word reaching people in the language they understand, through trusted partners who are already serving faithfully on the ground. And this story carries another layer of meaning.
EEM has also helped provide Scripture for people from Iran and the surrounding region. As more Iranians and Afghans have come to faith across Europe, the need for Farsi and other heart-language Scriptures has grown.
Iranian Christians, many of them once refugees, are serving Ukrainian refugees. Ukrainian children, many carrying the uncertainty and pain of war, are receiving Children’s Bibles in their own language. In a hotel lobby in Austria, the body of Christ becomes visible across nations, languages, and histories.
One Ukrainian young woman quoted by The Christian Chronicle said she hopes Ukrainians can one day be of help to Iranians impacted by war, too. That is the kind of hope and vision Scripture plants.
It does not stop with the person who receives it. It takes root, grows, and becomes a gift for someone else.
At EEM, we are grateful for partners like the Pohlgasse Church of Christ and for stories like this one, which remind us why Bible access in the language of the heart matters. A Bible may be placed in one person’s hands, but its impact rarely stays there.
Sometimes, the people who once came looking for refuge become the ones carrying hope to the next family, the next child, the next nation.
And in the middle of war, displacement, and uncertainty, God’s Word is still moving!
About EEM: EEM exists to share God’s Word with people across Europe and Asia by providing Bibles and Bible-based materials free of charge. In 2025, EEM distributed more than 2.1 million free Bibles and biblical materials in 34 languages across 37 countries. Learn more at eem.org.
This story was adapted and re-shared with gratitude from reporting by Erik Tryggestad, President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Read the original article, “Iranians serve Ukrainians,” at The Christian Chronicle. (The Christian Chronicle) Photos taken by Erik Tryggestad.