The struggles of refugees haven’t changed much over the decades. What also hasn’t changed is that Lutherans have been there to help.

Take the story of Rev. Harry Kapeikis. Harry was born in Latvia in the mid-1930s. In 1944, when

Rev. Harry G. Kapeikis

he was only nine years old, his family fled into Germany to escape the brutality of the Russian army. It was not much safer there. In the last months of the Second World War, Harry and his family faced starvation and narrowly escaped death several times as they travelled west by truck, train, boat and even on foot in search of a safe haven. They had left Dresden only two hours before that city was destroyed and thousands killed. On another occasion, they made it to an air raid shelter within seconds of an attack. The train station where they had planned on staying the night…