Syrian Refugees in Budapest

Syrian woman and Child

Tonight at the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest hundreds of Syrian Refugees were lining up in front of the train platforms  neatly guarded by blue clothed Hungarian policeman. They were waiting to board the trains heading west  into Germany and other parts of Western Europe escaping from the terror and civil war in their homeland.  

They were all mostly exhausted and tired looking as if they had not changed clothes or bathed properly for weeks.  Although well fed the tiredness in the faces of the mothers was heartbreaking.  The children were laughing and playing oblivious to the massive journey from which they had survived--many fleeing on precarious boats crossing the sea from Turkey to Greece.  Others walking across Macedonia and beyond into the Carpathian basin with all their meager belongings wrapped in cheap bags and suitcases and sheets tied together in small bundles.  

One of the young Hungarian policeman played with two of the children who were given a small horse on wheels to play with  by a Hungarian mother who brought toys to the station.  

This memory was not unfamiliar to me because as a child I too had left Hungary during the revolution and crossed the border into Austria in the arms of my mother and father.  

These memories rarely fade from children and as I looked on I too had to hold back tears. This horrendous journey will always mark the minds and hearts of thousands of child refugees fleeing with their parents from a violent and war torn country.  Let us pray these memories will one day help them  change the world for the better.