North Texas Church Helping Innocent Ukrainians Get Out Alive
PARKER, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - A small North Texas church is a big role in an ongoing world crisis, helping innocent civilians get safely out of Ukraine.
Ukraine and its people were important to Victory Church here in Parker long before this war started.
After the invasion, members raised money to fund an Underground Railroad of sorts.
They bought vehicles to secretly ferry women and children out of dangerous combat zones to other countries.
Victory Church has only around 150 members and sits right across the street from Southfork Ranch in Parker.
It recently hosted a group from Ukraine where it has sponsored several churches and two orphanages for more than decades.
]"We know these people, we know their children. We know their grandchildren, even great grandchildren. And so it's a family for us," said Victory Church Pastor Paul Freeman.
That's why Pastor Freeman and the congregation at Victory didn't hesitate when they received an urgent call from Ukraine last week.
"We're desperate. This is what's going on? We need a way out of here. So, you know, what is the best way to get out? They said, well if we had the van, we could get people out," he said.
The church was able to raise $16,000 and buy a van to evacuate its orphanages outside Kyiv, days before they say it was hit by a missile.
"The children's home is as far as we know, the reports we got from them that it's gone," he said. "Got them out. Got him out. It had to be it had to be miraculous. Yeah."
But what started as an emergency mission to save their longtime friends has expanded to offering non stop rides to freedom for anyone.
"It's no longer about evacuating the children in their homes," said church member Brandon Lusk. "It's about it's about helping as many Ukrainians as we can possibly help throughout the country.
The church coordinates every day over the phone and Zoom with its staff in Ukraine to arrange transports and deliver medical supplies through the front lines with the two vans it now operates.
The crowds hoping to get on board are massive.
"It's incredibly dangerous," said Pastor Freeman. "The passenger van I believe is 17 passengers at a time. And that's you asked how important it is, both of these vans are life and death. It doesn't get any more important than that."
Which is why this small North Texas church has no plans to stop carrying refugees across the country.
The church is working to add more vehicles to its fleet in Ukraine and continues to offer financial support to refugees currently scattered around Europe.
