FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — A local group is traveling to Poland to help Ukrainian refugees who have fled the war.
The Outreach Foundation travels to countries across the world to help people trying to escape conflict. Rev. Mark Mueller, executive director of The Outreach Foundation, and several others are traveling first to London and then to Poland to aid churches in refugee efforts.
"Generally speaking, we work in very fragile, very difficult environments, such as Iraq, Lebanon, Cuba [and] Venezuela," said Mueller.
The group left Monday evening for the nearly-20-day trip. They're traveling to assist the global church in Warsaw, Poland. There are facilities with hundreds of families, as the country accepts hundreds of thousands of people attempting to flee Ukraine.
They're meeting with pastor Oleh Kindii from Lviv, Ukraine.
"There's huge needs for food, for medicine, for shelter, for clothing right there in Ukraine," said Mueller. "We have the means to wire transfer funds to him so that he can, and right now he still can purchase supplies for the people who are there."
In two days, The Outreach Foundation reports raising $60,000 to send for aid to the refugees.
"We'll go to one of the seminaries where they work and what you will see in the seminary is every room filled with a family, a refugee family," said Mueller. "You could have five or six people living in a little classroom. You would see an auditorium with as many as 25 families."
The group's previous missions have shown refugee situations often require years if not decades of services from countries in Europe.
Mueller and others also plan to spend several days in other countries helping refugees from Iran and Syria.
Mueller says he will document the trip.
"There's a story to tell. There's a story to tell about what happens in war. There's a story to tell about the human side of suffering when confronted with evil. There's a story to tell here about the goodness found in human beings that respond to those in need," he said.
