HOUSTON – February 24, 2024, marks two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. The war continues to disrupt millions of lives worldwide.
KPRC 2 viewers saw firsthand that impact, as KPRC 2 is the only station to have traveled to Eastern Europe and the Ukraine Border to document the humanitarian crisis.
Texans continue to lend a helping hand to Ukrainians and Poles impacted by war. Volunteers with Texans on mission, commonly known as Texas Baptist Men, a Texas-based disaster relief organization first converted Baptist churches throughout Poland into temporary shelters to help refugees move west. As the need evolved, so did the response. Two years later, Texans on mission is planning to crate community by constructing communities.
Rand Jenkins, Texans on Mission Chief Strategy Officer said, “Some of those next steps include building houses, churches, schools in western Ukraine.”
The group met with a delegation of 11 leaders from throughout Ukraine.
“So many cities have welcomed in 30,000 100,000 more people than they’re used to supporting.” Jenkins added the continuous ministry work is a direct result of the early work that took place in churches throughout Poland.
“It’s been a neat shift.” Jenkins Explained.
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On the one year mark of the war, KPRC’s Zach Lashway and Michael Lemons traveled to a small town in southeastern Poland, Sichow Duzy where Houston native, Amber Poole and her husband Paul ran the Cross Border House, a sanctuary for a Ukrainian refugees.
“We started receiving people in February 24th, 2022, and it started with just a handful of people and grew to 40. By the spring, I would say by the end of March, we had 40 in-house residents, and those 40 people stayed with us until the beginning of August 2023. So, for 18 months we lived together in this shelter, in this house.” Explained Poole.
Although the Cross Border House no longer has a physical space, the assistance continues. “We still take care of I take two families outright, you know, their rent, their food, their, clothing, etc., and others medicine, perhaps, or filling in with childcare, filling in with this or that. We just paid for a funeral, because one of our residents, lost his battle with cancer.”
Through these lived-experiences amber wrote ‘Sunflowers at My Table: War Diaries of a Ukrainian Community,’ a nod to life post war and how strangers of different nationalities became family.
Poole said money from the sale of the book, will go directly to the care of the Ukrainians they continue to help.