(NewsNation) — A North Carolina pastor with ties to Ukraine and Poland is raising money to support refugees escaping the war zone.
Pastor Jeff Bullock leads the congregation at Manna Church in High Point, North Carolina, which has raised more than $25,000.
“The community, they’re working tirelessly to help these brave victims and get supplies to heroic Ukrainians on the frontlines,” he said during an appearance on “Morning in America”.
Congregations are increasingly the lifeline for food, resources and transportation desperately needed by the Ukrainian refugees.
Bullock lived in Lviv, Ukraine for years, as well as Krakow, Poland, and assisted in establishing churches in both cities that he still works with.
“And now there’s a bit of a network of churches, six churches throughout Ukraine,” he said.
Four weeks into the war in Ukraine, more than 3.5 million people have fled the country as Russian forces continue to batter Kyiv, Lviv, Mariupol and other important cities.
How long the shelling will go on is uncertain, but the refugee crisis is expected to perpetuate.
“Once the war is over, this doesn’t stop,” Bullock said. “I mean, they’re running out of food in the east. The supplies in the west where Lviv is, is also getting short supplies.”
More than 2 million of those refugees have poured into Ukraine’s western neighbor, Poland, causing a 5% increase in the country’s total population since the war began.
“You can imagine being a city of 500,000, and all of a sudden, overnight, you have 500,000 more people, where are they going to go?” Bullock said. “And so really kind of in some ways, maybe the next step is finding permanent temporary housing as we move forward.”
“In Poland, there are churches and ministries that are working to supply refugees who are now safe, but homeless, then in Ukraine, you have churches that are working to get aid to people who are just trying to survive,” Bullock said.
“The biggest thing now is getting supplies outside of Ukraine into Ukraine,” Bullock said.
According to Bullock, the $25,000 his congregation has raised has gone toward buying five vans to help transport refugees away from the war zone. He hopes to raise at least $100,000.
“Gosh, $25,000 is just scratching the surface, but here we are,” he said. “I’ve got the easy job to raise the money and we can get it into the hands of people who really have their work cut out for them.”
Watch the full interview with Jeff Bullock in the video player at the top of the page.
