'Absolute Chaos' in Ukraine, Says Franklin Graham -- 'I Want the People of Ukraine to Know that God Hasn't Forgotten Them'
Monday, Samaritan’s Purse head Franklin Graham discussed his organization’s efforts to set up a field hospital in Ukraine and its challenges in delivering supplies to those in need in the wake of the Russian invasion during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “Spicer & Co.”
Graham emphasized that his organization’s mission was conducted in Jesus’ name.
“Well, first of all, the city of Lviv right now is not a target, and it’s been quiet there,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it’ll be quiet for long. I don’t know. For us, you know, we just feel this is something God has told us to do, wanted to do. I want the people of Ukraine to know that God hasn’t forgotten them, that he loves them. He cares for them very much. And so when we go, Sean, we’re going in Jesus’ name. and we’re going to bring the best medical care that we possibly can. We’re going to love these people the best that we can, and we pray as we go that somehow there can be an end to this very violent conflict. But right now, we’re going to go patch up people and take care of as many people as we possibly can.’
He discussed some of the logistics for Samaritan’s Purse’s efforts, noting that it had been involved in Ukraine in the past. However, he also described the current conditions as “absolute chaos.”
“First of all, it is total chaos on the ground,” Graham said. “But yet we’ve had nothing but a warm welcome from everybody from government officials, church officials. Samaritans Purse has a network of over 3,200 churches in the Ukraine. We’ve been working their first since 1996 with Operation: Christmas Child. This year we took in six-hundred-and-sixty-some-thousand shoebox gifts and had 400,000 of those delivered prior to the invasion. And we’ll get the others out as soon as the fighting stops. But we’ve been working there a long time.”
“But right now, it’s just absolute chaos,” he continued. “We are setting up a clinic tomorrow down at the train station. There’s about 65-to-70,000 people a day. Come to the train station. Women are having babies on the train. You have people that are wounded. There are emergencies, all kinds of health care emergencies, and there’s nobody there at the train station to take care of them. So we’re going to put a triage center in, and those that really need help, we’re going to take him to the hospital. And so when we start that tomorrow at the train station.”
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