Samaritan's Purse is known for its
decades of work responding to disasters.
The Christian group, based in Boone,
is run by Franklin Graham,
the son of Reverend Billy Graham.
Lately, they've spent much of their
time and resources providing relief on
the front lines of the war in Ukraine,
and it all starts in a local
warehouse just up the street.
At 164,000 square feet.
Bigger than three football fields,
the Samaritans purse warehouse
in North Wilkesboro is impressive
both in size and mission.
Help people and do it in
the name of Jesus Christ
for more than five decades,
the Christian organization has
responded to disasters across
the country and the globe,
providing supplies,
medical care and hope. We want
people to know that God loves
them and cares for them and you
get hit with a storm in life.
Sometimes people think maybe
God's mad at him and I want
them to know that's not true,
that God loves us and cares for us.
Franklin Graham has been at the helm
of Samaritan's Purse for years,
the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham.
Franklin says the group's focus right
now is helping people in Ukraine.
There is some danger,
but that's not going to stop you from
doing what we do because everything we do,
there's always an element of danger
because we're working in storms,
we're working. In war areas,
a places where there's just upheaval and
that's just part of the part of the job
and it's a major job.
At this point, Samaritan's Purse
flies its DC-8 jet from its home
at PTI Airport in Greensboro to
Eastern Europe every five days to
drop off supplies and rotate staff.
To date, they've airlifted 195 metric
tons of supplies over 11 flights.
The airplane unloads cargo and Poland and
another team trucks it across the Ukrainian.
Order the primary cargo.
Right now medical supplies for
its 50 bed field hospital.
This is the beginning of the
emergency field hospital,
a replica of the hospital set
up in the warehouse gives
you an idea of its abilities.
This is the emergency room or the ER module.
You'll see four different beds fully
equipped with oxygen, with patient
monitors with ultrasound with X-ray
Shia brain surgery, they're able to do
just about any medical procedure here.
Medical staff like Doctor Elliot
Tenpenny work around the clock.
Never knowing who will need help next,
sometimes we see war trauma patients
that come in strip from the front lines.
Sometimes we see a lot of what we saw
initially in Ukraine where the displaced
population coming by train. They're
able to serve as many as 200 patients
a day and they've had lots of practice.
If you go out to a hurricane like
we did in the Bahamas two years ago,
you'll learn a lot of different
things when you go to New York City.
In COVID-19, we had the opportunity
to go all around the world
and learn a lot of lessons.
Speed is the name of the game.
When it comes to responding to a disaster,
this hospital could be on a plane in a
matter of hours and you probably be.
Most of the government relief organizations
to these places. That's right,
we're one of the fastest
in the world at this point.
Impressive considering staff
are coming from all over.
I'm so these people live normal lives.
All of the US.
They work, normal jobs,
hospital jobs, or as engineers,
whatever it might be.
And when the disaster happens,
they're activated and they
go to serve in these areas.
We're doing quite a few different
projects. It's it's all hands on deck.
Kelly Suter works with the group's
emergency medical response,
providing medical supplies to
about 40 Ukrainian hospitals.
We have a team there that
takes everything we send.
They organize it into different
what we call hospital kits,
and then they push those
into the areas in need.
Also on board each flight,
thousands of backpacks for
the kids they encounter,
filled with basic writing supplies,
hygiene kits and a teddy bear.
Franklin Graham himself has gone to
Ukraine twice since the war began.
To meet with church leaders Lord
Jesus Christ, you shouldn't
ask people to go into a war
zone or something like that
and you don't go yourself.
So you've got to go where
you send your people
on his most recent trip.
He contracted COVID-19 even though
he's vaccinated and boosted.
But it was like a cold, but I was fatigued
for a couple of days. Just real tired.
He's doing much better now,
but the pandemic has certainly
impacted their operation.
At one point, Graham says
half their staff was sick,
but the mission continues.
For all sorts of reasons, I
want to spend my life doing good.
I want to spend any time or talent
that I have helping people around me.
The reason I do this is just share the
hope of Christ with people all over the
world who are suffering and hurting
in the worst stages of their life.
A sentiment shared by Graham and
the 130 other Samaritans purse
workers on the ground in Ukraine.
Their country is being torn apart and
to be there with them and let them know
that we care for them and love them.
And we're there to help them.
Samaritan's Purse recently bought
a second plane that'll be in
service later this year to do
even more work around the globe.
The group does lots of work in the US too.
You'll remember just two weeks ago
it deployed to Rockingham County
after a tornado touched down.
They helped with cleanup and
chaplains helped people in need.
Last year alone,
Samaritans purse deployed 10,000
volunteers to US disasters.