Their numbers may be few, but their hearts are enormous. The small Russian-speaking church, House of Prayer, located in Lilburn, has taken in nine families totaling 43 people who have escaped the war in Ukraine.

The congregation, which is made up of just 15 families itself, bought all the plane tickets to get the refugees here to safety.

“This is our journey on Earth from God. We have to help each other,” says Lilia Demchenko, who has taken in two of the families, totaling 11 people, at her Loganville home.

Before their arrival, she reached out to Laura Drake, Exec. Dir. of the Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministries which serves the needs of those in Loganville, Grayson and Snellville.

“When we heard that this church spent everything they had… to help their friends get here, it blew my mind. I was just in awe of their faithfulness,” she tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.

Drake and her volunteers got together with Demchenko and other members of the church to strategize how to help the refugees.

Demchenko, born in Moldova, and her husband, who is from Ukraine, immigrated here 25 years ago as refugees themselves.

“It was bad days when Communism was there and we were persecuted for religious purposes,” she says.

The community has quickly stepped up to offer support.

“I think watching the news everyone has felt so hopeless (and asking), ‘How can we help?’; and then all of the sudden, you have living, breathing humans in front of you who have needs that you know you can meet,” says Drake.

The most immediate needs, she says, are Kroger and Walmart gift cards as well as toiletry and feminine hygiene items, and diapers. Donations can be dropped off at the Co-Op on Grayson Industrial Parkway or at Grayson City Hall marked “For Ukrainian Refugees”.

The process of getting Social Security cards for the refugees is underway so they can get employment. But transportation will be a need as well as housing.

“They can’t sustain the way they’re living all squished into just very few households. So, we’re praying for God to provide a place for them to be able to live and a means to move them around because there’s so many of them,” says Drake.

Drake says the Co-Op realizes this is a long-term effort and they are committed to walking alongside the church.

“It’s been a group effort to love on them. So, we just feel very blessed to be a tiny, small part of it,” she says.

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