Tulsa's Victory Christian Works To Help Resettle Afghan Refugees

As thousands of Afghan families flee the only country they've ever known, now controlled completely by the Taliban, many are looking to start a new life in the United States.

Some of them will do that right here in Tulsa.

"There's a long learning process they're going to have to go through,” Pastor Tati Wilson, Global and Local Reach Director for Victory Church in Tulsa, said.

For the past few weeks, the church has worked around the clock helping rescue 20 Afghan teachers and five families trapped in the country.

"When we saw that things were going to happen, we started to ready the process of how do we bring people here?” Wilson said. “So most of the people that we have rescued out of Kabul were directly connected to Victory."

That connection can be traced to a Christian school started by their missionaries in Afghanistan 14 years ago. When the Taliban took over, Victory used connections to help find flights and in some cases, land routes out of the country.

Wilson said the stories they've been hearing from some of them have been shocking. 

"She waited in a ditch full of water for three days hoping to be rescued, then they had to leave because it was getting dangerous,” said Wilson. “Bottom line was God's favor helped rescue all those families and all those people."

The refugees are now in the United States at a processing facility and going through a mandatory quarantine.

Wilson said they will soon head to Tulsa, where their church community has already gotten them apartments and will help them adjust to the United States.

“We want to be the community, we want to be the support, we want to love them the way we best know to love them," said Wilson.

The church is fundraising for at least four of the children to go to their Christian school in Tulsa.