41 church members return to US from Israel after being stranded amid Iran conflict
A group of 41 members of a South Carolina church who had been stranded in Israel due to the Iranian counterstrikes against the country has safely arrived back in the United States.
A plane carrying members from Calvary Chapel Summerville arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursday afternoon, after the group was forced to spend nearly an extra week in Israel because of the airspace being shut down.
Charles Timmerman, assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel, told The Christian Post that the group has safely returned to the U.S. after taking a bus from Israel to Jordan and then flying out of that nation.
“Our faith in God is the most important thing in our lives, and we are just deeply grateful to our God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and then for the prayers that have come in from across the country,” said Timmerman. “People have stepped up, and we are very deeply grateful.”
Timmerman said that he was also “very grateful for all the support from our local politicians,” as the church was “directly in contact with” the offices of Republican U.S. Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of Tennessee.
All three South Carolina members of Congress communicated with the U.S. State Department on behalf of the church, explained Timmerman, with Mace directly reaching out to Calvary Chapel’s senior pastor.
The group had been scheduled to return home on Sunday, but after receiving a warning from Ambassador Mike Huckabee last Friday about the strikes, they rescheduled to try to leave on Saturday instead.
Shortly after they had arrived at the airport and were waiting for their flight to take off, the Israeli airport had been shut down amid the Iranian counterattacks, leaving the group stranded.
“We were going through security and that’s when the war broke out,” Calvary Chapel Pastor Vic Carroll told WCSC/Gray News earlier this week. “The alarms went off. They ushered us all to the bomb shelters.”
“Every time we head to the bomb shelter. You’ve only got a few minutes to get there once the alarm goes off and we’re hearing the explosions going off over our heads, it’s just completely surreal. It’s unbelievable.”
A GoFundMe was created to help pay the unforeseen expenses associated with delays in getting the church members back to the U.S., with it raising over $100,000 from about 150 donors as of Thursday.
Timmerman told CP that the church also received about $5,000 in donations to the church office, which were important given the days of additional hotel stays, meals, extra travel and missed work.
On Saturday, the U.S. and Israel launched several strikes on Iran, reportedly hitting several military and government targets in Tehran and elsewhere in the Islamic Republic.
Thus far, the attacks have led to the death of Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking public officials, as well as several civilians.
Iran launched multiple missile attacks against Israel and U.S. military positions in the region in response. One missile struck the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh on Sunday, killing nine people.
At least six U.S. military personnel were confirmed dead from an Iranian strike on an operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait on Sunday, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
