ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A church group from St. Petersburg that got stranded in Israel after the war broke out has made its way out of the country.
Thirty-four people, mostly from the GT Church led by Pastor Randy Helms, had to spend many hours in a hotel bomb shelter because of Iranian missiles in the area. That included twice Tuesday morning.
The Tampa-based group Grey Bull Rescue arranged to get the group out of the country.
“Suddenly, nine o’clock (Tuesday) morning, we get a text from Grey Bull,” Helms said. “Be in the lobby in 20 minutes with your suitcases. And buddy we got with it. I mean we started hustling. And by 9:30 this morning we were on the road.”
Helms said his group was really happy to get on a bus and spent hours on the road until they got to the nearby country of Jordan.
It’s not clear when Grey Bull Rescue will be able to get his group and others back home to the U.S.
“They are working the problem,” Helms said. “There are so many of us they are getting out. They are trying to get us all home by some means. And sitting here right now, they have given us no information. We are on standby. We don’t know when we are leaving. We don’t know how we are leaving, nor do we know where we are going when we leave.”
Helms says Grey Bull Rescue asked him not to say where his group was staying in Jordan because of safety concerns.