LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Navigating the airport wasn’t how Coy Merry planned to spend Easter.


What You Need To Know

  • The Kentucky Baptist Convention organized some volunteers to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland

  • Volunteers left on Easter Sunday to help a church where the refugees have resettled

  • When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, many Ukrainians left the country for safety


“If you asked me six months ago where I’d be on Easter Sunday, it’d be church that morning, maybe lunch with some friends,” he said. “But nah, I’m standing at the Louisville airport.”

Merry works with Crossings Ministries and other churches on mission trips, including a trip on Sunday to Poland to help refugees from Ukraine.

“I just have a heart for serving refugees and displaced-people groups,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to serve a lot here in Louisville with similar groups, so hearing about the trip coming up, just kind of watching the situation unfold, I wanted to plug in and help any way that I could.”

A church in Poland has taken in dozens of women and children who escaped the violence in Ukraine, and the Kentucky Baptist Convention is part of an effort in multiple states to help that church out.

“We’re hoping to be able to be there to just be a kind face to them in the situation where they’ve been displaced,” said pastor Brad Willis with Walnut Street Baptist Church. “They’ve been displaced because of situations that no person should ever have to go through.”

The group will be in Poland for the next eight days.

“We’re going to be helping those moms as they go out and to look for jobs and to get their paperwork done,” he said. “We’ll be watching the children, being able to play with the kids, do games with them, color with them.”

Violence erupted in February as Russia invaded Ukraine, which then scattered refugees around Europe.

Merry said he was a little anxious about going over there.

“But sitting there, praying through it, reading through scripture last night, and really just kind of focusing in on what we’re celebrating today as Christians really quelled that,” he said. “So I’m really excited, looking forward to serving and loving on these people who have gone through something so unimaginable for us here in the states.”

And when they come back next week, more church groups are expected to take their place.