{"id":31141,"date":"2026-03-10T09:17:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=31141"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:17:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:17:24","slug":"we-just-had-to-trust-god-south-carolina-pastor-recounts-dramatic-escape-from-israel-after-war-breaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/we-just-had-to-trust-god-south-carolina-pastor-recounts-dramatic-escape-from-israel-after-war-breaks-out","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;We Just Had to Trust God&#8217;: South Carolina Pastor Recounts Dramatic Escape From Israel After War Breaks Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_31144\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31144\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Israel-War_credit-US-centcom-Inset-ccsummerville-org.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31144\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Israel-War_credit-US-centcom-Inset-ccsummerville-org.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31144\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. CENTCOM | Inset: ccsummerville.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A South Carolina pastor is sharing how faith guided him through a frightening ordeal after dozens of church members became stranded in Israel when conflict erupted in the Middle East during their trip.<\/p>\n<p>Forty members of Calvary Chapel Summerville traveled to Israel on February 20 for what was meant to be an eight-day journey exploring biblical sites throughout the Holy Land. But the trip took a sudden and unexpected turn when the group arrived at the airport on February 28 to fly home.<\/p>\n<p>Just hours before their scheduled departure, the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran as part of Operation Epic Fury, prompting Israel to close its airspace immediately. With flights grounded and tensions escalating, the group was forced to evacuate the airport and find shelter.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Vic Carroll said the moment was overwhelming as he realized the responsibility he bore for everyone in the group&#8217;s safety.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders, and I just prayed and prayed and prayed and asked God to give me wisdom,&#8221; Carroll said.<\/p>\n<p>For several days, the group remained in Israel under a shelter-in-place order, repeatedly moving in and out of bomb shelters as the situation remained uncertain.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, Carroll had to make a difficult decision: remain in Israel and wait for the airspace to reopen, or take a risky bus journey to neighboring Jordan in hopes of catching a flight home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We ultimately made the decision between what was bad and what was worse,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;I thought the worst would be to stay.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The journey carried its own dangers. Carroll said the group was given specific instructions about what to do if warning sirens sounded during the trip.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were instructed that if a siren goes off while we were on the road, the bus would pull over, we would all need to get on the ground, lay on the ground face-down for at least 10 minutes until the threat was gone,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, the trip proceeded without incident. The group successfully reached the airport in Jordan and boarded a flight out of the region on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the uncertainty, Carroll said the group remained grounded in prayer throughout the experience.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re just having to trust that we&#8217;re making the right decision, and this is our only option to get home, so we were just trusting in God,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The church members finally arrived back in the United States Thursday night, landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Carroll&#8217;s wife, Melanie, expressed the group&#8217;s relief in a message after their safe arrival, writing, &#8220;We are so thankful! It&#8217;s surreal!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The unexpected delay came with a steep financial cost. Melanie Carroll launched a GoFundMe campaign explaining that additional lodging, transportation, and last-minute flights could cost more than $2,500 per person.<\/p>\n<p>The response was overwhelming. The group raised its $100,000 goal in less than three days.<\/p>\n<p>Even after their safe return, the Carroll family says their prayers continue for others still trying to leave the region. According to the U.S. State Department, nearly 24,000 Americans have returned home after fleeing the Middle East since the start of Operation Epic Fury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A South Carolina pastor is sharing how faith guided him through a frightening ordeal after dozens of church members became stranded in Israel when conflict erupted in the Middle East during their trip. Forty members of Calvary Chapel Summerville traveled to Israel on February 20 for what was meant to be an eight-day journey exploring&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":31144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;We Just Had to Trust God&#039;: South Carolina Pastor Recounts Dramatic Escape From Israel After War Breaks Out<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A South Carolina pastor recounts trusting God as he evacuated 40 church members from Israel after war broke out during their Holy Land trip.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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