WACO, Texas — Baylor Scott & White Surgeons Freeland Ackley and David McCall recently returned home after spending time in Ukraine providing medical service and assistance to civilians and soldiers.
The two say they're very religious individuals who were lead by God to the country to lend a helping hand.
They both have families, though, who were concerned about the prospect of the two of them going to a war-torn country.
But, led by faith, the two went and say the experience was one they'll surely never forget.
"We both felt the same way and begin to look into and dialogue like 'Okay, this isn't something that was fleeting, it's not going away,'" McCall said. "You know, we know there's still a great need over there and we want to be able to look into how we can help."
"Truthfully when we got there, I think a lot of the concerns that we had that saying, you know, do we need to be wearing bulletproof vests?" Ackley says about the concerns before their arrival. "You know, what are we doing? I think those kinds of concerns quickly were de escalated."
The two worked closely with medical professionals in Ukraine with the help of a translator. They say their main goal was to help in any way, whether it be by operating, or whether it be by advising. Any way they could help, they just wanted to do it.
"One of the foundational things for us, which is kind of, hey, we're here, and these are the skill sets that we have to offer. Is it useful?" McCall said.
Ackley reflected about his journey in the medical field over the years. He and McCall have worked together on other medical mission trips in the past serving a variety of countries. "It was 2005 was my first mission trip and pretty much every year since then somehow we've been able to go overseas," Ackley said.
They said they've never experienced a situation where a country they visited was in the middle of a war.
Ultimately, their goal is not to be praised for going abroad and helping, but rather inspire others to help any way they can.
"A trip like that, my goal is that obviously God gets honored and glorified, but people get excited about helping their brothers and sisters around the world," McCall said.
The two say they absolutely plan to go back.
"Yeah, we want to go back we 100% want to be back," Ackley said. "I think the biggest struggle is to again, wait on the Lord's timing."