Story by Micaela Arnett / August 25, 2022
When Rick Jackson isn’t in South Carolina upcycling storage containers or coating home siding with his companies Carolina Mobile Storage and Carolina Machine Finishing, he is quite literally saving lives. He spoke about his experience leading a family to safety with Tim Barkley, Charleston Home + Design publisher and host of Talking About a Home.
Rick is an active board and service member for Remember Those, a local, faith-based nonprofit organization that works to serve people around the world, in any nation, who are persecuted and disadvantaged for their religious beliefs, at times to the point of murder. Overseas, Christians are one of the most at-risk and persecuted groups.
“We go into those areas [with doctors from Roper St. Francis and MUSC] and offer medical aid and assistance, along with any type of help we can provide to help them be able to weather the circumstances or escape if necessary. We go in with a love for people, to care for them and love them without expectation of anything in return,” Rick explains.
In the interview, he recalls traveling in very adverse conditions and his commitment to sacrificing his safety for the cause. To him, this is the truest form of love. As a U.S. Air Force veteran, Rick is fluent in Arabic and plays a key role in evacuation and relocation communication with these families. One family, in particular, a mother and father with three young children under the age of ten, were in imminent danger in Northern Afghanistan, targeted and at risk of being killed for their beliefs and associations. The organization, Remember Those, worked tirelessly over the course of eight weeks to lead the family of five to safety. Rick spent countless hours securing visas, passports, flights, and safe houses as part of the evacuation plan.
Rick worked directly with the family to circumnavigate a number of Taliban checkpoints by watching them on Google Maps with a geo-tag and actively communicating by phone, providing turn-by-turn directions to get them as close to the Kabul airport gate as possible. As the family finally approached the gate, the Taliban opened fire on the crowd and Rick quickly rerouted the family to a safe house and planned for another flight. Moments later, that very flight gate was bombed, killing 13 American service men and women and at least 60 Afghans.
Several weeks later, with help from Glen Beck and the Nazarene Fund, the family’s names were moved to the top of a list to board a flight out of the country. Eight horrifying weeks resulted in the family’s safe arrival in the Humanitarian City in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This victory wouldn’t have been possible without Rick Jackson’s knowledge and commitment to his faith and Remember Those.
As an update to this harrowing story, the Afghan family of 5 – Farid, Sonia, and the 3 kiddos, are scheduled to relocate to Virginia and then after a short time there, to their ultimate destination, Charleston, SC.
