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FAMILY
RESOURCE COUNSELLING CENTER
www.fracc.org
Brad
Aldrich is the Executive Director of the Family Resource Counselling
Center in Gap, Pennsylvania. They have set up a “Community
Disaster
Counselling Fund “to give needed counselling to the victims,
families, and first responders involved with this tragedy.
“FRCC
is striving to become the premier Christian counseling and education
center in Lancaster and Chester counties in Pennsylvania, USA. We are
doing this by providing professional and quality Christian outpatient
counseling and offering interactive resources to the community in the
form of a public library (full of Christian and mental health
resources), workshops and satellite offices.”
HERMAN
BONTRAGER
Herman
Bontrager grew up in a Beachy
Amish home in Indiana. He received his M.A. in Sociology from the
University of Florida. As secretary of the National Committee for
Amish Religious Freedom he has worked with Amish on a variety of
religious liberty and other legal matters affecting the Amish. He
served 14 years with Mennonite Central Committee as Director of Latin
America programs and the International Peace Office. Since 1990 he is
CEO of Goodville Mutual Casualty Company in New Holland,
Pennsylvania. Herman was also appointed as the
spokesman for
the Amish community during the tragedy and is the head of the Nickel
Mines Accountability Committee that is receiving contributions for
the community and applying them to the needs that resulted from the
shootings.
The
statement that follows is released by the Nickel Mines Accountability
Committee on behalf of the people of Nickel Mines and the surrounding
communities that were affected by the shooting at the Nickel Mines
Amish School. The Amish Leadership is especially interested that this
statement be published in its entirety.
Statement
of thanks to
the public and plans for use of contributions
Nickel
Mines, Pennsylvania – On October 2 seven Amish
families in
our community experienced the unimaginable -- ten of their young
daughters were shot, five fatally, by a gunman who invaded the Amish
school where their children attended. The whole community, Amish and
others, were horrified and shocked that such evil could be done to
the most innocent members of our peaceful community.
Messages
of condolence and care,
financial contributions, and offers of all kinds of assistance began
to pour into the community almost immediately from the local
community and from around the world. We, the people of the Nickel
Mines community, are humbled and deeply thankful for this outpouring
of love. Each act of kindness, the prayers and every gift, small or
large, comfort us and assure us that our spirits will heal even
though the painful loss will always be with us. Thank you for your
generous kindness and for walking with us in this “valley of
death”. We wish we could thank each of you personally.
In
those first hours and days we
experienced personally the love and care of our neighbours and the
public and private service providers as they responded tirelessly and
selflessly. Specifically, we acknowledge and thank the following:
volunteer fire companies, especially the Bart Township fire company;
fire police; Lancaster County Sheriff’s Department;
Pennsylvania
State Police and local law enforcement people; ambulance and
emergency response teams; hospitals and all the related medical
providers; coroners; churches; community volunteer groups;
transportation providers; and the Mennonite Central Committee,
Mennonite Disaster Service, the Anabaptist Foundation and the
numerous banks and businesses that are collecting funds. To all those
we failed to mention, thank you, and apologies for not naming you.
We
thank people from the news media
who sensitively reported our tragedy to the world and in many cases
wrote thoughtful commentary that helped the world grapple with values
that are dear to us -- forgiveness, non-violence, mutual caring,
simplicity and life in a community of faith. Above all, thank you for
the acts of kindness you showed us even while you were doing your
reporting work.
The
Roberts family is also
suffering. Please join us in showering care on them, praying for them
and in assisting them with financial needs that they face.
We
have
organized the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee to receive
contributions and apply them to the needs that resulted from the
shootings: medical and counselling services, transportation for
victims, transportation and extra living expenses for family members
attending to the victims, rehabilitation, long-term disability care,
modifications to homes or schools if needed to make facilities
handicap accessible, and any other expenses resulting from the event.
If adequate funds are received contributions may be made to charity
funds of health service providers and to volunteer public service
entities that responded to this event without charging for their
services. Funds received in excess of what is needed to respond to
the Nickel Mines Amish School tragedy will be contributed, as the
committee deems appropriate, to needs arising from other tragic
events within or outside the Amish community.
Thank
you and
God bless you.
MENNONITE DISASTER SERVICE
www.mds.mennonite.net
Kevin
King is the Executive Director of
the Mennonite Disaster service in Akron, Pennsylvania.
MCC
and MDS collect over $700,000
for Amish by
Tim Shenk
AKRON, Pa. -- Mennonite Central Committee
(MCC) and Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) have collected over
$700,000 U.S. , or $800,000 Cdn., for the community affected by the
Oct. 2 shootings at an Amish school in Nickel Mines.
MCC and
MDS are transferring 100 percent of these contributions to a Nickel
Mines Accountability Committee comprised of seven Amish community
members and two non-Amish community members. The committee will apply
the funds to needs that result from the shootings, including medical
and counselling services, extra living expenses for affected families
and long-term disability care.
MCC and MDS agreed to accept
contributions for the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee in
consultation with Amish community leaders and will continue to do so
until Oct. 27. These contributions should be designated for the
"Amish School Recovery Fund."
In an Oct. 10
statement, the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee thanked the many
people who have contributed in the wake of the shootings.
"We,
the people of the Nickel Mines community, are humbled and deeply
thankful for this outpouring of love," the committee stated.
"Each act of kindness, the prayers and every gift, small or
large, comfort us and assure as that our spirits will heal even
though the painful loss will always be with us."
Tim
Shenk is
a writer for MCC communications.
"The Amish Message of Forgiveness"
BY JAMES P. PINKERTON
Religion
– Miami Herald
www.newsday.com
It's a paradox of our time that the Amish, arguably the least
technological people in America, have nevertheless proven to be
extraordinarily effective at communicating what they believe. In a time
of proliferating techno-clutter, they got their message across the
old-fashioned way: through the blood sacrifice of martyrs.
Of course, there's no reason to think the Amish -- who lost five of
their own in an Oct. 2 school shooting in Pennsylvania -- had any plan
for teaching us a lesson in Christian forgiveness. But sacrifice and
martyrdom are deeply woven into the history of Christianity, and what
the Amish offered all of us, whether or not we are Christians, was an
enduring example of how to behave admirably in an hour of sorrow.
To use the modern language of cybertech that the Amish so resolutely
reject, the message of forgiveness has gone ''viral'' across the
culture.
The murder of five girls, and the wounding of five more, ended with the
killer, Charles Roberts, shooting himself as police closed in. And
because no legal issue remains to be wrangled, we can move on to the
next phase: reconciliation.
That's where the Amish shone. According to The Associated Press, the
family of Marian Fisher invited the Roberts family to join them in
grief and remembrance. And a member of the Roberts family attended
Marian's funeral.
Where did the Fisher family get such inspiration? One can only think of
the Book of Matthew, of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus said,
''Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.'' Or to
Romans 12:21: ''Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.''
One witness to this intensely Christian moment was the Rev. Robert
Schenck, who recalled for CNN, 'As we were standing next to the body of
this 13-year-old girl, the grandfather was tutoring the young boys, he
was making a point, just saying to the family, `We must not think evil
of this man.' It was one of the most touching things I have seen in 25
years of Christian ministry.''
The widow of the killer, Marie Roberts, issued a statement declaring
that she and her family were ''overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace
and mercy.'' She added to the Amish: ''Your love for our family has
helped to provide the healing we so desperately need.'' Once again, the
Amish didn't ask for this to happen to them.
One is reminded of the scene in the first Lord of the Rings movie, when
Frodo laments his difficult fate: ''I wish none of this had happened.''
To which the wise old Gandalf answers, ''So do all who live to see such
times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is
what to do with the time that is given to us.'' Then Gandalf reminds
his young comrade, ''There are other forces at work in this world,
Frodo, besides the will of evil.'' Of course, in the mind of Rings
author J.R.R. Tolkien, himself a Christian, one of those ''other
forces'' was God.
Tolkien struggled to find a way to communicate his Christian message,
and he found it through allegorical fantasy. Others have found their
own way -- or, in the tragic case of the Amish, fate found them, and
their little girls.
It is said that a wealth of information leads to a poverty of
attention, and that's normally the case if the programming is just one
more forgettable and interchangeable show. Yet, amid the yammering of
the proverbial 500 TV channels -- now 500 million YouTube.com channels,
as well -- the powerful Amish message, inflected by tragedy, was heard
by millions of Americans, loud and clear.
Thus the paradox: A people who don't own a single camera or microphone
or computer found a way to make a valuable point. They led all of us,
gently, by the quiet power of tragic example.
James P. Pinkerton is a columnist for Newsday.
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