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RSSDecember 26, Christmas I
12/26/2004
Isaiah 35: 1-10
James 5: 7-10
Matthew 11: 2-11
Psalm 146 or 146: 4-9
“He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.” -- John 1:12
It happened right in their own town -- that was the most terrible thing of all. It happened in their very own school. We were riveted by the unfolding story from Russia when the school in Beslan was taken over, and it got worse with every passing hour: children passing out in the heat, crammed together in the airless school gymnasium, terrorists killing some as examples for the others, and then the end: a bloodbath.
We could not wrap our minds around the evil that would target a school. We could not bear to think of the parents and children leaving home lightheartedly that morning for school, bearing flowers for the teachers. And moments later, huddled together in terror for days on end, the flowers lying forgotten on the floor, ground by people's feet into an unrecognizable paste of petals and stem, mixing with the dirt and the blood of the next few days.
Now the school is a jumble of broken concrete and steel. The families have buried their dead, some families more than one person, some a mother and child together. And the world continues to wonder how this could possibly have happened, to wish that there had been something we could have done. Something we could do now.
In partnership with International Orthodox Christian Charities and Church World Service, Episcopal Relief and Development is doing something in the aftermath of this tragedy that made us all feel so helpless. One hundred families are being assisted with grief and trauma counseling, and ERD is supporting medical assistance to a number of survivors, children who will require long-term rehabilitative care.
Disaster strikes in an instance; healing takes years. Immediately and for the long haul, ERD's ministry of help where help is needed is ready for both.
Written by the Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton for ERD. Episcopal Relief and Development saves lives and builds hope in communities around the world. We provide emergency assistance in times of disaster. When the immediate crisis is over, we rebuild devastated communities and offer long-term solutions in the areas of food security, health care, and HIV/AIDS.
