Monday, January 10, 2011

Here in Arizona


Pamela Tracy here, and I live in Arizona. Right now, we're in the news often. This past weekend has been a little tough. See, one of my best friends lives in Tucson, and I've been to the grocery store where six people died senselessly. As a Christian, I'm supposed to forgive, but seeing the faces of innocents makes me angry. Guess that's Satan's goal.
The nine-year-old tugs at my heart the most.
Then, watching the news came the close-up of a church. Yes, another connection. Church of Christ. If I lived in Tucson, I might attend that church. My dad was a deacon in our home Church of Christ congregation. I taught for a Church of Christ elementary school for fourteen years. Right now, I teach a Wednesday night 4-6th grade Bible class and do a puppet ministry on Sunday morning. The Church of Christ is my home. In reading the details of Dorwan Stoddard's life, I'm humbled. He was the man the church turned to when something needed fixing. He organized the benevolence committee. He died protecting his wife. One of the quotes said, "There's going to be a hole in our congregation."
And so we pray

5 comments:

Terri Reed said...

Pam, my heart goes out to all of the victims and their families in this tragedy. The stories of the heros are inspiring.

Tracy Krauss said...

There are people all around the world praying (like me!)

Dana Mentink said...

The whole this is just beyond awful. Praying for the families of the victims and the healing of the survivors.

Pamela Tracy said...

It makes no sense. We write suspense, and we're always so careful to task motivation. Then, in the real world, motivation is sometimes chaos.

Lenora said...

Pam, it's hard when such a tragedy hits close to home like this. I will never understand why such things have to happen. The little girl breaks my heart. So young and to be born during tragedy and to die this way--it's just horrible.

My husband lived in Arizona when he was in high school. His father was stationed there. During such times, we need to remember this is the reason we write about heroes every day. We might live in a make-believe world but we know there are real true-to-life heroes out there and they come in many shapes and sizes. My prayers go out to all of those who had to be involved in this tragedy.