Inside the close-knit community, Amish and their neighbors said they have had to find a new normal. “They are getting help from each other. They are getting professional help,” said Herman Bontrager, a Mennonite businessman and spokesman. School was closed Monday so families could visit and take strength from one another. They sang hymns and, led by a police chaplain, prayed together. Afterward, they shared a meal of grilled chicken, potatoes and Whoopie pies.
“There’s no other place that we would rather be than with them,” Pennsylvania Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said as he left. “I wanted to share with them that they are never far from our thoughts.”
To many watching and reading news reports of the horror from across the world, how the Nickel Mines Amish responded to the tragedy was the greatest puzzlement. Within hours of the shooting, they reached out to Roberts’ family, offering condolences, hugs and support. In the days that followed, they continued to visit, bringing gifts and food. They invited Roberts’ widow to the girls’ funerals and attended his. They donated money to a fund set up for his family; as $4.3 million in donations poured in from across the world in support of the Nickel Mines Amish, they shared again.
As a wise theologian said not long ago, the Amish do not have a social ethic. They ARE a social ethic.
May God bless their example of Christian love and charity.