In the Face of a Wave
This is something I sent out to ThPm’s alias today. I’d be interested in your ideas…in hearing how your communities are responding to this disaster.
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The death toll exceeded 70,000 today.
What do we do in the face of such a tragedy?
Fiona and I spoke on the phone yesterday and we would like to do something as a community to acknowledge, mourn and respond to this crisis. Here are a few ways we might respond:
1) Story Telling: I think Fiona and Craig might bring some photos of their trip to the India coast. Their stories might help us connect with a global disaster on a more personal level.
2) Interceding: We could pray in two ways…for those who like to pray out loud and with others, we could pray together in my office, lighting candles for intercession. For those who prefer to express their prayers/hopes/desires pictorially, we could have the art stuff out in the living room
3) Giving: We could brainstorm with each other about ways to free up some finances for the Red Cross/Red Crescent or Doctors with out Borders, or World Vision…whatever
4) Mourning: I think it’s also helpful to provide a place for us to express mourning. We could do that either in the prayer room/art space…or maybe think of some sort of group project to do in the coming weeks that would express sorrow and/or hope???
I think whatever we do will have to come out of our exisistence as a community, so please let me know if anything on this page appeals to you…or if you have other ideas about what we might do. We are people who believe in God, who respond to God…how do we, as people anchored in this reality respond to the world around us at a time like this?
Shalom,
Rachelle
One idea that works perhaps better than most is to tie it in locally. I don’t know about Seattle, but we’re by a huge inland lake and understand the viscitudes of water and weather (though not tsunamis and earthquakes).
Our local daily ran a piece on those who have relatiuves and friends who were living/staying in the areas affected. Hopefully, they’ll get more into sharing their experiences as time goes on.
Unfortunately, we have a very very small Tamil community, and most of our Hindu/Sikh community is Punjabi, from areas well away from the devastation and loss of life, so for now, those sharing the experiences will most likely be white, North American ex-pats: not the same thing!
I like your mentioning the aid agencies and helping them do their job with financial donations. Both secular and religious-based agencies work very well together in the field and it’s really one’s personal choice as to which one(s) to support.
And we light a candle for the thousands…