We are all aware that the numerical date for the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks was 911. The emergency, and the sense of danger that goes with it, have lingered from that date to this. As you read this edition of the UMCOR Update, you will find articles emphasizing our efforts in Africa. The attack on buildings with people inside them in New York and Washington occurred while this Africa edition was at press. We have replaced a few items to acknowledge one Western Hemisphere tragedy while we continue to report, as we must, on the prior and continuing Eastern Hemisphere tragedies.
UMCOR is responding to the hijacked planes and hijacked lives and our traumatized city, which seems so hijacked for now. We are very much aware of the fears of children who cannot understand seeing the same building blow up a hundred times and the anxiety of all the rest of us who watched it come down the first time. People, jobs, and safety are lost.
UMCOR will support churches in New York, New Jersey and Virginia to remain open with a full range of counseling services for the bereaved and the scared. We will offer training in dealing with trauma for childcare workers, teachers, and parents anywhere. We will help any community, throughout the country, work for peace and safety between Christians and Moslems and between Arab-Americans and any other Americans. We will be called upon to provide direct service for numbers of families, and we will walk with them through their countless problems over the months of recovery.
In Isaiah 38 we find the words, "My eyes are weary with looking upward," and "Oh, restore me to health and make me live!" Death came from the sky, but hope comes from God and is transmitted by human hearts. We do Godly work in Africa, as you will read, and just as much right here where our faith in our fellow humans has been betrayed. Pray for us all.
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