Dear Friends,

I forgive you. Easy words to say but can be very hard to put into practice. We have all been saddened and shocked at the awful tragedy to the Amish community in Pennsylvania. This community of Christian people who sought to live without the trappings of the current times has had our allegedly modern civilized world intrude into their lives in such a horrific way with the deaths of those young girls.

We can only begin to imagine the devastating loss that the families and friends of the Amish community must be feeling. Yet in their grief, they are standing out as truly remarkable people by their willingness to forgive the young man for the wicked acts he has committed. If ever there were people who would seem within their rights not to forgive, it would be this Amish community. Instead here are these

Christian people truly practising what they preach. For what they also said was that they first had to forgive in order for God to forgive them.
In the Lord’s Prayer, there is only one part that has a condition

attached to it, which is, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” (Luke 11:4 NIV) Jesus was saying that if we want forgiveness from God we must be willing to forgive those who sin against us.

I pray that if there is something remotely good that can come out of this tragedy it might be that people would practise forgiveness in their lives the way the Amish people have done. What a tremendous change for good we would see in our world.

As a way of remembering those young girls, I urge you to forgive those who have hurt you. If you need to ask God to help you deal with the bitterness, resentment and hurt you might be feeling, just ask God and He will help, but please do forgive and you can make this ‘modern civilized’ world a better place.

May God bless you,

Paul Wood

Captain