The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Years ago, while I was working in Northern Indiana, a series of powerful tornadoes struck the town where my job was located. The rural town was severely damaged, leaving many homes and farms decimated. I led a group of kids from work to do cleanup work in some of the neighborhoods. I will forever remember the sight of so much destruction in that quiet little farm community. Perhaps one of the most impressive sights though, was several days after the storms, while the cleanup effort was in full swing. Insurance representatives were all over meeting with individuals about the costs of home repairs. Meanwhile, many of the Amish in the community were already raising new barns and repairing the damage to their homes. They didn’t have insurance. They had community that sprang into action to help immediately. That was one of the coolest things about the Amish communities: they took care of each other. When difficulty hit one of them, it hit all of them. If one had troubles, they all pitched in to help take care of it. None of them was ever left to face their problems alone. They stood together. They were a living example of Paul’s instruction to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ is to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. In Jesus’ teachings, love is not a feeling. It is an attitude of selfless service toward the other persons. I have seen some of the same type of living out Paul’s teaching happening in Big Sandy for the last few weeks. I have been blessed to see folks open their pantries to offer help to each other. I know a few people who have run for groceries for their neighbors. Restaurants are finding ways to serve the town. Teachers are scrambling to develop a system for online teaching and working extra hard to make sure our kids are educated. Big Sandy is taking care of itself. This will be a particularly big deal in the coming weeks, especially if the stay at home guidelines remain in place for months. Many of our neighbors will struggle financially and those who are unable to go out for fear of getting sick will need help with shopping and meeting basic needs. This is a time when our attitudes of service are especially important. This certainly applies to helping to meet each other’s needs and supporting the small businesses in town, but it also applies to simply picking up the phone and checking on each other. There are plenty of folks who are alone in this and need an encouraging word or for someone to just reach out and check in on them. In times of difficulty, it’s especially important for us to love our neighbors and look out for them. We are our brother’s keepers, and we are called by God to love our neighbors as ourselves. We have done this well in the past and so far. We need to keep it up. We’re all in this together.