What to Do When Terror Strikes Far Away

This post, written by Kate Wiebe, originally was published on March 3, 2016, on the ICTG blog. 

---

As our hearts ache, again, following another terrorist attack, many of us feel that restlessness that forms in the aftermath of atrocity. What can we do? How can we help? ​Many of us are far away and feel so much sorrow. We are challenged, again, to know how best to encourage, support, and enact care. ​

Here's a few practices that ICTG staff, directors, advisors, and colleagues have found most useful following human-caused disasters that occur far away: 

Spread love locally

• Gather together. Comfort one another, say prayers, sing, light candles.
• Spend this week expressing love to your loved ones
• Reach out to your neighbors with acts of goodness and kindness
• Extend acts of care to strangers you meet this week

 
Spread love throughout the country and the world

• Call a loved one or an old friend you haven't talked to in awhile to share how much you still care
• Gather with family and friends to create preparedness kits or to create care kits for a nonprofit that collects them for sudden events like these (Ready.Gov, Red Cross, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance). 
• Make a donation to your favorite nonprofit in honor of those who have died. Many denomination relief agencies are combining and sending monies together to help with foreign aid – give to your denomination's relief agency and make a greater impact. 
• ICTG makes resources available online for ordained and lay ministers to access anywhere they have internet service. Further training also is available. 

With these acts you get involved in countering terror locally and globally. These acts make a difference. Be a blessing this week. 

---

Rev. Dr. Kate Wiebe serves as the Executive Director of ICTG. She is an organizational health consultant and pastoral psychotherapist. She lives with her family in Santa Barbara, CA.