Here are some practices ICTG staff, directors, advisors, and colleagues find most useful following human-caused disasters that occur far away:
- Spread love locally
- Gather together for prayer, singing, and lighting candles
- Spend this week rededicating yourself to expressing love
- Reach out to your neighbors with acts of 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 this one (a few examples, 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. (If you don't know if your denomination has a relief agency, now is a great time to find out.)
- ICTG makes resources, online training, and coaching available for ministery leaders to expand their understanding of the impacts of trauma on individuals and communities and to increase their resiliency skills.
With these acts you get involved in countering terror both locally and globally. These acts make a great difference. Be a blessing this week.