A Prayer For the Families of Five Amish Girls

The last of the five Amish girls murdered in a one-room school house near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, is being laid to rest on Friday.

The girls are Lena Z. Miller, Mary Liz Miller, Naomi Rose Ebersol, Anna Mae Stoltzfus and Marian Fisher.

Here are excerpts from a remembrance posted by Joanie at Allegiance and Duty Betrayed:

No innocent person should die at the hands of another. But somehow the tragedy of innocent death is magnified when the victim is a child. And when that child is a small Amish girl who is murdered execution style in her little one-room schoolhouse, the mind somehow cannot wrap itself around the idea that such depravity exists.

Where in the ranks of humanity does one come across a man who could bind such a young child, force her to stand in front of a blackboard in her classroom, point the muzzle of a gun at hear head, and shoot her dead?

The Amish are not a caricature of a people. They are a people who, while the rest of us have grown soft and complacent, continue to embody all of those time-honored character traits that the American pioneers mustered from within in order to build the most decent, moral, prosperous civilization in the history of mankind. . . .

They have not fallen prey to the superficial, materialistic mindset that so often permeates so much of modern American thought. The love of God, devotion to family, and the belief that hard work is its own reward, are, and always will be, the cornerstone of Amish culture.

As heartbreaking as the murders are, the Amish of Bart Township will not now begin planning how better to physically secure their little schoolhouses. Nor will they be seeking out "professional help" in order to make their grief bearable. Instead, their needs for security, solace and a listening ear will be met within their own small community, and as they communally turn to the Lord as their infallible source of wisdom, comfort and strength.

We all need to remember in prayer the families of the victims and survivors of today’s tragedy, as well as the family of the man who caused this unspeakable heartbreak. All are innocents whose lives will never be the same, and all are in need of our prayers.