Bluffton, Ohio – At the First Mennonite Church in chilly downtown Bluffton on Sunday, six white candles flickered on the altar in memory of those who died in a bus crash last week.
Louise Wideman, the associate pastor of the church two blocks from Bluffton University, told the congregation that many had reached out to the church in comfort.
“In a time of great loss, it is amazing to learn of the support from all over the country,” she said.
E-mails have poured in from far and wide since the bus carrying the Bluffton baseball team crashed on Interstate 75 in Atlanta early Friday. Mennonites around the country held services. The community was grieving, she said, and pulling together.
At the Bluffton church Sunday, church member Carrie Kruse invited children to the front of the altar for a special lesson.
She told a story about overcoming fear with God’s love, spreading out a pink comforter that the children gathered under. She asked them to wrap their arms around themselves and pray.
“There was a very, very bad accident on Friday,” she told them, describing how the Bluffton team must have felt frightened.
“God loves them very much, and he’s showing it by all of the people who are taking care of them,” she said, as church members wiped their eyes in pews. “Let us pray and keep the Bluffton University baseball team in loving care so they don’t feel afraid.”
