Article March 9, 1998 Issue

When a gunman took children hostage in my community

How one family responded to the crisis

By Jan Kassahn Keeler

The telephone was ringing. We had just completed a seventeen-hour drive to our family's Christmas destination. I unlocked the door and rushed to answer the phone. It was a friend who had called to see if my family was safe. We had been out of touch with the news that day, so we were unaware of the headlines that had brought my community to the attention of the national press.

After robbing a bank, a thief had entered a day-care center and was holding children hostage. My friend, not knowing that we were traveling, recalled that we had a young child. She had tracked us down through a forwarding number on my answering machine and had called to see that our child was protected. I was deeply touched by her efforts and sweet sense of caring for us. I assured her that now that we were aware of the crisis, we, too, would immediately be praying for a quick resolution.

When I told other members of our family what I had just learned, we agreed that we should stop everything we were doing and turn to God in prayer. Even though our own family was safe, our community "family" needed our prayers. We were over nine hundred miles away from the situation and not directly involved, but we knew that prayer would help.

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