Area pastors visit Newtown
BALLSTON SPA — Local pastors Scott Lumley and Rick Cohen traveled to Newtown, Conn., last week to pray with and offer support to a community devastated by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.
Twenty-six people died in the shootings Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, 20 of whom were first-graders.
Lumley, pastor at Calvary Capital District in Ballston Spa, and Cohen, pastor at Adirondack Christian Fellowship in Wilton, arrived in Newtown on Tuesday morning and served in a large covered tent, where people stopped in to pray, worship and pay their respects to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The tent was set up about a mile outside of Newtown in a lot near the church of St. Rose, which lost seven of its parishioners in the shootings.
Lumley estimates he counseled 30-plus people a day. Collectively, the prayer tent pastors prayed with and counseled hundreds. Between two and five pastors were working in the tent at a time.
Numerous other pastors and counselors throughout the country, including the Billy Graham association, also traveled to Newtown to minister to the community.
“We dealt with severely broken hearts. Our desire was to listen, observe, pray and soberly study when and how to answer the many questions people have when a tragedy such as this touches their lives,” he said.
He said the people who came to speak with the pastors included relatives, friends and neighbors of the deceased. But many also were people from across the country — Lumley met a woman from Ireland and someone who had come from Texas — who came to Newtown to let the people there know they, too, were affected and that they cared about the people of Newtown.
Cohen said he would first listen to people and hug them when appropriate. He also pointed to a scripture in the Bible that says, “God has put eternity in our hearts.”
“In small doses, we would encourage them toward eternal hope,” Cohen said.
In addition to praying with people, Lumley said he felt the Lord led him and Cohen to use music to minister to people in Newtown. Lumley was a worship leader for eight years, and Cohen has a similar music ministry background.
At the tent and at the downtown memorial, they played guitar and sang Christmas carols and other songs with messages that would touch people’s hearts.
“It’s a nice way to minister because you don’t have to confront anyone. People would come by and listen,” Lumley said. “It allowed us share with people the hope we have in Jesus Christ.”
“Music is a means of communication in so many people’s lives; it brings them in to a place of awareness of God,” Cohen said.
Spiritual music, he added, touches the deepest need of humans to communicate with God.
The pastors both said they have been deeply affected by the time they spent in Newtown.
“You’re impacted by it; you’re human,” Lumley said. “I saw state troopers crying; I saw a cameraman crying. Your heart breaks. … There’s no way to avoid hurting.”
Cohen said it helped to be with a group of people who understood their purpose for being there.
“My purpose is stand with people who are in pain,” Cohen said.
Back at home, he said, it has helped having a supportive network of people who are willing to listen to his stories about the experience.
“It’s still powerful,” Cohen said, adding that he still can see the funeral processions when he closes his eyes.
Lumley said it’s important to keep the people affected by this tragedy in the front of our thoughts and to continue praying for them throughout the Christmas season.
“I keep the pain like a ribbon around my finger to remind me to pray for these people,” he said.