A ministry team responds to disasters
Three years after a gunman opened fire and killed six people at a
City Council meeting in Kirkwood, Missouri, pastor David A. Holyan found
himself in Tucson, Arizona, within days after the January 8 shootings
that killed six and injured 13, including Congresswoman Gabrielle
Giffords.
Holyan, 46, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of
Kirkwood, had become an accidental expert in what the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) calls "human-caused disaster" response. More precisely,
he is a member of the three-person Presbyterian Disaster Assistance's
National Response Team.
Holyan's expertise comes from the victim
side. His church became a spiritual hub for the community in the wake of
the shooting rampage on February 7, 2008, that claimed the lives of six
people—including two of Holyan's parishioners and the gunman.
