News

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.