Reporter
JT hails from Columbus, Wisconsin and has proudly called the Badger State home his entire life. He graduated from UW-Milwaukee in 2017.JT enjoys covering stories that impact people where they live and work. He focuses on labor, local government, the environment and water quality.
Church hopes prayer leads to healing
MONONA, Wis. (WKOW) – The pastor for a Spanish language church in Monona is helping heal his congregation’s emotional and spiritual pain in the wake of the school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison.
Casa de Fe (House of Faith) is located along Femrite Drive in Monona. Several families in its congregation have children that attend the school. Among them is Pastor Pedro Jruiz whose three sons are enrolled.
Just after 11 a.m. on Monday, Jruiz was on his way to see one of his children at Abundant Life during a recess period. However, as he approached the school he saw ambulances and police cars blocking his path. For a moment, he assumed it was a bad crash.
That illusion evaporated when he took a phone call from a friend.
“He calls me and he tells me, ‘Hey, are your kids OK?’” Jruiz recalled to 27 News. “And I say, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, there was a shooting.’”
Trapped in traffic, he tried calling one son, but school policies requiring phones be kept in lockers prevented him from getting through.
What Jruiz did not yet know was that a 15-year-old girl had opened fire with a handgun minutes earlier. Another student, a teacher and the girl had died. Six more people were taken to area hospitals, two of whom remain in critical condition.
Jruiz’s phone soon rang again. Another friend had managed to get inside the school before the lockdown went into effect. The friend said he would try to get to Jruiz’s sons. He did not need to wait long before the friend sent him photos of his sons, unharmed. The pastor sent the photos along to his wife who was out of the country.
To endure the moments waiting in fear, Jruiz said he leaned into his faith.
“You have to put in practice what you preach,” the Casa de Fe pastor said. “And it hit home. Not close, it hit home. It was my kids.”
He took time to pray.
“I said, ‘God, you’re in control,’” Jruiz recalled. “You’re taking care of my kids. and you’re taking care of [all] the kids, not only mine, because this is a community thing.”
To help address his own faith community, the pastor’s congregation organized a prayer service for Tuesday evening to support those who had been impacted by the shooting.
The faith community at Casa de Fe welcomed all, regardless of denomination.
The church held the event in Spanish, to offer a place for Spanish speakers to gather in the wake of the tragedy.
“We got to do something for the Spanish community and for the parents of the school and the kids that do not speak the language or will prefer something in Spanish,” Jruiz said of his thoughts when coming up with the concept of the service.
The proceedings focused on togetherness, a concept the pastor said would be important in the wake of Monday’s tragedy. He cautioned his congregation against focusing on blame, saying it would lead only to division and more pain.
“We are one community, and this community was hurt, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay down,” Jruiz said. “This is [the] time for us to pick each other up, lift each other up.”
Reporter
JT hails from Columbus, Wisconsin and has proudly called the Badger State home his entire life. He graduated from UW-Milwaukee in 2017.JT enjoys covering stories that impact people where they live and work. He focuses on labor, local government, the environment and water quality.
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