SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
Over the weekend, thousands in Connecticut headed to churches to mourn the brutal killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Friday.
Here in Sioux City, more than 1,300 miles away, local churches shared in that sadness. Clergy say their numbers swelled as folks turned to their faith to fight their sorrow.
"There is definitely an up tick, I think, in visits to the church during the day. I noticed a lot of that yesterday. People were coming and making chapel visits and the like," said Sacred Heart Catholic Church Rev. Craig Collison.
Parishioners say in moments like these, religion is support they can use to ease a worried mind.
"I go to church, I practice my faith. I think that the importance of having that in your daily life is definitely more visible when something like this happens," said parishioner, Quinn Mahler.
Sandy Hook was on the mind of Central Baptist Pastor Lloyd Grant. He had to change his sermon. Grant was originally going to focus on the shooting at a mall in Oregon, last Tuesday.
"We used to live in Portland. That was a mall we went to all the time. Then on Friday morning, I saw the headline 'Another Shooting.' Your stomach turns," said Grant.
Grant says he wants to help his congregation cope with some of the hardest questions; 'Why? What now?' He recommends turning to a higher power.
"The truth is, we in and of ourselves don't have a solution for this. We need someone bigger, stronger, wiser, and ultimately there is only one. That would be God," said Central Baptist Pastor Lloyd Grant. "God is ultimately the one that addresses those [questions]. The gift of the Bible to us, gives us answers to those kinds of questions. If we don't come to him we're simply left with a question."
Sandy Hook has given the nation another scar. But in Sioux City, the healing has started.
© Clergy say their numbers swelled as folks turned to their faith to fight their sorrow.
