In 2006, Charles Roberts entered the one-room schoolhouse of a Pennsylvania Amish community, took a dozen girls hostage, then shot ten of them, killing five before taking his own life.
Days after the shooting, something profound happened. The grandfather of one of the murdered girls stood up at her funeral and urged the congregation to have mercy. “Instead of choosing hate,” he said, “forgive.”
And they did.
Although heartbroken, the people responded to their tragic circumstances with grace.