Tragedy: When it strikes close to home

What do you do when a local tragedy affects those you know? How do you respond? Who do you interview? How do you write about it objectively? Unless you know them well, don't go straight to a victim's immediate family for an interview. Always start at the outskirts of a victim's acquaintances, and work your way inward toward the "inner circle."

Remember when you are dealing with a local tragedy, that the people you are interviewing are most likely grieving. Be respectful of their privacy, but let them know that you would like to let your readers know what kind of a person their loved one was. One way to share your faith is to let them know you will be praying for them. This could open up a conversation about God, or at the very least, it will be a comfort to the person.

I was the editor of a rural, weekly newspaper when a horrible tragedy shook our county. A 10-year-old girl  was killed by six Rottweilers while playing at a friend's house. This girl had come to the children's club my husband and I ran at our church, and was a friend of my two daughters. I remember that morning when I sat on the couch with my two girls and had to tell them their friend had died.

In addition to the front-page story about the incident, I did a side story of interviews with her school teacher and the leader of her group at our church's children's club.

And I knew my readership well enough to know that sharing my faith would be well-accepted at this point. In my column, I told about how, "with the simple faith of a child," she accepted the Lord as her Savior, and because of that, she went straight into the loving arms of Jesus. It was the hardest column I had ever written.

The responses I received were overwhelming. One burly school board member, whom I didn't even know was a Christian, came to me so choked up he could hardly speak, and said, "It made all the difference in the world knowing she was saved."

When tragedy strikes, people try to make sense of it in their own minds. They often turn to God, or at least begin to think about eternal things. This is the time when a Christian journalist can make a huge impact on the community by sharing his or her faith with love and compassion.