**SPOILERS** On the morning of October 2, 2006 Charles Roberts, John Churchill, or Charlie the Milkman as he's known in the Bart Township Amish Community walked into the little West Nickel Mines school and gunned down ten Amish girls, between the ages of 6 and 13, five of whom later died! As if this wasn't shocking enough a bigger shock was yet to follow with the Amish Community as well as the victims family members showing up at Charlie's house and expressing forgiveness to his grieving wife Amy, Tammy Blanchard, and her dad Henry Taskey, Gary Graham, for what Charlie did!
This set off shock waves all over the country in the Amish ways of not letting a tragedy of even this magnitude have hate take over both their hearts and souls towards the now deceased, who put a bullet in his brain, Carles Roberts! It was only Ida Gaber, Kimberly Williams-Smith, the mother of one of Charlie's victims her 13 year old daughter Mary Beth, Madison Davenport, who couldn't bring herself to forgive Charlie for what he did. It was Ida's steadfast hatred towards not only Charlie but his wife Amy, who was completely devastated by what her husband did, as well. That's until one of the survivors of Charlie's murder spree and Mary Beth's best friend Rebecca Knepp, Darcy Rose Byrnes, told both Ida and her husband Gideon, Matt Letscher, the last world that Mary Beth said just before a crazed and deranged Charlie Roberts blew her away with his shotgun! It was something that a true believing person in God's undeniable love and mercy, even for someone like Charlie, could have uttered and it turned Ida's life around.
In a world filled with violence hatred and revenge the Amish have lived the kind of life that most of us could only envy. With strong family ties and deep religious beliefs crime even petty crime is almost unknown in the Amish Community in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County where the murders took place. The very fact that a horror like what happened at the West Nickel Mines School did take place put the Amish living there to the test in proving to the world that they practice what they preach in forgiving those who sin even if the sin involves the murder of their own innocent children!
Ida who was about to leave the Amish Community as well as her husband Gideon and take her surviving daughter seven year old Kaite, Karley Scott Collins, along with her was blinded by the hatred and violence that the crazed milkman Charlie Roberts inflicted on her and her family. It was Mary Beth's last words on earth directed at Charlie, who was just about to gun her down, that opened Ida's eyes. It was then that Ida, like her husband Gideon always told her, saw that hatred only survives if it's nurtured by those who have it in their hearts and stays with them their entire lives. And forgiving those whom that hatred is directed upon is the best way to cure it and the suffering and misery that goes along with it!
This set off shock waves all over the country in the Amish ways of not letting a tragedy of even this magnitude have hate take over both their hearts and souls towards the now deceased, who put a bullet in his brain, Carles Roberts! It was only Ida Gaber, Kimberly Williams-Smith, the mother of one of Charlie's victims her 13 year old daughter Mary Beth, Madison Davenport, who couldn't bring herself to forgive Charlie for what he did. It was Ida's steadfast hatred towards not only Charlie but his wife Amy, who was completely devastated by what her husband did, as well. That's until one of the survivors of Charlie's murder spree and Mary Beth's best friend Rebecca Knepp, Darcy Rose Byrnes, told both Ida and her husband Gideon, Matt Letscher, the last world that Mary Beth said just before a crazed and deranged Charlie Roberts blew her away with his shotgun! It was something that a true believing person in God's undeniable love and mercy, even for someone like Charlie, could have uttered and it turned Ida's life around.
In a world filled with violence hatred and revenge the Amish have lived the kind of life that most of us could only envy. With strong family ties and deep religious beliefs crime even petty crime is almost unknown in the Amish Community in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County where the murders took place. The very fact that a horror like what happened at the West Nickel Mines School did take place put the Amish living there to the test in proving to the world that they practice what they preach in forgiving those who sin even if the sin involves the murder of their own innocent children!
Ida who was about to leave the Amish Community as well as her husband Gideon and take her surviving daughter seven year old Kaite, Karley Scott Collins, along with her was blinded by the hatred and violence that the crazed milkman Charlie Roberts inflicted on her and her family. It was Mary Beth's last words on earth directed at Charlie, who was just about to gun her down, that opened Ida's eyes. It was then that Ida, like her husband Gideon always told her, saw that hatred only survives if it's nurtured by those who have it in their hearts and stays with them their entire lives. And forgiving those whom that hatred is directed upon is the best way to cure it and the suffering and misery that goes along with it!