CBF field personnel Lita and Rick Sample offered expressions of care and concern at this Sikh Temple, where they have often brought mission teams to visit.

Following the deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, Rick Sample, one of CBF’s field personnel, reached out to the Sikh community in their Fremont, Calif. community:

When the shooting happened in Wisconsin, [my wife] Lita and I decided to go our local Sikh temple to demonstrate support to the Sikh community and in our best way demonstrate Christ’s love.  We have many times taken groups, volunteers, and guests to the Sikh temple as part of a cultural awareness component to our mission work [read a reflection from a Lakeside Baptist Church member who visited there on July 25].  Since they have a community meal offered 24/7, we decided the best way to be the presence of Christ would be to bring food they could use in their meal preparation.

We went to the grocery store and then drove to the Sikh temple. Two men helped bring in the bags of vegetables and fruit.  Women in the food preparation area were watching us and a group of about a dozen men wearing turbans were sitting on the patio talking about, I presume, the Wisconsin shooting.

We told them how moved we were by the tragedy in Wisconsin and that we wanted to do something to show that we care.  We told them that we came representing our “church” (meaning CBF churches) and that we wanted them to know that Christians care about them and offer our sympathy to the Sikh community both here and in Wisconsin.

We were very well received and also had the feeling that we were the first and only Americans who might have visited this temple since the shooting to convey concern.