OGT DAILY Day Two Hundred and Forty WELCOMING STRANGERS

I want to pay tribute to the town Gander, Newfoundland who welcomed 6000 stranded passengers on Sept 11, 2001, because their planes could not land at airports in the Northeast United States because of the planes which toppled the Twin Towers in NY and crashed into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.    A town of just 10,000 residents, but with an international airport usually used for refueling jets making the transatlantic flight, it was not prepared for the influx of planes redirected to its location that day.

But the citizens of Gander stepped up to the task, cooked meals, brought blankets and pillows and provided a warm welcome to bewildered travelers who had no idea what was going on and when they might be allowed to go home.   They called it Operation Yellow Ribbon and the people they helped are still telling the story of their kindness.   Some have returned every year for visits.   NY city gave Gander a piece of steel from one of the towers and director Christopher Ashley memorialized their low-key heroism in a Broadway musical called Come From Away which won him a Tony Award.

But their generosity didn't stop there.  In 2015 the town took in a family of Syrian refugees.
They truly took the words from the gospel of Matthew to heart:

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.... (25:35).    

Matthew 25:35 was posted on the billboard for our church this morning.   New York's Cardinal Dolan said it best in his response to self-proclaimed racist Steve Bannon: "The Bible is so clear, so clear, that to treat the immigrant with dignity and respect, to make sure that society is just in its treatment of the immigrant is a Biblical mandate."

I can't think of a better way to commemorate 9/11.