Dallas church offers hope and healing as community grieves children killed in flood
Green ribbons line the trees throughout North Dallas — a quiet but powerful tribute to the young lives lost in catastrophic flooding that swept through Central Texas.
At least eight girls from North Texas were among the victims, including six who were attending a Christian summer camp and two who were on vacation with their families.
A church gathers to grieve
The heartbreak is being deeply felt at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas, where the Bonner family are members. They lost their daughter, 9-year-old Lila Bonner, when floodwaters overwhelmed Camp Mystic.
On Sunday, hundreds gathered at the church to grieve, pray and search for comfort in the wake of unimaginable loss.
"When bad things happen, people often feel alone — and they're not alone," said Rector Christopher Girata. "Nobody who experienced this hardship is alone. And to gather together, to pray, to sing, and to be reminded that we walk through this grief together — that God actually comes alongside of us and carries the weight that is too much for us to bear — that's when the church actually meets the moment and begins to plant the seeds of hope and healing that will happen in the future."
Faith offers comfort, not answers
Girata said the congregation has been hurting since learning the magnitude of the flooding. As the community mourns, many are turning to their faith leaders to help make sense of what happened.
"I firmly believe that these little children who lost their lives in the flood — they were swept right up into God's arms," Girata said. "I believe that God's heart broke first for these children and that God was right there to welcome them in."
When people ask why God would allow such a tragedy, Girata is clear: this was not part of a divine plan.
"In times of crisis, especially in death, a lot of times people are quick to say it was part of God's plan," he said. "That is not what we believe. And so when we speak of God's plan, I want to be super clear — God does not plan for children to die. God's promise — not God's plan, but God's promise — is that even when terrible things happen, God walks with us through those horrible moments and can make something good out of even the darkest experiences. That light of hope, that light of Christ, is what we have in that darkness."
Supporting those who stepped up
Girata said he wants to validate the pain people are feeling, while also pointing them toward hope and healing.
"One of the things I did not really anticipate was talking to some of the teenagers here in this church who had been counselors," he said. "In the moment of need, they saved these children. And the responsibility that that puts on them — the kind of pressure that they would have felt. They're heroes, and they're also feeling this incredible grief."
He said those young counselors are now processing the trauma of waking up to floodwaters above their windows and having to rescue the children in their care.
Healing through connection
Girata said the church will continue to support them — and the entire community — in the days and weeks ahead.
He encourages anyone struggling to seek out connection.
"Do not stay isolated," he said. "Whenever this kind of experience happens, it's very natural to want to kind of close yourself off in your own grief, to try and process things on your own. And I would encourage people to not stay separated from others. When we get together, we can cry, we can laugh, we can pray, we can sing. Being together makes us better. Being together helps us to heal."
