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Brent Jesiek
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Deann Alford
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2007-06-18
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<i>Christian fellowship helps survivors of the Virginia Tech shootings deal with larger issues.</i>
Deann Alford in Blacksburg, Virginia | posted 4/23/2007 09:50AM
<b>F</b>our former Columbine students worshiped with Virginia Tech's New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF) yesterday. It was the church's first Sunday worship gathering since the April 16 massacre that claimed 33 lives, including gunman Seung-Hui Cho.
Christians were among the victims. Two NLCF members died, and 10 other victims were connected in some way to the church. Church leaders honored the dead, prayed for their families, and addressed why-and-how questions that went beyond forensics.
The four Christians who as adolescents survived the massacre at Columbine High School almost eight years ago traveled to the southwestern Virginia campus to guide church leaders and minister to students processing grief, anger, and sorrow.
Wendy Chinn, a counseling graduate student who leads NLCF's women's ministry, acknowledged that everyone is weary of the question, "How are you doing?"
"Some lost someone extremely close. Others lost an acquaintance," Chinn said to the almost 400 people and network television cameras in the full auditorium. "Others still had a class in Norris, lived in A-J [West Ambler Johnston dormitory]. We remember where we were when it happened. We all grieve very differently. We're all going through it together. We know this is hard, know it's going to take time."
Chris Backert, one of three NLCF pastors, referred to Mark 4, where Christ's disciples were caught in a boat during a storm. "We have all been through a storm. Why was it her? Why was it him? It could have been me." Backert noted that Jesus did not cause the storm. All the world's evil, he said, is sin that results when people choose to rebel against God. "When that tragedy strikes us, it also strikes God."
Congregation members submitted written questions asking whether Monday's massacre was part of God's plan, what forgiveness of Cho would look like, and what the church is doing to help. One student asked whether he could have prevented Cho's actions by being more in-tune with God. Another asked whether it was okay to be mad at God.
Pastors answered the questions by explaining that God gives each person free will. Forgiveness, they said, would look different for each person. Concerning whether the massacre could have been prevented, co-pastor Matt Rogers said that each person is responsible for his or her own action. However, he told the congregation, "Not one verse of Scripture says you're responsible for what happened."
Concerning anger at God, co-pastor Jim Pace referred to Job, who responded at first with praise and then with anger to the calamity that befell him. So, where was God when the Virginia Tech massacre happened? Pace answered, "God was in us, being heroic in the face of incredible fear."
Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today.
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Used by permission, Christianity Today 2007
Original Source: <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/aprilweb-only/117-12.0.html">http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/aprilweb-only/117-12.0.html</a>
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eng
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Becky Custer, Editorial Coordinator (bcuster@christianitytoday.com)
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Asking Why
christian
christianity
fellowship
nlcf
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Document
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Brent Jesiek
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Philip Yancey
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2007-06-18
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<i>Campus life after the tragedy at Virginia Tech.</i>
Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 08:01AM
"April is the cruellest month." When T. S. Eliot penned that opening line to "The Waste Land" in 1921, he had no idea how it would resound in modern America. Oklahoma City, Columbine High School, and Virginia Tech—our calendars mark all three within a span of five days, a week soaked in grief.
"As a youth minister, you anticipate weddings, not funerals," said Matt Rogers of New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF), a Christian community that meets in the Student Center at Virginia Tech. "We have no playbook for something like this."
I spoke at NLCF two weeks after the tragedy, accompanied by the Ruegsegger family, whose daughter Kacey survived gunshot wounds at Columbine High School eight years ago. "Very few people know what you're going through," Kacey told the students gathered for the somber service. "We've been there."
The news media portrayed yet another mass killing on a U.S. campus. What greeted the visitor, though, was an overwhelming display of national solidarity. Banners and posters hung in many school buildings, covered with tens of thousands of handwritten messages of support. And a cluster of spontaneous memorials appeared around campus. Each day, visitors filed past the mounds of mementoes—a baseball, a Starbucks cup, a teddy bear, a favorite novel—that gave individuality to the 33 who'd died.
Spring arrived late in western Virginia. As April faded into May, redbud and wild dogwood trees dotted the surrounding hills. Tulips and daffodils set off the gray stone university buildings. "It's usually such a happy time," mused one student. "We pack our books and stereos and head home, some of us with diplomas. This year, a gray haze hangs over everything."
Before departing, many students paid one last visit to Norris Hall, blocked off with a green fence and yellow police tape. Where they used to attend classes, state patrolmen now stood guard.
Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today.
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Used by permission, Christianity Today 2007
Original Source: <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/june/15.56.html">http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/june/15.56.html</a>
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eng
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Becky Custer, Editorial Coordinator (bcuster@christianitytoday.com)
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A Gray Haze over Everything
christian
christianity
nlcf