This was sent to me by a friend of Kim's, I think it really gives us a good idea of what to pray specifically, and helps to put more of a personal face on want may be tempted to be a impersonal tragedy. We need to not only feel deeply for those hurting, but aid in what ways we can. If anyone has any idea's, please don't hesitate to share. Already the Body of Believers on Campus are reaching out.
Hello all, Thank you for your continued prayers for the staff and students at Virginia Tech. Please keep praying. I imagine I might have more to update you on later tonight but I don't know that I'll get a chance to email so here is what I know so far. Jeff and Lisa Highfield (the directors of Cru here) with Sarah Gale (the regional director) have been at the Crusade office all day to provide comfort to the students and to brainstorm direction for the staff. They spent most of the day trying to confirm who was injured and killed by making contact with the students. So far, they have confirmed that 4 members of their ministry were killed, 2 women and 2 men. One of the women was a junior and was likely going to take over the international aspect of the campus ministry next year, the other was a freshman. One of the men was actually a student of another campus but was a part of the ROTC program at tech and was in a Crusade Bible Study. One of the big distractions is the amount of media and the invasiveness of their contact with the staff and students here. As I mentioned before, Jeff was on the 700 club this morning and has been consistently bombarded with requests for newspaper, magazine and television interviews. Everyone is trying to find that perfect story or interview and they aren't acting with much tact to get it. It has been an unnecessary distraction that has interrupted the mourning process of everyone here. Would you please pray that the Christians here would respond well to the requests, knowing which requests to answer and also for wisdom as they seek to represent the Lord well in media. In some cases it seems as if the media is asking the Christians to speak for God - explaining why God would allow something like this, or telling where He was. These questions really are impossible to answer and it's clear that no one will really be satisfied with the answers so please pray for wisdom and guidance while they're being interviewed. Continuing with the media prayer requests, there were several Cru students who were present at each stage of the shooting and therefore are being pursued heavily by the media. Molly, a freshman involved in Cru, was the first person to discover the bodies in the dorm room. She is in complete shock at this point, acting somewhat erratically and swaying from one emotion to the next. Please pray for her emotional, physical and spiritual health as she seeks to process through what she saw. CBS will be interviewing her this morning and airing her interview sometime in the next few days. Please pray for Molly this morning. Please also pray for Sarah Gale who will be accompanying her and Tony Arnold (a national staff member who advises on media relations). Molly's story is an incredible story of God's protection of her. Several things came together that morning to protect her - including the fact that she locked her door that morning for the first time and that she slept through her alarm (something she rarely does) and if she had not she likely would have encountered the shooter in the hallway. Molly believes that the shooter went down her hallway and checked the first room, then hers and found that it was locked and so entered the room where Emily and her RA was shot (the 3rd room). As they still have found no connection between the shooter and the people in the dorm room we believe that the Lord did supernaturally protected Molly. Jeff Highfield advertised a website when he was on TV called Gobbletalk.com and everystudent.com. Both are evangelistic websites. On gobbletalk.com there is a facebook ad that takes you to a link called "Where is God in the midst of tragedy?". In the last day there have been 3600 hits to this link, including 9 people who have indicated they made decisions for Christ after reading the article. To help explain the immensity of this, in February they did a media campaign where the sent out 120,000 flyers with the websites address on it. For the entire month of February there were 2600 hits. We're praising the Lord that in the midst of tragedy he is bringing people to himself. Today there will be a prayer meeting at 12:00 at the drill field (kind of like Old Main lawn for the Penn Staters). It is open to all and is being led by the Religious affairs department which encompasses all of the religions on campus. If you could, it would be great if you would pray with us then as well. Thursday evening they are still planning having their regular Crusade meeting. Would you please pray for Jeff as he prepares what to tell the students at that time? There were many students at the house last night and they are a mix of emotions and are all different stages in the mourning process. Jeff and Lisa are opening up their home today for students to come which means that their daughters will likely encounter many of them. We have tried to shelter the girls from thinking anything is wrong but the oldest is aware that something bad happened. Would you please pray for Katie (4) and Lauren (who turns 2 today). I am trying to organize an impromptu birthday party for Lauren today. Please pray that she would feel special. Also, it is Jeff's birthday on Thursday. It may seem silly to think of these things at a time like this but would you please pray for the normal things of life to be celebrated even in sadness. At this point Sarah is leaving on Thursday to go to Singapore and I'm thinking of leaving at the same time. Would you pray that staff would arrive when Sarah leaves and so would babysitting support? I think Tim Henderson will be replacing Sarah and if he does come they may ask him to speak at the weekly meeting. Tim leads the Penn State Cru movement. I suggested that Tim share something about Community 2:8 with a twist, about providing open spaces for their friends to mourn. I'm not sure if that's what will happen but if Tim does speak, please pray for his words as well. Well, I'm sure there's more but I hear the girls upstairs and I'm going to see if I can help. I'll try and update as I hear more. Oh and PS I bought a phone charger. Feel free to call me again.
Love! Thank you! Kim
