I just got back from Cru tonight. We sang some songs, Jeff read a bit from the Word, and then we had students come up and share about their friends who were lost. I wrote down a few quotes I thought you would enjoy reading.

“Lauren challenged me to know scripture more.”

“The reason God took her is because He wanted her back. But I feel so selfish because I want her back here.” (about Lauren)

A girl who served as Lauren’s orientation leader last summer said that she asked the students to share 1 thing they wanted the group to know about them. Lauren said, “I want everyone to know that I love Jesus.”

“Somehow when you talked to Lauren, she got to the center of your soul.”

“I was mad at God, like, ‘God, she could have totally rocked this campus for you!’ And then I thought, wow she already has.”

“I hope I can impact in my whole life the number of people Lauren impacted in her short life.”

“Lauren loved to praise God.”

“You don’t have to be Lauren’s good friend to feel like her best friend.”

Mary Read’s parents sent a note to be read to us, and they wanted us to know that she loved CCC and her Cru Bible study, and couldn’t stop thinking about it. They also told a story about her 5 younger siblings, who thought she “hung the moon.” They shared a story about the weekend before she died she was at home, and was sitting on the stairs IM’ing her friends on her laptop. Sitting next to her was her little brother with a toy computer in his lap.

After the students shared, we sang more songs. My favorite moment was as we sung “It is well with my soul.” It was incredible to be among this group of extremely wounded people, worshipping God together, hearing and feeling the pain we all felt in our voices.

“Tho’ Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come, let this bless’d assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and hath shed His own blood for my soul.”

That was when I began to cry, just realizing how incredibly gracious God has been to us, to send Jesus for us, so that even when we die, there is incredible hope that we will be with him. We miss our friends, but we will see them again. And it’s all because of Jesus.

The last verse about Christ’s return was equally powerful. I don’t think I’ve ever so greatly desired Christ’s return as during this experience. I never want to go through another event like this again, but I know I will. I know I will lose more people I love, and will experience pain from another’s sin as well as my own probably many times in my life before the end. That thought just drove me to pray, “Lord, I am begging you to come back soon!” But if He chooses to wait longer, I have the promises of God to trust in through these painful times, that He will never leave us, that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8), that goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever(psalm 23), just to name a few. I think often how much I wish this had happened somewhere else. I want my old life back more than anything. But at the same time, since it did happen, I’m so thankful to be here to weather this storm with the people I love here. It was wonderful to worship the Lord tonight with my brothers and sisters at VT.

Tomorrow I will go help my friend, Chum, clean out Lauren McCain’s room. I disciple Chum, who discipled Lauren. Chum is doing okay, but absolutely brokenhearted over the loss of her friend. A few other close friends of Lauren will be coming with us too, so I know there will be a lot of tears as we box up her belongings. Please pray for us as we do this extremely painful task.

Chick Fil A is donating a TON of food for us to serve dinner at Cru tonight- how amazing is that!? Molly will be speaking at Cru tonight, so please also pray for her as she shares with the movement. We also anticipate some media presence there, so pray for them to be overly respectful and not distracting as we try to worship together. I am very concerned that they will distract us from worshipping and disrupt our community, so we’ll see.

You can now view Molly’s interviews with the National Media online. Molly is a freshman that is involved in the ministry of Campus Crusade at Virginia Tech. She lived next door to the first victim of Mondays’ shootings.

• Interview with CBS
  
• Molly’s Interview with ABC News - mentions her involvement in a Christian Bible study group

Also read Molly’s story as told by Tony Arnold, Media Relation’s Director with the Campus Ministry.

At 10 tonight we met at the chapel for prayer and praise. I split off in a group of 5 girls, and none of them were really ready to pray I think. We prayed for the victim’s families. One student who is attending a summer project with my husband and I to North Africa this summer, Tony, came and told me that he had received a support check in the mail that day from one of the Cru students killed. Wow. We were all really… I don’t know it was just a “wow” moment. I stood outside with my husband and a student, Tim, and talked about how we were, and the student said something that I thought just summed up how I was feeling too. He said, “I mean, things were so great…” I just said, “Yeah they really were!” A lot of us are grieving the loss of the way it was, and unsure of what “normal” will be. Afterwards, I was talking with one of the girls in my Bible study, Jessica, and she was very grieved but unsure of why since she didn’t know any of the deceased very well. Two of the girls she leads have been greatly impacted, losing one member of their Bible study and another member being traumatized by finding two of the dead. She mourned for them, feeling completely clueless of how to minister to them. I can relate to that. I feel like that too. Two members of the Billy Graham rapid response team were here, and we all prayed for Jessica, which I really appreciated and I think she did too.

Oh, by the way, something I forgot to mention about our noon prayer time today. As we were finishing up our prayer time, Jeff, our director, says on the bullhorn, “now Franklin Graham is here with a message for anyone who wants to listen.” And there was Franklin Graham not 10 feet from me! To be honest, I was a little starstruck:) I thought to myself, “Heck yes i’ll listen to what Franklin Graham has to say!” He shared with us a little from scripture, specifically John 3:16 I remember, just telling us that God loved us and was in control, but he had no answer for why this happened. If I could see over the photographers that were standing between us and him, I’d probably have enjoyed it more, but all of us were really honored that he came to minister to us. I think that was when it really hit me how big of a thing this is internationally. I mean, its a big thing for us in Blacksburg, but I’m realizing its a big thing for everyone in America, and around the world. It’s strange to be somewhere where history is in the making. Well, it’s for the birds if you ask me. I’d give anything for life to be as it was a week ago.

The staff at Virginia Tech have asked us to specifically pray for the following things:

1. The families of the students who were killed
2. The students who were injured and still in the hospital
3. Four students that were involved with Campus Crusade were killed. Please pray for their families and friends.
4. Survivors of the shootings who witnessed the horrors of that day. Pray for God’s grace and comfort
5. Pray for wisdom for the CCC Staff and other campus ministers and pastors as they seek to counsel and love the hurting students

“I sat straight up in bed. It sounded like a girl’s scream,” explained Molly.

The redheaded freshman continued, “As I was putting my clothes on, I heard four sharp sounds and another scream. I thought the legs of one of my neighbor’s loft beds had collapsed. I opened my dorm room door and looked down the hall. There was a pool of blood flowing from under Emily’s door. Sneaker prints were in the blood heading across the hall toward the elevator or stairs.”

“I was so scared!” Tears began to flow from her eyes. “I tried to open Emily’s door. As I pushed on the door, I realized there was a man’s body lying on the floor…”

Sarah Gale, a Campus Crusade Regional Director, and I were sitting with Molly and her family in an IHOP restaurant near VA Tech on Tuesday evening. Molly is a freshman very active with Campus Crusade.

In the next few minutes, Molly’s parents, sitting between Sarah and me, heard for the very first time the full story of what her daughter went through early Monday morning. Molly was the first person to discover the first murder victims!

For an eternity we shared in the tears, the tension and the horror of Monday as Molly shared the rest of her story. Just a few hours earlier, we had all heard the news that the body of one of Molly’s close friends had been identified by her parents at the morgue. Lauren was also active in Campus Crusade.

Dozens of CRU students, beginning with her student Bible Study leaders, the girls in her freshman Bible Study, her boyfriend Tom and the guys in his study have all rallied around Molly. She is trusting in her Lord. But her emotions are very raw and the tears come easily when she remembers.

Molly believes the shooter randomly chose the 4th floor to come out of the stairs and started opening the first doors. The girl at the first room always locks her door. Molly rarely locks her door, but because Tom had insisted she lock her door Sunday night she did. Emily’s door is often unlocked. Except for a locked door and for sleeping through her alarm, Molly believes she could have been the first person on the floor to meet the shooter.

Molly wants to tell her story. Molly has been mercifully protected from the press so far.

Molly, her parents and I agreed that I would get in touch with a few of my contacts at the largest news media. She will tell her story to a national audience under times and places of our choosing.

Then Molly will stop doing interviews!

She will be buffered and protected by her friends and the VA Tech Campus Crusade for Christ staff. I promised Molly and her parents, that Campus Crusade would do whatever it takes to help her feel safe. If she needs to get away with her friends, we’ll make it happen. As we sat together remembering, the slightest sound could startle her.

Molly is never alone. She will not be going back to her dorm room. I was with Molly and Tom last night until well after midnight as we moved around campus and from house to house where groups of her friends gathered to sing and pray. Some cried. Some watched videos or played games.

I was on the phone with the major networks until well after midnight. Around 11pm, Molly decided she didn’t want to do the live morning shows.

Please keep Molly in your prayers as she tells her story of horror and the comfort she is experiencing from the Lord with her friends.

Tonight we had a bunch of students over to our director’s house to eat some Chick Fil A that was donated for us, and to celebrate our director’s daughter’s second birthday. About 40 students came, and we had a really good time. Many of the students now just want to not talk about the incident and get their minds off of it. We did watch an interview with one of our students, Molly, on CBS evening news, which was pretty emotional for some of the students who are good friends with her. But other than that, for the most part we just enjoyed each other’s company and hung out. It was really nice. Later tonight we will have another prayer time, only this time the staff guys will be “bouncers” for the media so we can actually pray instead of being distracted by cameras and stuff like that.

Today we had a campus ministry prayer meeting in the center of the drill field, where 150+ students from different religious faiths came together to pray. We split the students into groups with those who were of the same faith, and prayed for the victims’ families, the family of the murderer, the VT administration and the VT campus.

I was again struck by the sorrow that is hanging over all of us here. The students are mourning the loss of their friends, their sense of security, and longing for things to get back to “normal”.

One very frustrating thing about the prayer time was the overwhelming presence of the media. We didn’t choose the drill field for media attention at all, but unfortunately that seems to be one of the central hubs for all activity related to the incident on campus right now. The cameramen were attempting to be respectful, but how can one pray when a strange man is poking a camera in your face and holding a boom microphone over your head? It was incredibly distracting to say the least, but I found it refreshing to be together with the students, talking to God and fellowshipping with each other.

Tonight we have another Cru only prayer time in the chapel, which is right off the drill field. However, we are restricting access to the media for this time. Our students need to meet with the Lord together in an undistracting environment. We are all ready for life to get back to normal. I fear for what that means though, that it will never be the same here again. I’ll just have to trust the Lord that time heals wounds. However, I think the media leaving will be a huge sigh of relief for most of us, though we know that if the tables were turned, we’d want to know what was going on as well.

In times like these we desperately need God - we need God to meet with us, to comfort us, and to give us perspective. We need to look heavenward to the One who can give grace and pour out His mercy in our time of need.

In view of this, the leadership of Campus Crusade for Christ invites you to join together sometime this Thursday in a concerted gathering to call on God. Perhaps you could invite others in your community to join together with the staff, students, alumni, and laypeople throughout our country to call on the Lord to work in this very difficult situation.

I also think it would be an incredible testimony and blessing to the Virginia Tech community to know there has been such an outpouring of love demonstrated by prayer.

So if God is leading you to join us, would you mind leaving a comment to let us know that you are joining us in prayer? Would you let us know the location (city, state) you will be praying and leave an encouraging note for our Campus Crusade for Christ community at Virginia Tech?

Today we found an article written by John Piper after the Columbine shooting about how to minister to those suffering. Here is a link to the article. I thought it was excellent, Biblical, and very practical.

If the link doesn’t work, here is the web address: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/577_what_to_say_about_virginia_tech/