I hate those occasional phone calls that wake you from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. Do they ever bring good news? Will's office calls his cell phone to deliver their own brand of bad news, so when our house phone rings in the wee hours, it's a heart-pounding, dry-mouth experience for me.
Last night's news was particularly horrifying, but quite selfishly, I was relieved to know that all my loved ones were safe and unharmed.
Will picked up the phone, and I could hear a woman's voice but not what was being said. After a minute of watching Will apparently having difficulty comprehending the call, he said, "Let me give the phone to LeAnn. She hears better than I do!" It was Sarah, Craig's girlfriend who is a student at the School of Worship at the Denver YWAM. She was talking very fast and obviously a little stressed, saying when they came back from bowling that night shortly after midnight, they got turned away by a police barricade, because two people had been shot at their YWAM dorm. They went to a staff member's home, and all the students were to call someone to let them know they were safe. She couldn't make an international call to reach Craig or her parents in Germany so she called us. She was very concerned for them to know she was all right, and I told her we would contact Craig. I also gave her my international calling card numbers so she could call them herself.
Will tried to find some news of this event on the internet, but there was nothing. He emailed Craig and we eventually went back to sleep. This morning the news reported that two people had been shot and killed, and two others shot and injured at the dorm by a young man who had stopped by and asked if he could spend the night there.
We had an email from Craig that said, "I awoke to a violent start (certainly no pun intended there) by Toby, one of the guys I work with. He said "Sarah is wanting to call you, people are shooting each other at the Denver base." Or something along those lines, Toby has a bad sometimes inconveniently innaccurate grasp of time tenses in the English language sometimes." Craig called us this afternoon after his adrenaline rush had faded and he had talked to Sarah. He said she is a rock because she has the peace that's of God. They are determined to keep seeking God with their whole heart and trust that He is in control. But it is a very traumatic time for them. Please keep them and the many others affected by these tragedies in your prayers.
Later when I came home from church I learned that a gunman had opened fire in the lobby of a mega-church in Colorado Springs, killing at least one person and injuring others, and the news has continued to unfold throughout the day. Turns out that an armed church security guard shot and killed the gunman, preventing him from killing and injuring any more than he already had. What? A church with an armed security staff? There are many, many things that I don't understand.
Of course, I don't have to understand everything, because I have a God who does.
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." (Isaiah 40:28)
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