Columbine-ten years later

I still remember the day, April 20, 1999. I had been at my first "real" job at Focus on the Family for about a month. I was working in my cubicle when someone said "Carrie, aren't you from Littleton? There was a mass shooting at a high school there!" I quickly checked the news on the internet and couldn't believe it. 

A few years earlier I had been working with high school students at Bear Creek Church, and I knew that some of the students had gone to Columbine High School. It took hours and hours to hear if my friends were ok. They all were, but obviously not everyone had the same kind of news. My friend, Amy, worked at the church where one of the girls who died went to church. Countless other stories would emerge in the coming weeks. It was a surreal time.

The evening of April 20, we were in Denver as a family trying to celebrate my mom's birthday. I remember us all sitting in silence at the restaurant, still in shock from the day's events. I attended the memorial service at Clement Park a few weeks later. What an emotional experience that was. To see so many young peoples' lives changed forever was unimaginable.

When I started working with Campus Crusade here in the Springs I met Hannah, a beautiful, godly college student that served with us on leadership. She had been at Columbine that day, and for the first time I heard what it was like to be a survivor. Hannah has a posting on her blog today that reflects on that horrible day, and talks about how life has been altered during the past ten years because of it. Please read her entry and be praying for everyone who is continuing to grieve and process the events of that horrible day.

May we rejoice that we serve a great God who is bigger than all of this and who gives peace and hope to the weary.