Mourning for YWAM Denver

There's something about putting faces to a tragedy that brings it home all the more forcibly. I was deeply disturbed to hear and read about the killings at the YWAM Denver base yesterday. But seeing faces put to the names of the deceased made it even more grievous in some way. When I saw their pictures, what hit me first was how young they looked, and also how incredibly inhumane their manner of passing, as they simply served as staff at a YWAM base.

	Tiffany Johnson, a 26-year-old staff member from Minnesota, was one of the two YWAM'ers murdered yesterday. One of her fellow staff members has written a brief post about Tiffany and her incredible character and servant's heart.
	Phil Crouse, a 24-year-old hailing from Alaska, was another hard-working and gifted young man, with dreams and visions of a future doing work in Central Asia. Another staff member has written a brief biography about Phil.

To compound matters, although neither Tiffany nor Phil (or the other two victims) knew their assailant, it turns out that he had once begun (but not completed) a Discipleship Training School (DTS) at the very base where the murders took place. What drove him to attack staff members he had never met before is a question that may go unanswered.

What has been answered, so far, is that the shooter was the same one who showed up at New Life Church in Colorado Springs later the same day, where he shot and killed two sisters (ages 16 and 18), who had also been involved in a YWAM summer project in co-operation with New Life Church. And, of course, that the shooter has also been killed, by a security guard at the church.

Today, at our own YWAM base, we all grappled together with the senseless violence and tragic losses of these two incidents.

During the all-base worship time, we were led through portions of St. Patrick's Breastplate, as a way of interceding for the families of the deceased, and the staff & students at YWAM Denver as they embrace the grieving and mourning of yesterday's events.

We ended our time of worship and prayer with an old Canadian worship song:

He said peace
Peace be with you
His gentle voice brings calm in troubled times
He said peace
Peace be with you
There is rest, and refuge in His arms

Please continue to pray!