Shooting at Texas church

I spent a half-hour with the pastor of this church today. We are at the same church conference, and he was seated a row away from me. I noticed the town on his name tag and his mustache suddenly was very familar. We spoke about the current state of his church — the building and the people — how his wife and family have coped wit the death of their daughter and how the event has informed their future building plans. I was amazed to find that his church already had a safety team designed to react to incidents like this; nobody considered the idea of a shooter doing most of his damage from outside.

But mostly, we talked about this thankfulness that God spared most of his family. How his faith was strengthened since the shooting. How he has found the strength to lead his congregation through these circumstances, and the challenges that still remain. And how he continually has been reminded about the love of God.

I have no religious or political point other than to say here is a man whose family and church family were rocked to the core, and here he is, six months later (and three days after breaking ground on a new building) talking to me about faith, grace and love. A few moments later, I could hear him behind me singing “Behold Our God” nice and strong and loud.

It was an honor to shake his hand.

 

Nice story, thanks. But, umm, Jesus* on the copy desk has a question ...


* "Hay-ZOOS," AND HE'S FROM FROM EAST L.A.

 

Ha. He was in front of me when we first made the connection. We talked later that day when someone had beaten him back to his spot and he moved to the row behind me. He didn’t know to save his seat with a book or something.

But I will revise the original because ya, that’s confusing.

 

Ha. I knew it would somehow come back around on me like that.