On vacation earlier this month our family flew the red eye direct from Philadelphia to Denver and then back. It is a little over a two hour drive from my in-laws home in Pueblo to the Denver Airport. Since our flight back home was not leaving until 12:30am, we had time to kill so we spent a few hours at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and then headed further north to meet some of Laura’s extended family in Littleton, Colorado. We arrived a bit early so we got directions to a high school that every adult in America is familiar with…Columbine High School.
Back in 1999, two troubled students took assault weapons into the school and open fired resulting in the death of 12 High School students and 1 teacher. If you are like me, you will always remember the news footage of that day. As we stood outside the school, we were looking right at the spot where law enforcement officials evacuated students from the school with their hands above their heads. As we walked around the school we could see through the windows into the library where so many of the deaths occurred. We then looked into the cafeteria where I could vividly remember the security film released by the school that showed the pandemonium that occurred in the lunchroom on that day.
We then walked over to the nearby park where the Columbine Memorial rests. This memorial is very well done with an inner circle with 13 slabs of concrete, each one of them representing one of the 13 individuals who were killed on that fatal day. Each slab has the person’s name and a paragraph about them that was written by their families. Around the wall surrounding this inner circle were quotes from students, faculty, parents, and even former President Bill Clinton regarding the events of that day.
As a parent of two teenagers and as a pastor who oversees a ministry that has well over 500 children, teenagers and adults in our building most every day through the ministries of Morningstar Daycare and Lititz Christian School, walking around Columbinbe High School and standing by this memorial captivated me. But the thing that most moved me was watching my two kids. Jonathan (age 16) was only 7 years old when the shootings took place and had very little knowledge of the events. As we walked around the school, looking into the library and cafeteria windows, I explained to him the timeline of that day as best as I remembered it.
But watching both he and Joy (age 18) as they slowly walked around the memorial reading every word that was etched in the stones was almost emotional for me. You could see them trying to take in the tragic events that this memorial was created because of and trying to identify with the victims who were the same ages then as my children are today. Joy could not get her mind away from the one quote on the wall that basically said that what happened at Columbine could happen anywhere. What a reminder to me as the leader of our ministry of my need to pray more fervently and more often for the safety of our students and our employees and for the effectiveness of our ministry day in and day out. I think Jonathan said it best as he and I walked back to the car when he said, “Dad, I’m going to be thinking about this for the rest of the day.” I know I did. In fact, I still am!
Back in 1999, two troubled students took assault weapons into the school and open fired resulting in the death of 12 High School students and 1 teacher. If you are like me, you will always remember the news footage of that day. As we stood outside the school, we were looking right at the spot where law enforcement officials evacuated students from the school with their hands above their heads. As we walked around the school we could see through the windows into the library where so many of the deaths occurred. We then looked into the cafeteria where I could vividly remember the security film released by the school that showed the pandemonium that occurred in the lunchroom on that day.
We then walked over to the nearby park where the Columbine Memorial rests. This memorial is very well done with an inner circle with 13 slabs of concrete, each one of them representing one of the 13 individuals who were killed on that fatal day. Each slab has the person’s name and a paragraph about them that was written by their families. Around the wall surrounding this inner circle were quotes from students, faculty, parents, and even former President Bill Clinton regarding the events of that day.
As a parent of two teenagers and as a pastor who oversees a ministry that has well over 500 children, teenagers and adults in our building most every day through the ministries of Morningstar Daycare and Lititz Christian School, walking around Columbinbe High School and standing by this memorial captivated me. But the thing that most moved me was watching my two kids. Jonathan (age 16) was only 7 years old when the shootings took place and had very little knowledge of the events. As we walked around the school, looking into the library and cafeteria windows, I explained to him the timeline of that day as best as I remembered it.
But watching both he and Joy (age 18) as they slowly walked around the memorial reading every word that was etched in the stones was almost emotional for me. You could see them trying to take in the tragic events that this memorial was created because of and trying to identify with the victims who were the same ages then as my children are today. Joy could not get her mind away from the one quote on the wall that basically said that what happened at Columbine could happen anywhere. What a reminder to me as the leader of our ministry of my need to pray more fervently and more often for the safety of our students and our employees and for the effectiveness of our ministry day in and day out. I think Jonathan said it best as he and I walked back to the car when he said, “Dad, I’m going to be thinking about this for the rest of the day.” I know I did. In fact, I still am!
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