FINDING HOPE IN THE VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE

Recently, an international student of Virginia Tech College in America gunned down 32 of his fellow students and professors, before killing himself. "What does God have to say to us about this senseless tragedy? " asks Charisma editor Lee Grady. He calls on churches in America to make campus ministry a priority. "History proves that students are often key players in spiritual revival. This was obvious during the First Great Awakening, in the 1806 Haystack Revival and in the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. Many of today’s Millennial Generation grew up in a confusing world of divorce, alienation, online pornography, parental rejection and empty materialism. We shouldn’t be surprised that a growing number of them are showing up on campus with chronic depression and suppressed rage. We serve a God who can heal their pain - but He wants to use us to show His supernatural love. Are we equipped and willing to do it?" Many of today’s college students are dynamic witnesses for Christ. One of those witnesses is Lauren McCain, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech freshman who was killed in this act of violence. Since her death, hundreds of thousands of people have visited her MySpace page where she described herself this way: "The purpose and love of my life is Jesus Christ. I don’t have to argue religion, philosophy or historical evidence because I KNOW Him. He is just as real, if not more so, than my ‘earthly’ father." Some people acted heroically in the midst of the shooting drama. Professor Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old Israeli immigrant and Holocaust survivor, sacrificed his life to save his students at Virginia Tech by throwing himself in front of the shooter when the man tried to enter his classroom. "All the students lived because of him," student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - is quoted as saying. Interestingly, it was on Holocaust Remembrance Day that this Holocaust survivor gave his life to save the lives of others. This year is the 400th anniversary of the Gospel coming to Virginia, and the 40th anniversary of the Jesus Movement that touched many universities in America. On 26 - 29 April 2007 Christians from all over the United States gathered on Virginia beach to pray (Visit this Project’s website: www.theassembly2007.org), and on 7 July 2007 thousands of young people from across America will gather in Nashville to fast, pray and cry out to God for another awakening (Visit www.thecall.com). On this date Jaeson Ma’s book ‘The Blueprint - A Revolutionary Plan to Plant Missional Communities on Campus’, will be released, a book that is expected to catalyze simple church move-ments on university campuses all over the United States. [Sources: Lee Grady, The Jerusalem Post, Lou Engle, Jaeson Ma via Joel News].