Billy Graham Rapid Response Team Sends Crisis Counselors to Colorado After Shootings
Ministry Deploys Team of Chaplains Following Attacks at Christian Centers
ARVADA, Colo., Dec. 12, 2007 -- Responding to the deadly shootings at two Christian centers in Colorado, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has deployed its Rapid Response Team of crisis-trained chaplains to help provide counseling and comfort.
On Sunday, a gunman opened fired and killed four people in separate attacks at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) training center in Arvada, Colo., and New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The BGEA Rapid Response Team is focusing its efforts on YWAM after an initial assessment indicated that New Life Church already has significant trauma and grief resources available.
Two Rapid Response Team chaplains, including one who is also in leadership with YWAM, are currently at the YWAM training center where they are praying with and comforting survivors of Sunday’s tragedy.
“When tragic events like this take place, people are suddenly traumatized and find themselves dealing with a range of difficult emotions as they are overwhelmed with feelings of grief,” said Jack Munday, director of the Rapid Response Team. “Although there is great hope, assurance and inner-strength seen among the YWAM students and faculty as only found in a personal faith in Christ, we’re here to serve and offer a listening ear during this tragic time.”
The BGEA Rapid Response Team will continue to assess the situation in Colorado and determine whether more chaplains or ministry resources will be needed there.
“This is not like the San Diego wildfires, where we deployed 195 chaplains and prayed with 2,050 people over a six-week period,” said Munday. “YWAM is a small, close-knit community so our deployment is understandably smaller to fill a different type of need.”
The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team was formed in the days following September 11, 2001, and has developed into a network of 2,300 chaplains and ministry volunteers across the United States ready to respond anywhere in the country when man-made or natural disasters strike. Dating back to its inception, the Rapid Response Team has deployed 19 times, with eleven of those deployments taking place thus far in 2007. Along with the San Diego wildfires, the Rapid Response Team’s deployments in 2007 have included Blacksburg, Va. following the shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech, Minneapolis following the collapse of the I-35 bridge, and Crandon, Wis. following the shootings of several young people there in October.
