Billy Graham Chaplains Help Chicago Suburb Process Mass Shooting

At memorial sites across Highland Park, Illinois, Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (BG-RRT) chaplains gave community members an opportunity to share their thoughts and emotions after the Fourth of July parade shooting.

The crisis-trained chaplains talked with law enforcement officers who were on the scene that tragic day. They prayed with a young woman who grew up with the shooter. And they allowed many in the small town to begin processing their grief, shock and loss.

“We just want to be here as God’s presence,” said Frieda Roulds, who’s serving with her husband as BG-RRT chaplain coordinators for this deployment. “If He gives us words to say, we say those words. If He doesn’t give us words to say, we keep our mouths quiet.”

See more photos and stories from this deployment, just 27 miles from Chicago.