In the days following the deadly Oct. 1, 2015, shooting at Umpqua Community College, signs like “Roseburg Strong” and “Pray for UCC” popped up across the small southern Oregon town.
Now, almost five months later, some of those signs have come down. The community is healing, but it isn’t returning to normal. It can’t. Nine people died that October day and many were injured after a student entered a UCC classroom and began shooting. He later turned the gun on himself.
“We’ll never be the same,” said Grant Goins, associate pastor of Roseburg Alliance Church. “Grief touches all of us, not just those who were on campus.
“The shooting has provided an opportunity for people to be more real with each other.”
The tragedy also has opened the opportunity for a “ministry of presence.” Goins said he really hadn’t considered that phrase until he attended a Sharing Hope in Crisis seminar held by the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (RRT) during its Oregon deployment. Nine RRT crisis-trained chaplains deployed to offer emotional and spiritual care to Roseburg last October.
The training was held early during the deployment, and roughly 50 pastors attended among others. Since then, Goins has kept the “ministry of presence” concept in mind, and he’s quick to offer up the following story as one of his favorite examples of this in action:
A member of his congregation, a pizza deliveryman with a heart for vocational ministry, attended the training with Goins and others. Prior to the training, he had grumbled somewhat to Goins about how he wished he could be in ministry, but alas, he was delivering pizzas. Goins encouraged him, saying he still could have an impact just by bringing food to someone unable to leave the house because of grief.
After the training, the man resumed delivering pizzas.
“Talk about a ministry of presence,” Goins said. “He showed up to the first delivery he had (that night). He went to this woman’s house with a pizza, and she wept with him for about 15 minutes. He didn’t say much of anything. He was just present.”
The love of Jesus is continually being poured into this community, Goins said. Some means are tangible like the UCC Strong Fund, which was created to help victims, the families of victims and others impacted with everything from funeral expenses to unpaid rent. Another public expression happened in late January when the Portland Trail Blazers bused in around 250 people from Roseburg to attend an NBA game.
Emotional needs are a priority, too. Goins, chairman of the Douglas County Evangelical Fellowship, said his organization has worked to line up counseling and even raised money to help cover some travel costs for a few first responders to experience healing through The Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove.
Bryan Trenkle, executive director of the Greater Douglas United Way, said he has relied upon his faith to guide him as he’s played a role in shaping the community response. After the shooting, God stirred Trenkle’s heart back to a Nehemiah study he led during his time as a pastor. Nehemiah’s hometown walls were destroyed, and he was in mourning. After a time, Nehemiah reached out to the king and was granted both permission to go help and access to resources.
“That’s my heart that we can come together, maintain, repair, rebuild, and if we do it God’s way, we’re going to come back better,” said Trenkle, a former pastor with Roseburg Christian Fellowship. “We’re going to come back stronger. We’re going to come back closer to Him if we do it His way.”
