Chaplain David Barlow writes a personal note on one of the crosses.
The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team deployed a group of 10 crisis-trained chaplains to Santa Fe within hours of the shooting. The chaplains say the community is full of people of faith. Prayer seems to be the common thread that's pulling this heartbroken town together.
Chaplain David Barlow carries one of 10 white crosses to the site of a growing memorial that has been set up on school property.
A group of Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains prays over the 10 crosses representing the eight students and two teachers who were killed at Santa Fe High School on Friday.
Rapid Response Team chaplain Carolin Perez and her husband Desi have been ministering to people in Santa Fe since Friday. Carolin said the white crosses that arrived this week were built by Greg Zanis, a carpenter from Illinois. He makes the crosses and takes them to places around the country to honor people who have been killed through violence. He asked the chaplains to pray over the crosses and help set them up.
Chaplains Jay Englar and Bob Sears pray for a grieving member of the community in Santa Fe, Texas.
The chaplains, several of whom are from Texas, were invited to Santa Fe by local churches. Here, they stop to pray for those who are suffering after Friday's massacre.
This is the third school shooting the chaplains have deployed to this year. In February, the Rapid Response Team offered emotional and spiritual care to the community of Parkland, Florida, after 17 people were shot and killed. Chaplains also went to Benton, Kentucky, in January after two students were gunned down. "My first reaction was, ‘Not again,'” chaplain Carolin Perez said. “I can’t believe this is happening again, because it’s an occasion we’ve seen much too often. Your heart just breaks knowing another community is going through this.”
As chaplains have spent time talking and praying with residents and attending vigils and church services, they've seen how faithful the Santa Fe community is. Many of the people there have hope even in the midst of tragedy because they have put their faith in Christ. If you're looking for hope in these uncertain times, find out how much God loves you.
