Nine-year-old Evelyn Marie Dieckhaus was supposed to sing “What a Wonderful World” in a play on March 31. Instead, country music star Vince Gill sang the 1967 song at her funeral at Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville.
At times, Gill had to stop and compose himself, holding back tears as he pressed the lyrics to his chest. His own daughter was sitting next to Evelyn’s big sister, trying to comfort her.
“We were all grieving for this child and the way in which she was taken,” said Kathleen Browning, a chaplain with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, who attended the funeral. “You could tangibly feel the overwhelming grief in the room.”
Evelyn was one of six people shot and killed March 27 at The Covenant School in Nashville. Immediately after the incident, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team received a request for help from a local church and deployed to the site, to provide emotional and spiritual care.
For days, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team’s Mobile Ministry Center had been set up in the parking lot of Woodmont Christian Church. That afternoon, the same parking lot overflowed with cars—everyone wearing pink, Evelyn’s favorite color.
More than 3,000 people attended the funeral—the first of six funerals that will take place over the next several days for the victims.
Friends, family, and the community—including the police chief and mayor of Nashville—all came to pay their respects. Chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team also attended, offering a ministry of presence—a listening ear and prayer for those who need comforting. One of the chaplains even made pink ribbons for the chaplains to wear in Evelyn’s honor.
Evelyn’s uncle, Jeff Dieckhaus, described her as a sweet girl, who loved her family, loved to dance and sing, and loved Jesus. “She had made it her goal to read the entire Bible this year. She got up to Genesis 28 and said to her mom, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it through!” Just then, a bit of laughter broke through the thick wall of grief.
A Wonderful World?
As believers in Jesus Christ, we know it’s not always a wonderful world we live in. It’s a broken, fallen world, but it’s also not our home—Heaven is. God is with us, grieves with us, and He brings resurrection and life out of death. Death is not the end. There is hope and the crisis-trained chaplains in Nashville are helping share this truth to a mourning community.
For Browning, this was her first shooting deployment and it has increased her faith in Almighty God. “It’s given me a deeper understanding for people who are in tremendous pain,” she said.
At the end of the service, another powerful moment happened when Dr. Clay Stauffer, senior pastor of Woodmont Christian, asked all the children to put up three fingers, raise their hand, and sing with him.
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”
But it wasn’t just the children who began singing. Suddenly, everyone raised their fingers and voices—pledging to shine their light for Evelyn, for the Nashville community, and for Jesus Christ.
Please pray for peace that passes all understanding for the Nashville community.
