Virginia Tech University (file photo)
"Everyone's just really stunned right now," says Robert Howe on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Virginia Tech University. He lives across the street from the campus. "I've been trying to contact some of my students to make sure they're okay and make sure they know where their friends are. It's [been] hard getting in touch with people," he says.
Howe describes the situation immediately after the shootings. "Things have been very quiet. Of course everything's been locked down. And when they told the faculty and the students to leave, people started streaming away from campus."
InterVarsity has nearly 200 students that participate in their ministry on campus, says Howe. As far as helping students, Howe says they're going to "point them to the Lord and His sovereignty; He's in control of the situation. We know that God is at work in this town, and we don't understand what has happened today. But we know that God is in control, and that's what we're going to keep pointing our students back to."
According to Howe, students will want to talk about God. "I think this is an event that's going to bring the university community together. It's already the end of the school year, but people will be open to talk about God and about Christ because of the nature of what's happened here."
Pray for the team that's working their. Howe says, "Pray for wisdom and how to respond. All of us are pretty young and only have been on staff for a couple years. We weren't expecting anything like this. And for this to happen -- to be put in a place of spiritual leadership -- we need to respond and serve people. We just need the Lord's strength and wisdom right now."
A university-sponsored convocation is taking place today, with a campus ministries' prayer meeting scheduled for Wednesday. In the meantime, many young people are asking lots of questions. Pray that Christians will be ready with answers and that God will lead many to Himself.
