USA (MNN) — A South Korean students on the campus of Virginia Tech is accused of gunning down 32 students and professors Monday in the largest mass murder case ever in United States history. Virginia Tech police identified the shooter as Cho Seung-Hui (joh sung-wee), a 23-year-old South Korean national and resident alien.
About 500 students are involved with Campus Crusade for Christ on Virginia Tech's campus. Campus Crusade's Tony Arnold is in Blacksburg, VA. He says some of their students are among the dead. "Several of our students were killed. Three that we know were involved with either Campus Crusade for Christ or with one of our sister affiliate ministries called Valor. There's also another student that is not officially listed yet, but since no one has been able to reach her we believe she must be among the casualties."
The Campus Crusade victims include Matt La Porte, Jerrett Lane, and Mary Read, who had signed up to be a student Campus Crusade leader next year.
Arnold says they're trying to take care of the emotional and spiritual needs of their staff and students involved with them. He says Campus Crusade students were e-mailed questions that will help, and they believe it will be helpful "to meet briefly and to go through those questions together to help them to begin to process their emotions, how they're doing personally, how they're doing collectively, corporately, and how they're doing spiritually."
Arnold says the trauma and grief is limiting evangelism. "It may be several days before some of the non-believers here are emotionally able to even cope and begin to grasp spiritual opportunities. We're available to them. We want to help them."
Campus Crusade has a resource that can help these students and others around the world who are affected by this tragedy. "We have a website, EveryStudent.com. On the homepage there now, the top article addresses the question, 'Where's God in the midst of tragedy?'"
Arnold would like Christians to pray that "while the rest of the country is glued to their television sets, they would be glued to the Lord and to each other." Pray that they will be a shining example to those who don't know Christ.
