For This Reason
Posted on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 by
On Wednesday, October 25, a tragic accident occurred outside of the Norris Intermediate School. On the same campus, at the exact same time, I was doing Campus Life club with two of our Campus Life directors and one intern.
We were teaching a group of middle school students how God can help them through the most difficult times of our lives. The picture above is what we were teaching at the exact moment we began to hear sirens blaring from every direction.
We could sense there was great panic so our four leaders and over 40 students went outside and began to pray. As the police blocked off the scene just a few hundred yards away from the school, we could tell the accident was really bad. During the next few hours, we found out it was a five-vehicle accident with 14 students and two parents involved. One of the students, a 13-year-old middle school girl, didn’t survive. We were in shock. The community was in shock.
Early Thursday morning, I held a meeting with the directors of Campus Life at Norris. The Spirit of God charged us to be present in any way possible on the high school and middle school campuses for the upcoming days. We made ourselves completely available, and we were able minister to students by the hundreds. Because of God’s provision, the school district gave us full permission to help their students through this difficult time; they approved a prayer vigil on Friday night.
By Friday night, we had planned and prepped the details for this prayer vigil. We had printed off over 280 programs to hand out at it; we ran out of programs 30 minutes before the vigil even started. That night, over 400-500 students heard about God’s love and comfort. Many students came forward to receive prayer and spiritual counsel from the 15 pastors and ministry leaders who came to our aid.
This tragedy is a great example of why you give your hard earned money to the mission of Youth for Christ. Together, we faithfully teach, instruct, and pursue youth when times are normal. When tragedy occurs, we are already there, and we faithfully spring into action. Together, we are prepared in season and out of season.
Tyler Carter, Campus Life Ministry Director