As my time is winding down here in Colorado, I figured that
the stories I would be writing would be similar to those I have written all
summer about church plants. While these stories do excite me, I would not be
honest if I said that I wasn't growing weary on doing similar subjects repeatedly. I had hit this point in my summer where I was having to really
press into Christ to change my heart and help me to finish strong. Just when I
thought things would be ordinary until my leaving date, the extraordinary fell
into my lap by the grace of God.
My supervisor, John Howeth, received a call from Ryan
Heller, the lead pastor of The Edge Church in Aurora, Colorado, as we were
driving home from a hiking trip. Heller left a voice mail telling him that a church
member of theirs, Pierce O'Farrill, had been a victim in the Aurora theater
shooting the night before. O'Farrill had already been interviewed by multiple
media outlets including FOX and CNN. In each interview, he was outspoken about
his faith and his forgiveness for the shooter. Heller wanted to know if the
college girl doing stories on church plants this summer would be interested in
doing a story on O'Farrill. :)
We called back right away and began work on the story that
would consume the next five days of my life. To keep things brief, lets just say that the phrase "God doesn't call the equipped, He
equips the called," sums up that week in a nutshell. This was something unlike anything I had ever written before. When I had no idea
what to do next, the Lord showed me a step. When I wasn't sure how to write in a
manner worthy for national publication, the Lord provided a wonderful
mentor/reviser and new friend, Claudean Boatman. When everyone wanted to
talk to O'Farill and many did not get the chance to, the Lord provided an
interview. When Satan told me that I wasn't good enough to be writing this kind of
story, Jesus said, "Trust me. I will speak through you." When I was sure
that I would be fortunate just to get the story up on the Colorado Baptist
website in a timely manner, the story was published the day after I completed
it on The Baptist Press and The Baptist Standard. The following day it showed
up on The Associated Baptist Press. Two more days later, the transcript from a phone interview I did with O'Farill also showed up on The Baptist Press.
Can I remind you that I am a college student with very
little experience?! How great is our God! He has a story of light and
forgiveness to tell in the midst of dark tragedy, and by His amazing grace He
allowed me, an at times clueless rookie, to be the vessel to help tell it. It
still gives me chills.
It has been incredible to watch God use Pierce O'Farrill's
story to bring people to himself. If you have not had a chance to read about him,
let me just share with you one of the most profound things he said to me.
"I am so blessed to have His grace in my heart because
you know; I want to talk to James (the gunman). I want to hug him. I want to
hold his hand, and I want to pray with him. I want my first words to him to be,
‘I forgive you James.’ I just want to tell him about the Light. I want to pray
that the Light will come into his heart."
When I asked O'Farill how he is able to feel this kind of
compassion and forgiveness toward Holmes, this is what he told me:
"I am blessed to know the Lord, and He is deep, deep in
my heart. The Lord has forgiven me. I had a number of years in my life without
Jesus. The fact that God forgave me after everything I’d done, and pulled me
back… I mean, I pray that he uses me everyday."
God is using him to help many people find healing through the
forgiveness of Christ. I, myself, was struggling with anger and bitterness
toward the shooter, and I was not even a victim! The Lord used O'Farill to
remind me that I was once just as lost and that the Lord forgave me so I too
could forgive Holmes in my heart.
O'Farill spoke about his experience and forgiveness at his
home church, The Edge Church, on July 29th in front of hundreds of people and 10 different major
news organizations. That morning 23 people gave their lives to Christ at
church. Who knows how many more that were not even there but were watching on
TV or reading the articles also turned their hearts to Christ.
If you are interested in what the service was like that morning and what went on, you can read my story about it on the Colorado Baptists website. I thank the Lord
that O'Farrill is choosing to use his difficult circumstance to be a light in
the darkness. God always has a way of turning ashes into beauty.
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