BLACKSBURG, Va. (ABP) — Virginia Baptists were well positioned to respond to the unprecedented massacre at Virginia Tech April 16.
Ministers from Blacksburg Baptist Church and officials from the Baptist General Association of Virginia's campus ministry at Virginia Tech and had only to cross the street onto the school's campus to provide counseling services to students and other affected members of the university community.
According to news reports, 33 people, including the gunman, were dead after a shooting rampage on the southwest Virginia school — officially called Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Mark Appleton, a BGAV campus minister with Virginia Tech's Baptist Collegiate Ministries, said as of early evening April 16 he was not aware of any students involved in Baptist campus ministries who were killed or injured in the killing spree.
Officials have not identified the victms or the shooter.
Appleton said his organization has been declining media requests all day April 16 to focus on responding to the tragedy.
“We're trying to put together some stuff for this evening. We're hosting a prayer gathering at 7 [p.m.] for students,” he told an Associated Baptist Press reporter. The Baptist Collegiate Ministries building at Virginia Tech is just off the school's campus.
Tommy McDearis, pastor of Blacksburg Baptist Church, was not available for comment on the evening of April 16. But Jim White, editor of the BGAV's newspaper, the Religious Herald, said he has been in contact with McDearis. The pastor “is on the scene with his entire staff,” White said the day of the shooting.
White was en route to Blacksburg, where the university is located, as of early evening April 16. ABP will provide further reporting on Baptist response to the tragedy in its April 17 issue.
-30-