God works ‘even in the midst of such evil and pain,’ minister says.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
“Are you OK?”
“Tell me you’re safe.”
“Pamela, please text me back.”
At 7:57 a.m. on a recent Tuesday, a gunman opened fire at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky., a rural community 130 miles northwest of Nashville, Tenn.
By the time the rampage ended, two students were dead, and 14 were riddled with bullets, police said. Seven other victims — all teens — were hurt as students ran for their lives.
As news of the nation’s latest mass shooting spread, text messages flooded 18-year-old Pamela Ross’ phone.
But for half an hour, the messages to Ross, a senior at Marshall County High and a lifelong member of the Benton Church of Christ, went unanswered. The texts became more frantic.
“I had an MRI at 8, or I would have been there,” said Ross, who faces possible neck surgery as the result of a 2016 car wreck. “I had no clue about anything until I got out and got dressed.
“My mom (Susan) looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, ‘There’s been a shooting.’ I said, ‘What?’ I couldn’t process it. … Then she handed me my phone, and I opened it, and I had like 500 messages and missed calls.”
The reality of what had happened sank in, and Ross (no relation to me) broke down. “And it hasn’t been the same since,” she told me. “It won’t be the same for a very, very long time.”
This column appears in the March 2018 print edition of The Christian Chronicle.
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