'Unbelievable Pain': Pastor Responds Live From Santa Fe Shooting Site

Jessilyn Justice : May 18, 2018
Charisma News

"We should be moved to pray absolutely for the families of the victims, and we should be moved to pray for our nation as a whole ... When we walk away from God and we turn away God's standards, and we deny the reality and the necessity to talk in terms of Biblical matters, of sin and righteousness and good and evil ... But on the other side, there is hope and healing of people's hearts and their lives and actions and attitude, that only comes through Jesus Christ, who alone can heal broken lives and broken hearts. Until we start talking in those terms, these things will continue..." -Sam Rohrer, president of the American Pastors' Network

[CharismaNews.com] A Foursquare pastor was among the first to be allowed on the scene after a tragic attack on Santa Fe High School in Galveston County, Texas. (Photo: Law enforcement officers are responding to Santa Fe High School following a shooting incident in this Harris County Sheriff office, Santa Fe, Texas/HCSO/Handout via REUTERS/via Charisma News)

John Elliott, pastor of Gulf Coast Foursquare Church, texted Charisma News updates of what he was seeing as he ministered.

"With the victims' families," Elliott texts. "Pray!"

His next one says: "Unbelievable pain."

Doug Stringer, CEO of Somebody Cares, says Elliott is in contact with local police who told him to be on standby for when they opened up the scene to ministers and counselors. Stringer himself says he is also prepared to send in CISM-trained counselors, pastors and associate pastors as needed. CISM means critical incident stress management.

CNN reports 10 people were killed in the rampage, and multiple explosive devices were found in and around the area.

Sophomore Leila Butler told the local ABC affiliate that fire alarms went off at about 7:45 a.m. local time and students left their classrooms. She said some students believe they heard shots fired, and that she was sheltering with other students and teachers near campus.

Another sophomore, named only as Nikki, told ABC13 that: "Someone had walked in with a shotgun and a girl got shot in her leg."

The Associated Press reports the suspect is 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis.

Santa Fe High School student Grace Johnson said, "There's a hallway that is all glass that you can see outside, and the windows just started shattering...We could hear gunshots and everybody just started running."

Sam Rohrer, president of the American Pastors' Network, offered the following response to the incident:

All Americans, specifically all Christians, should be moved by such events. We should be moved to pray absolutely for the families of the victims, and we should be moved to pray for our nation as a whole. These [shootings] are indications of increasingly undisciplined life and lives of our culture. When we walk away from God and we turn away God's standards, and we deny the reality and the necessity to talk in terms of Biblical matters, of sin and righteousness and good and evil, when our pulpits refuse to deal with it, when leaders refuse to deal with it, there is no answer. But on the other side, there is hope and healing of people's hearts and their lives and actions and attitude, that only comes through Jesus Christ, who alone can heal broken lives and broken hearts. Until we start talking in those terms, these things will continue. That's why we APN and personally, we do have problem, we don't deny it, but there is hope in Jesus Christ only, not in laws, not in policy only, though some do change, it's going to be when we turn back to god and say, "Life is sacred. God created it. I'm going to respect life because God deemed it so. And once that happens, things change.