In a message dated 4/24/99 2:47:15 AM, [email protected] writes: > <<Hey 'Cuz... Great to see you back online with our group. I thought it was me & as I'd emailed you before, thought that I'd gotten disconnected from our group & the thought that it was you never crossed my mind! I think us 'Cuz's just think that you're always, always gonna be here! Welcome back & a huge "Whew" from me! ;-) Marty>> Thanks Marty. Luv ya cuz! But the truth is that none of will "always" be here. And we need to be ready. I'd like to ask everyone to remember the families in Littleton, Colorado in your prayers. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a child. And in such a tragic manner. It just 'ain't suppose to happen that way'. My sister Niki used to live in Littleton. She lived just a mile or so from that school. She sent the following story to me tonight. Take a few minutes to read it. If your faith is anywhere near as strong as this young lady you'll be just fine. =========== This was from the Rocky Mountain News: Martyr for her faith Youthful Christian confesses her belief to rampaging gunman, then pays with her life By Carla Crowder Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer A Columbine killer pointed his gun at Cassie Bernall and asked her the life-or-death question: "Do you believe in God?" She paused. The gun was still there. "Yes, I believe in God," she said. That was the last thing this 17-year-old Christian would ever say. The gunman asked her "Why?" She had no time to answer before she was shot to death. Bernall entered the Columbine High School library to study during lunch. She left a martyr. Though lots of fellow Columbine students already were strong, vocal Christians, Bernall's confession in the face of death has inspired them to keep the faith no matter how bad it gets. "She did something that one of the thieves did when Jesus was on the cross. She admitted she believed in Jesus Christ before she died," said Joshua Lapp, a 16-year-old Columbine sophomore and member of St. Philip Lutheran Church. Crouched in the library, hiding from the gunmen, he listened as Bernall was shot to death after her confession. How would he have reacted? "I would've done the same thing she did," Lapp said. He only knew Bernall from passing in crowded school hallways. But his voice was still halting as he spoke of her. "It was just ... she's ... after she said that, you know she's now in a better place," Lapp said. "She died for her faith. That's why she died and that's how she lived her whole life. She was a martyr for Jesus," said Crystal Woodman, a Columbine junior and member of Bernall's youth group at West Bowles Community Church. The girls used to volunteer together, reaching out to homeless people downtown. Woodman, too, barely escaped from the library, and only after asking God to "send your angels down." Teens like Lapp and Woodman aren't blaming God for Tuesday's violence. They're thanking him they're alive. "Everybody that made it out, they know they made it out for a reason, or somebody was watching out for them," Lapp said. Churches where these students worship have had countless vigils, memorials and counseling sessions this week. On Thursday, another prayer session sprung out of the mud and muck at the park across from Columbine. At first it was just a small circle. The Faith Christian School girls soccer team from Arvada had come over in their maroon sweats to pray at the site. Hundreds of people buzzed around them: friends, students and strangers hauling posters, flowers and letters to the giant memorials growing in the park. The girls prayed and the circle grew. Twenty kids, then 50. Holding hands, singing hymns. Young voices praying aloud under a cold, slate gray sky. Matt Baker, a tough-looking kid wearing baggy jeans, a Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirt and a yellow baseball cap turned backward, prayed: "If we lean toward you God, we know you're going to lean right back." The circle kept getting bigger, crowding out the television crews scrambling to go live. A hundred kids. Maybe 120. Finally everyone grew quiet, captured by a sweet, high-pitched voice. "The only way you'll get through this is through Jesus. If you don't have Jesus, get Jesus," she said. "You don't know if you have tomorrow." It was the voice of Sam Matherne, a student at Cherry Creek High School and a member of the Orchard Road Christian Center. She, too, was a friend of Rachel Scott. "My best friend died in there, don't let it be in vain," Matherne said. Nearby, raindrops pattered on the memorials, smearing posters and letters. A letter to Bernall and to God, written on white notebook paper, stayed dry under a tent. "This sweet, innocent beautiful girl (is) one of your most precious creatures and the world has suffered a great loss." But, as these teens see it, according to Bernall's friend Woodman: "Now she's in heaven. She's so much better off than any of us."