From time to time, I'm going to try and post items that may not have much to do with the overall theme of this site...or then again, they may everything to do with it.Last week, our miracle focused on the bringing of light, and patience to wait. This week's miracle concerns the saving of life, and the miracle of finding the courage to do so.
Jeanne Assam was a private citizen who volunteered to act as a security guard for the New Life Church in Colorado Springs,Colorado. She was sitting in the congregation when a gunman suddenly opened fire on the church members, two of whom were killed. The murderer, Matthew Murray, was armed with a rifle, a couple of handguns, grenades, hundreds of rounds of ammo and a fierce hatred of Christians.
There were two professional security guards in the church that day, and as eyewitness Larry Bourbonnais related on Michael Medved's radio show, both of them tragically froze. Bourbonnais, a Viet Nam combat veteran told how he begged one of the guards for his weapons to `take the shooter out' but got no response...and then he saw Jeanne Assam walking up the aisle, headed straight for the killer. She made no attempt to save herself, but went right for the much more heavily armed gunman and began firing steadily and shouting "surrender" as she advanced. The gunman got off three shots at her before Jeanne took him out. He died at the church.
Bourbonnais said it was "one of the bravest things he'd ever seen."
The pastor, Brady Boyd, said that she "probably saved over 100 lives".
As for Jeanne Assam herself, she's quite clear on the source of her courage.
She said that she prayed to the Holy Spirit to guide her, and that she "knew I was the one given the assignment to stop this thing. I prayed for steady hands"
"It seemed like it was me, the gunman and G-d", she added,"G-d guided me and protected me."
Courage and the desire to risk our lives to save others is a miracle and a blessing from G-d, one that comes from deep inside of us if we let it. And it may not always involve shooting it out with a murderer. Sometimes, it may simply involve doing the right thing rather than the easy thing. This miracle comes in many guises, and can happen when we least expect it.
And one more thing...G-d works miracles in mysterious ways, and one of them was to have a hero like Jeanne Assam in that church, at that time, armed with not only the the faith but with the means and the skills to save those innocent lives and stop a murderer from acting out his hatred.
Have a peaceful and blessed Sabbath.
2 comments:
Jeanne Assam of New Life Church in Colorado Springs is currently hailed as a hero by most Christians because she shot the gunman that was on his way into the church to murder more people. This is correct, but consider, she is no different than Paul Hill who stopped a babykilling abortionist from murdering more people by shooting him.
Paul Hill is condemned and was put to death for the same thing.
Reverend Spitz,
I disagree with you.
I am certainly no proponent of unrestricted abortion on demand, understand how you feel about abortion, and I recognize that Roe V Wade was poor law and a bizarre extension of the equal protection clause, but IT WAS AND IS STILL THE LAW OF THE LAND.
To equate someone like Paul Hill, who premeditatively murdered a doctor and Jeanne Assam, who killed a murderer in a crime situation is a place I simply won't go.
Thanks for dropping by.
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