MANY LEFT SPEECHLESS BY KILLINGS

ANGIE MCFERREN

Prayer changes things.

That's the belief and hope of Cape Girardeau parents and students after learning of yet another fatal shooting incident at a U.S. school.

Students and parents were unable to describe their feelings about Tuesday's shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Terms like senseless, unimaginable and horrible were used throughout the day in discussions here with classmates and friends, but they didn't really scratch the surface of the brutality of what happened, they said.

"I just don't know what to say," said Cape Girardeau Central High School student Ashley Crocker, 16. "It was horrible, but you really just don't know what to say when something like this happens."

Angie McFerren, 17, a fellow student agreed. "We didn't know what to think. We want to know why kids are acting so crazy," she said.

Cindy Fletcher, whose son attends Central High School, said she believes the recent succession of school shootings receiving media attention is causing many people to become less sensitive to the incidents. "I guess we're so used to it we're not stunned enough," she said.

Fletcher is one of several parents in the area who hopes prayer will protect students in local communities. Fletcher and some 50 mothers and grandmothers in the area attend one-hour, weekly Moms In Touch meetings to pray for students, teachers and school administrators.

"The purpose of Moms In Touch is we intercede in prayer for our children and we pray that our schools may be guided by Biblical values and moral standards," said Jan Anderson, area coordinator. "The starting point for our group is we pray that children would have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In addition to that, we do pray for everything from protection and safety for children in our school to enthusiasm for teachers and wisdom for administrators."

There are nine different Moms In Touch groups meeting in Cape Girardeau and Jackson. Some groups meet to pray for specific schools such as at Alma Schrader, Clippard, Louis J. Schultz, Cape Christian, Central Junior High and Central High School.

Other groups pray for clusters of schools. For example, one group in Jackson prays for all Jackson public elementary schools while another prays for Jackson junior and high schools. Another area group prays for colleges and universities.

"We're an international prayer ministry," said Anderson. "We know that there are no guarantees that because we pray our school or our children's lives will be trouble-free. But we do know that God is sovereign. We know that his plans and his purposes are highest, and we trust him in all situations."

Vickie Johnston, a member of the Cape Christian School group, said families from Littleton were included in their group's prayers Wednesday.

"That took a large part of our prayer time this morning because you have parents and a community that are shattered," she said. "We are a group of moms that are interested in praying for the administration, the school and the children of a particular school, but we also pray for our nation and the trends that we see."

Other groups also are working to educate communities on the need for prayer to help end student violence. A public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Drury Lodge for parents and others interested in hearing from a survivor of the Heath High School shooting in Heath, Ky. Ben Strong, the student leading a prayer service when Michael Carneal began shooting, will be speaking in Cape Girardeau Aug. 27 and 28.

Fred Poston, pastor of New Plymouth Community Church, said youths need to hear from people like Strong so they can understand their actions have meaning.

"Young people need direction," Poston said. "We are sitting on a powder keg, a fact that has been proved over and over. Ben is a young man who has been there. He will talk about how his faith in God had a practical effect in his life."

Students said they were unaware of Moms In Touch. Even so, they were glad to know people were concerned about them and praying in their behalf.

"I didn't know about it, but prayer definitely changes things," said Krista Coleman, 17.

McFerren said she believed security measures by school officials have made a positive impact on student safety at Central High School. Prayer groups at school and others like Moms In Touch also have a positive effect on student lives, she said.

"I think the administrators having walkie-talkies and monitoring all the exits has done a lot to help us here," she said. "No one has ever said we can't have prayer groups, and that's good because I think that also does a lot of good because it brings us together.

"Even with the walkie-talkies, that's not going to do everything," McFerren said. "We have to have something we can believe in. That's what prayer is, and that's all we can do."

For more information about Moms in Touch, contact Jan Anderson at (573) 335-2038.