These are just a few of the words students used to describe their response to Darrell Scott’s presentation at UC Davis on January 22.

Darrell Scott is the father of Rachel Scott, who was one of the victims of the Columbine tragedy in the spring of 1999. You may remember that Rachel was asked by one of the killers if she believed in God. Her response was “you know that I do”. The killer replied, “then go and be with Him” as he shot her and killed her.

Since the tragedy, Darrell Scott has been the leading spokesperson for the parents of Columbine. He has spoken literally to millions of people about Rachel’s life and the hope that she had because of her faith in God. The response that he has received has been overwhelmingly positive.

We had been planning on bringing Darrell to UC Davis for months and as the week finally arrived, we realized that the weather forecast did not look favorable for our publicity efforts. It was supposed to rain on Tuesday and Wednesday—prime advertising days leading up to the event on Wednesday night.

God answered our prayers and held off the rain until the event started on Wednesday night. In fact, as Darrell go up to speak, the rain began pouring down.

One thing was clear from Darrell’s presentation—Rachel was an incredible young woman. In her diaries and in her conversations with others, she spoke of her desire to impact millions of people. She did not want to be an average person but wanted to make a difference in the lives of others.

It’s clear that she did that while she was alive. She was a very kind person and though she was very popular at her school, she went out of her way to reach out and befriend those who were different and less popular.

Amazingly, she had the sense that her life would be shortened. She spoke often of how she believed that she would not live as long as her friends expected to live. She was resigned to this possibility and perhaps that is why she lived life so joyfully.

As Darrell concluded his presentation of his daughter’s life, he challenged the audience to accept “Rachel’s Challenge” - to not take life for granted, to appreciate loved ones and to follow God.

In all, 69 of the 670 people who attended made decisions that night. Some made decisions to trust God, others made decisions to recommit themselves to a life of kindness and compassion. About 30 other students requested more information about our group or about a relationship with Christ.

Thanks so much for your prayers for this event. Please continue to pray as we are in the midst of meeting with students who came to the event. Please pray too that the Lord would enable us to implement other events like this that would reach out to the campus community with the love of God.

Mark is a student in our ministry who belongs to a fraternity. During his first year in his fraternity, Mark’s life looked just like any other student in the Greek system—partying and having fun doing all kinds of things that would not be beneficial for Christians to be involved in.

About a year and half ago, God grabbed a hold of Mark and Mark recommitted himself to Christ. For about a year now, Mark has been involved in our ministry on campus.

Last fall, Mark called me up and asked if I would lead a Bible study in his house. I politely declined, pointing to my busy schedule. “However”, I said, “I would be more than happy to meet with you and help you to lead a Bible study in your house.”

Mark started a Bible study and it has been going well. This quarter, however, Mark has decided to step out in faith to see what the interest level is in some of the other fraternity houses.

Last week, he gave short presentations to about 8 different houses and the response has been amazing. Over 20 guys have expressed some interest and now Mark is busy meeting with guys in the hopes of getting a Greek ministry started.

Pray for Mark and the start of the Greek ministry. Pray especially for one or two key people to be raised up who would help to give leadership to this new ministry.