Healing words: Connie Maxwell kids reach out to Virginia Tech community

Two days after the April 16 tragedy at Virginia Tech – in which a lone gunman shot and killed 32 people on campus – Connie Maxwell students and staff sat down to write cards of prayer and support to the Virginia Tech Baptist Collegiate Ministries.

Middle-schoolers Elliott and Nathan, in the Self Cottage at Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, write messages on cards for Virginia Tech Collegiate Ministries.

On Aug. 12, Connie Maxwell’s students and staff, realizing the difficulties of returning to a campus that has been through so much, wrote another set of cards.

Virginia Tech’s BCM received the cards recently, written by tiny children’s hands as well as adults’ hands.

It is Connie Maxwell’s hope that the “healing cards” will provide some comfort.

“That’s heartbreaking, to deal with that and return to all those memories,” Connie Maxwell Pastor Doug Kauffman said.

The package that was recently shipped contained 50 to 60 cards, with an image of Jesus on the front of each card. Inside was a printed message to the Baptist Collegiate Ministry’s students and staff:

“We hurt for you. We have prayed for your healing and your ministry of healing to the Virginia Tech community. We will continue to pray for God’s comfort to be upon you.”

Below that, the Bible verses Philippians 1:3-6 grace the card with their healing words:

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Signed: The students and staff of Connie Maxwell Children’s Home.

Below the fold appear the words of the students and the staff. Some messages were articulate, from the minds of older students and staff. Other message were simple yet loving, as only a child’s mind can produce.

“I hope you have a good year. God bless all of y’all,” said Elliot, a middle-schooler from the Self Cottage.

Another middle-schooler from the same cottage, named Nathan, recalled his words: “We’ll keep you in our prayers and we love you,” he said.

Members of the leadership team of Baptist Collegiate Ministries at Virginia Tech read notes from Connie Maxwell Children’s Home that will be distributed to students during a “God of Hope and Healing” meeting.

There’s proof of the boys’ thoughts and prayers too, right there on the kitchen wall. A prayer list hangs from the wall, people and groups of people catalogued in columns on the plain white sheet of paper that is updated and changed every so often. It’s under a column titled “Other” that Virginia Tech is often penned.

But the Self Cottage is not the only place where Virginia Tech students are remembered. All over the children’s home, students from first grade through 12th offered their support in the cards.

Two seniors at Emerald High School, Cheyenne and Autumn, shared their messages. “We are still praying for you no matter what you are going through,” Cheyenne said, recalling the message she wrote. “We are still with you, and I hope you do your best at school.” Likewise, Autumn said she would continue to keep the school in her thoughts.

Virginia Tech BCM director Darrell Cook said the cards would be handed out during a “God of Hope and Healing” meeting and the children of the Greenwood children’s home will be lifted up in prayer, just as the students of Virginia Tech have been lifted up.

Cook said the students have been inspired by the support shown from people all over the nation, but the Connie Maxwell messages seem to stand out because they come from children who have endured struggle and also because they have come even after the shock of the events has worn off.

“The ones that have come now have stood out the most,” he said. “The students will really be touched by these. We are thankful to know that those students are still thinking and praying for us.”

Connie Maxwell children comprehend struggle and, therefore, their messages mean all the more.

“I think our students can empathize with folks who have gone through pain and heartache in life,” Kauffman said. “Many of them spoke out of their hurts and pains to relate to the students at Virginia Tech.”

Reprinted by permission