President Bush speaks at VT during day of mourning

BLACKSBURG, Va. (BP/FBW)—Students, faculty and their families gathered on the campus of Virginia Tech University to mourn the day after a gunman killed 32 students

President Bush and his wife, Laura, attended the public convocation at a packed Cassell Coliseum which holds 10,000. President Bush offered condolences to those gathered and reminded them of the sources of comfort available.

"Laura and I have come to Blacksburg today with hearts full of sorrow. This is a day for mourning for the Virginia Tech community and it is a day of sadness for our entire nation," Bush said. "We've come to express our sympathy in this time of anguish. I hope you know that people all over this country are thinking about you and asking God to provide comfort for all who have been affected.

"It is impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering," Bush continued. "Those whose lives ... were taken did nothing to deserve such fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Naming sources of strength surrounding all those affected, including family members and friends, and in places where students gather, including internet blogs, Bush said faith is also a source of strength.

"Across the town of Blacksburg and in towns all across America, houses of worship from every faith have opened their doors and lifted you up in prayer," Bush said. "People who have never met you are praying for you.

"There's a power in these prayers, a real power, and in times like this we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God," Bush added. "As the Scriptures tell us, 'Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.'

In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist April 17 ordered that all flags on state property be flown at half-staff until Sunday, April 22, 2007, "in memory of the victims of the tragic shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech April 16, 2007."

Crist's order followed a proclamation issued April 17 by President Bush.

The Virginia Tech family also heard from Gov. Tim Kaine, university President Charles Steger and representatives from the Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian communities on campus.

The thousands in attendance at the coliseum and in overflow seating at the football stadium spontaneously recited the Lord's Prayer during a moment of silence following a mournful bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace."

Changing momentum, after hearing a poem recited by a professor, the crowd chanted the school cheer "Let's go Hokies" just before standing in respectful silence while the colorguard concluded the service.

Darrell Cook, campus minister at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Virginia Tech, reported that at least one student from their group was killed in the shootings, someone he identified as Brian Bluhm.

"We have been overwhelmed by the support and prayers of our campus ministry family around the nation," Cook said in an e-mail circulated to Southern Baptist collegiate ministers April 17. "... We are doing all we can here to help students walk through the first steps of grief."

Jim Burton, director of volunteer mobilization for the North American Mission Board, told Baptist Press about 300 students gathered at the BCM Monday night for a prayer and worship service.

The BCM is sponsored by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, and two chaplains were on site at the campus ministry building to assist students in the grief process, Burton said. The chaplains were continuing to assess the needs, including how to support churches as the school's 26,000 students disperse to their hometowns, he reported.

Burton also told BP that the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia sent a disaster relief kitchen unit to Blacksburg and had parked on the street next to the dorm where the first shooting occurred. They reportedly were preparing 200 meals for Bush's entourage and planned to feed about 250 law enforcement officers Tuesday night.

Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, expressed his "deepest concern and prayer support for the students and faculty of Virginia Tech as well as for the townspeople."

"When tragedy like this occurs, sometimes people look to the Lord, and I pray that all will do so and find the comfort that only He can bring to their hearts," Page said in a statement to Baptist Press. "At the same time, Southern Baptists stand ready to help in any way that we can to assist and encourage these victims and their families. We are all shocked and horrified at this egregious expression of violence. Our prayers and love are with all those affected by this tragedy."

The gunman, identified as a 23-year-old Virginia man, Seung-Hui Cho, a legal immigrant from South Korea, and senior majoring in English at the school, opened fire in a dormitory around 7:15 a.m. April 16, killing two people. Two hours later, shots were fired in multiple classrooms in the school's engineering building before the gunman killed himself, law enforcement officials said.

Cho arrived in the United States as a boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., officials said. He had lived in a campus dormitory and has been tentatively linked to earlier bomb threats.

The Chicago Tribune said he left a note in his dorm room railing against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus. School officials told news reporters he had been referred to counseling services on campus after disturbing creative writing assignments were discovered. Additionally he had been declared mentally unstable and ordered to receive care on an outpatient basis.

The young man's parents live in a suburb outside of Washington, D.C. and work at a dry-cleaning business, according to news reports, and his sister is a graduate of Princeton University and is employed as a contractor for the State Department.

With reporting by Erin Roach, Dwayne Hastings, David Roach and Florida Baptist Witness Managing Editor Joni B. Hannigan