Chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (BG-RRT) are responding to Uvalde, Texas, after 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed at an elementary school Tuesday afternoon. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said several others have been injured, including two police officers. Abbott said the suspect shot his grandmother before the shooting rampage at Robb Elementary school just after 12:00 p.m.
“As a father of four young children, my heart is heavy to hear about this tragic mass shooting at an elementary school,” said Josh Holland, international director of the BG-RRT. “We are sending our crisis-trained chaplains to comfort people, listen and cry with them and share God’s love with those who have been impacted by this horrific tragedy.”
BG-RRT chaplains are now serving in five locations. Besides Uvalde, Texas, crisis-trained chaplains are in Brookings, South Dakota, after deadly storms swept through the area. They also continue to serve in Ukraine, working at several Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospitals and in Poland, where they are offering hope and providing comfort and compassion to families who have been forced to flee from Ukraine.
For more information on the ministry, including videos, photos, news articles and an interactive map of former and current deployments, visit the BG-RRT press kit or BillyGraham.org/RRT. Updates can also be found at Facebook.com/RRTChaplains.
About the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team:
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The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team was developed by Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has since grown into an international network of chaplains in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia who are specifically trained to deal with crisis situations. They have deployed to more than 550 disaster sites across the globe, including shootings, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.
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Media Contact:
Christine Batchelder
cbatchelder@bgea.org