Columbine High School Student
Expresses Faith and Dies

Emerging from this tragedy is the phenomenal testimony of Cassie Bernall who was one among the fifteen shot and killed by teen gunmen.

It was a test all of us would hope to pass, but none of us really wants to take. A masked gunman points his weapon at a you and asks "Do you believe in God?"  You know that if you say "yes," you'll pay with your life. But you say this is unthinkable! Not in the world today, Right?

What makes this story remarkable is that the gunman was no communist thug, nor was the martyr a Chinese pastor. As you may have guessed, this event took place Tuesday April 20th 1999 in Littleton, Colorado.

The Denver Post newspaper reports the story this way:

Cassie Bernall's Christian faith saved her once when her life was in turmoil, and her unwavering trust made her a martyr the instant after she was taunted by the gunmen in Columbine High School's library on Tuesday.

"Do you believe in God?'' one of them asked.

"Yes, I do believe in God,'' Bernall said.

Then he pulled the trigger."

Bernall's young friends at the West Bowles Community Church youth group cling to that story like a lifeline. With her last breaths, she affirmed the faith she embraced and it made the shy, quiet Bernall a hero in their eyes. Seth Huoy and Crystal Woodman, who belong to the Bernall's church youth group, were in the library, too. They survived, and one way they make sense of the massacre is to tell about the girl who died because she believed in God. They prayed for invisibility, and in at least one sense, their prayer was answered: Death passed them by.

"There were 40 members of our youth group at Columbine that day who made it out,'' said Dave McPherson, the youth group director, "and only one in the group who did not.'' "Cassie talked a lot about how she knew God's purpose - and maybe she knew, you know? That it was her time,'' said Cassandra Chase. "She's with God now,'' said Kevin Koeniger, another youth group member numb with grief.

"She deserves to be with Him. It's not a question of where she is. But it's hard to stay strong and rise above it.''

Everyone remembers Cassie Bernall's gorgeous hair, the color of cornsilk, that hung halfway down her back. She planned to cut it short, said her aunt, Kayleen Bernall. "She was going to cut off that beautiful blonde hair and give it to someone who makes wigs for kids who are going through chemo, and stuff like that,'' she said. "That's something, right there, that tells you what kind of girl she was. She told me she wanted it really short. She said, "I want enough hair for two or three kids, as many kids as possible.' "And that's what she was like.

She was so amazing. Such a sweetheart. Even when she was going through her teens, she never acted too big or too old to play with her cousins. She was always kind. And she and her brother were so cute together.'' Bernall told her aunt that she wanted to go to medical school, and be a doctor when she graduated. She wanted to go back to England and Scotland. She envisioned becoming better at the nature photographs she loved to take.

She was excited about the Bible study class that the church youth group had planned to hold last Tuesday evening. She couldn't wait to share the insights, Bernall told her friends, that came to her when she was going over the assigned passages.

As her classmate Mickie Cain told Larry King on CNN, "She completely stood up for God. When the killers asked her if there was anyone who had faith in Christ, she spoke up and they shot her for it."

Cassie's martyrdom was even more remarkable when you consider that just a few years ago she had dabbled in the occult, including witchcraft. She had embraced the same darkness and nihilism that drove her killers to such despicable acts. But two years ago, Cassie dedicated her life to Christ, and turned her life around. Her friend, Craig Moon, called her a "light for Christ."

Well, this "light for Christ" became a rare American martyr of the 20th Century.

According to the Boston Globe, on the night of her death, Cassie's brother Chris found a poem Cassie had written just two days prior to her death.  It read:

"Now I have given up on everything else
I have found it to be the only way
To really know Christ and to experience
The mighty power that brought
Him back to life again, and to find
Out what it means to suffer and to
Die with him. So, whatever it takes
I will be one who lives in the fresh
Newness of life of those who are
Alive from the dead."

Are you willing to take a stand for God today?

"For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." - Philippians 1:21

Christ died for you can you LIVE FOR HIM?