Yesterday morning I received a text from a UCLA student informing me there was a shooter on campus. Not too long afterward my AP News app started blowing up with news alerts about it which meant this was now national news and people across the country were praying for the situation.

I’m sure you’re aware of this too by now and I wanted to email and let you know that I was not on campus when it happened and none of our ministry’s staff or students were injured.

Thank you if you were thinking of me and my ministry yesterday and praying for us. Not too long after the initial text informing me of the shooter I started receiving text messages and Facebook messages asking if I was alright. I appreciate your love and support and am saddened that this happened on my campus.

As tragic of a situation as this was, I praise God that it was not like Virginia Tech or Columbine. When a student tells you there is a shooter on campus you don’t know what is going to happen… There could have been multiple assailants, bombs, and people kicking down doors with rifles!

Photos from Coffee Outreaches Outside Court of Sciences

I watched some of the footage (Link Above) and it was pretty crazy to watch the SWAT team pouring out of the Court of Sciences right by where my weekly outreach table had been for years along with our coffee giveaways. I know the area where the shooting took place and it was connected to a building across from where I prayed for students and invited them to service each week. Allegedly a graduate student frustrated with his grades shot and killed his professor before turning the gun on himself. No one else was injured.

The images below are from one of those outreach tables next to the underpass the SWAT team came out of in the video above and the sidewalk in the background of the left image was where they were checking students for weapons.

Photos from my weekly outreach Table

Campus ministry is so crucial! I’m reminded again and humbled of just how important the work I have been doing on the UCLA campus has been. Reaching distressed people like the shooter with the gospel and introducing them to a loving support group like Chi Alpha before the enemy can lure them to such evil is paramount! I often wonder what the ripple affect is that I’ve had in the world from all the people I’ve prayed with and invited to service over the years on this campus.

Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support of me and my ministry through the years.

UPDATE: Reports “UCLA gunman had accused slain professor of stealing his computer code and is suspected of killing a woman in Minnesota”

Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-mainak-sarkar-ucla-20160602-snap-story.html