As we reflect on love today and how we can be love to the people around us, we also remember the families and victims who were impacted in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting of 2018.
Here is a story of one of our First Priority students who was a victim on that fateful day:
On Wednesday, February 14th 2018, students at MSD High School were planning to head for the First Priority Club that would begin once the final bell sounded. However, before that bell went off, they heard a different, unfamiliar loud noise – but that sound signaled the opposite of the freedom that comes at the end of the school day. Beginning at 2:19pm, students of Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, FL heard multiple gun shots followed by screams and breaking glass. Many ran for cover under a desk, in a closet or behind a bookcase. However, 17 lives were taken, including Helena Ramsay.
Helena was a senior and she was an active member of the school’s First Priority Club. Helena was quiet and reserved, but she showed valor and care while protecting a friend during the shooting.
A few weeks prior to the tragedy, Helena took a spiritual gifts test with other members of her club. Her test results showed that her gifts were faith and exhortation. The definition of exhortation according to the test is ” to remind the hearer of the powerful and amazing work of God in Christ.” The test describes faith as being ” rooted in one’s saving faith in Christ and the trust that comes through a close relationship with the Savior”.
From the testimony of those who knew her, her personal relationship with Christ and her consistent involvement in First Priority, we know that she is resting peacefully in communion with the Christ she relied on. We pray that her loved ones know Christ the same way she did and they turn to Him in this time.
Helena was killed shielding her best friend from the bullets.
