Youth With A Mission Arvada would like to express its gratefulness for all the support and prayers that have been offered to them during this difficult time. We have been in communication with all of the families directly connected to this tragedy. We would also like to assure the friends of our other staff and students that although we are grieving, we are safe.

We can confirm that Phil Crouse and Tiffany Johnson passed away around 3 am Sunday morning Dec 9. Dan Griebenow, who was shot in the neck, is in critical but stable condition in hospital and Charlie Blanch, who suffered gunshot wounds to the legs, is in fair condition in hospital.

The shooting incident took place at 12:30 am Sunday morning while staff were cleaning up after a Christmas banquet. YWAM Arvada is a training centre for young people who are interested in serving as volunteers to people in need worldwide. Typically their time of service is 6 months to 2 years. Our training covers cross cultural sensitivity, community development and human relationships. As our facility is still being processed, all our students and staff have been relocated to another YWAM centre.

In the next couple of days we will be meeting together as a YWAM community to work through our grief and gain understanding of all that has happened. We ask that you would give us some space and grace to process together. Senior leaders and counsellors from our mission are arriving to provide crisis care and trauma debriefing for our staff and students.

There will be a memorial service held at Faith Bible Chapel at 10:00 AM on Wednesday and pastor George Morrison, from Faith Bible Chapel, will be conducting this service. Again, we want to thank everyone for their love and concern during this very difficult time. Local churches have been providing assistance, food and clothing. We thank Denver Rescue Mission for providing food for our staff and students who have had to leave everything in their Arvada accommodations. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Arvada police department who have behaved with the utmost professionalism.

We ask that you would pray for us as we journey through this very difficult time.

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