Neftali Barboza, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Nueva Jericho, was leaving Robb Elementary School with his son Levi, who attends the school, when he received a call about the shooting. He turned his truck around and headed back to the school to see if he could help.
He found numerous children who had fled the school in terror. He stayed to help calm the children and counsel terrified parents.
Barboza knew many of those families. His son had friends in the classroom – on the same hall as his – where the shooter barricaded himself before a Border Patrol agent ended the carnage.
Tommy Larner, director of missions for the Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association, said a pastor contacted him yesterday for prayer. A man who had attended his church lost his granddaughter in the shooting.
Larner said, “You can’t come up with adjectives to describe such a horrible act. Please pray that the people here would experience the tender love of our Heavenly Father and for pastors to be able to share that the only hope is through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Tony Gruben, pastor of Baptist Temple Church, is the current president of the local ministerial alliance in Uvalde. His church held a prayer gathering where he shared from Psalm 46, the passage that tells us God is our refuge and strength in times of trouble.