Whitnee's journey with Christ

It was a typical Wednesday when all of a sudden several parents began alerts from various social media outlets, school notifications, and panicked calls from their teenagers. Allegedly there was an active shooter at a local high school and the school was being placed on lockdown. Getting a call like this and not knowing if your child(ren) are safe can be nerve wrecking.

Initially the parents nor students knew it was a hoax based upon a TikTok challenge. At this point all they knew is this could be life or death and with mandatory lockdown you didn’t have any way of providing safety to your children or a spouse that could have been on staff at the time. As a parent, I could only imagine the fear, abundance of emotions, and shock this might have put on a lot of parents and students.

Shortly after the texts started circulating in the Koinonia Womens Support Group, Tatayana confirmed that her son Brycen went to the school everyone was talking about on social media. She confirmed there was not an active shooter but the school took the necessary precautions and evacuated the students to a safe place. I’m so grateful Tatayana was able to provide this sense of peace for all of us who felt numb and helpless.

About an hour went by when we got an update from Tatayana. She reported back to the group that Brycen was okay even though he was a little shaken up by it. I mean who wouldn’t be! The next text we received from her showed just how brave, wise, loving, caring, and courageous Brycen is. A natural born leader.

We received the following text message from Tatayana:

Just an update. Brycen is ok. He told me about how he comforted some of his friends and kept them calm- also helping them to communicate with their parents throughout the day. He told me that before they evacuated he prayed that God protected them and help him to remain his “cool self” bc if he showed fear, his friends would.
Needless to say I am relieved, but I am also very proud of this young man and how he thinks of others.

Tatayana’s message was a direct answer to prayer!

It’s folks like Ms. Marcella that remind us every Sunday during Sunday school and every Thursday night that we need to pray for all children to include their health, safety, growth, education, etc. It is folks like Tatayana, Faith, Ms Onnie, Ms Samuel, Kelly, Ms. Rita, Cherise, Quinn, Yolanda, and so many more that keep our babies prayed up.

It’s not very often that a 14 year old is mature and knowledgeable enough to remain calm knowing that if he acts or responds a certain way then his friends may feed off of his fear. Instead he exhibited God’s peace and love. He was heroic and displayed a heart of compassion. He was “commander in chief” briefing his mom and others of what was going on in real time and allowed his friends to make contact with their families.

God used Brycen to show His love. God used Brycen to encourage his peers in a MIGHTY WAY! Though I know this had to be tough to process and examine mentally but look at how God used the situation for His glory!

Brycen’s bravery influenced more than just his peers, I’m glad to say it blessed me. Brycen did not ignore his fear, he told his mom and his mom prayed for him. We prayed for him. But you see Brycen took his fear to the Lord in prayer.

Let the records show Brycen allows God’s light to shine through Him and help him through such an unfortunate situation. His love for others, his heart of gold, and his source of calmness is one no one will ever forget.

To Brycen, we are so proud of you! You trusted in the Lord and your faith didn’t falter. To Tatayana we bless God for molding you into a beautiful, praying mother who is raising a young man who will one day lead our nation to a greater good.

It is my prayer that God will richly bless this family and all other households who have children as well. I pray that God will continue to shine His light on Brycen and when he looks back over what has happened he will be smiling while giving the glory to God.

Let us all go fourth and prosper and remember God does not give us the spirit of fear.

Be on the lookout for how God is moving in and through each of you. Let us all have the strength and peace like Brycen so if we ever needed that extra dose of calmness and security like the “cool kid” then we would be. Like Dave said, every little thing is going to be alright.