NIU’s Sunday memorial service for the victims of the Feb. 14 shooting sent a message of “Forward, together forward.” But the healing process continues for many this week at NIU.

The NIU Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) invited students and staff from Virginia Tech to speak as part of its normal Thursday services. As campus minister Brent Batiste said, their mission was to offer “comfort and counsel.”

The event was split into two segments and took place in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center. The first was the non-religious “Finding Healing through Community” and the second, “Finding Hope through Faith,” was part of CRU’s usual Thursday service.

While originally scheduled to take place in the Capitol Room, the ballroom opened up for CRU to take advantage of what would be much-needed space, as hundreds of students filled the ballroom seats.

Visiting from Virginia Tech were Jeff Highfield, a minister and director of CRU at VT, and Dan Newman, a 2007 graduate.

Together, Highfield and Newman offered words of advice, encouragement and comfort to NIU students. They shared in their pain as they said they had lost three of their own CRU members in the VT shooting last April.

“Students who didn’t put themselves into a community had a harder time adjusting,” Highfield said. “It’s dangerous to be alone and isolate yourself in fear.”

After Newman and Highfield spoke, they allowed the audience to speak with one another and reflect on the question, “How can you experience healing through community?” There was an air of comfort among the students as they shared smiles, hugs and looks of somber understanding.

Afterward, the floor was opened up for a question-and-answer session, and Highfield and Newman fielded questions about students who feel guilty about being off-campus when the tragedy occurred, how long it took until things returned to normal for VT and what new security measures were implemented.

Many students left with free commemorative NIU T-shirts and copies of Philip Yancey’s book, “Disappointment with God.” CRU carried on the evening with its Thursday service of prayer and music with the Virginia Tech visitors.

Students attending were grateful and pleased with Virginia Tech’s concern.

“I thought it was really cool to hear from those who are from Virginia Tech, because they’ve obviously already lived through it, so it was really cool to hear their perspective on things so we can model on how they did things and how we can heal as a community,” said freshman media studies major Rob Tracy.