BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WTVF) — Wednesday marks 6 months since the tragic Covenant School shooting that killed six people — three children and three staff members.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney were all just nine years old. Staff members Cindy Peak, Mike Hill and head-of-school Katherine Koonce also died in the shooting.
The Covenant community was shaken to its core by the shooting, and the ripple effect of the grief and the trauma goes well beyond that.
Faithfully Restored, a nonprofit based out of Brentwood, has been providing hope to the families.
Tragedy is something all the founding members of the nonprofit Faithfully Restored have experienced.
"Two of us have lost children. One is a two time breast cancer survivor and our fourth founder dealt with infertility and adoption," Faithfully Restored's executive director, Jamie Heard, said.
Jamie Heard lost her son in 2015.
"Met him at the hospital and he was transferred to Vanderbilt. His heart started beating after a lot of rounds of medication, and they were able to ask us to be organ donors and we chose to give life," Heard said.
Getting through that loss was devastating, even with her strong faith. She spent a lot of time praying and being prayed for.
"I don't know what you have for me but whatever it is I just want your will to be done. That’s where I was when I was approached that William had choked," Heard explained.
Heard and her friends at Faithfully Restored now help other women struggling with loss, infertility, cancer, and more.
"We provide encouragement, support, and prayer," Heard said.
They were there 6 months ago for the Covenant School community.
"When this happened, we got close to 30 prayer requests, of course the 3 moms but also other people who were affected," Heard said.
They've put together care packages, offered prayers and handwritten notes.
Recently, Heard got to see the results of her nonprofit’s work when a Covenant family stopped by.
"The thank yous are not needed, but man I tell you it was such an encouragement to me and my faith to have them stop by. I just recognized what we’re doing and how appreciative they were of our support," Heard said.
Heard may not be able to understand the evil that took 6 lives away, but she understands the depth of pain after losing a child. Her organization plans to stand with the Covenant community for as long as they're needed.
1,436 women have been served through prayer request submissions. Ranging from child loss to widows, cancer, illness, depression, anxiety, disability, financial hardships, adoption, infertility, stress and more. Each woman was thoughtfully served and/or sent a specialized care packages based off of their hardship.
If you're looking to volunteer, donate, or have prayer requests, you can visit their website.
