Stephanie and Rachel Works, teenage sisters gunned down in a shooting rampage at New Life Church, were remembered by friends and family as vibrant and loving youngsters at a memorial service today.
The service at the church took place only yards from the parking lot where the two were shot to death Dec. 9 as they left Sunday services.
“This is a celebration of homegoing for Rachel and Stephanie,” said New Life Church Pastor Rob Brendle.
The girls’ father, David Works, who was wounded in the attack and came to the church in a wheelchair, was released from the hospital Tuesday.
“I want to thank you for coming to celebrate the lives of Stephanie and Rachel,” David Works, 51, told the crowd at the church in Colorado Springs.
A band playing muted hymns behind a vocalist and backup singers performed throughout the 1½-hour service.
The girls’ other sisters, Laurie and Grace Works, read from the Scriptures.
“Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything,” they read from a Bible verse favored by Stephanie, 18.
“My fondest memories of the girls is the bear hugs they would give you,” said Pastor Randy Payne, a friend of the family who delivered the eulogy.
Rachel, 16, was a romantic who loved dance and music, and she dyed her hair red because others made jokes about her blond hair, Payne said.
Stephanie had six toes, like her father, had a strong mind and was an active learner. She had recently returned home from a mission trip to China.
“She played chess with her youngest sister, Gracie, every day,” Payne said. “Relationships were very important to these young women of faith.”
Friends of the girls also spoke.
A friend on the mission trip to China with Stephanie said the teen “loved purely, no judging. You felt completely accepted around her.”
“One thing I will always remember about Stephanie was her wild-child dancing,” the young woman said.
A friend of Rachel’s who text-messaged and spoke with her by phone daily, said her death will leave a hole in her life.
Rachel was going to visit the girl at her home in another time zone soon. “The night I found out about the shooting, I cried for about 13 hours straight. I was her Sam, and she was my Frodo,” she said, referring to characters in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Senior Pastor Brady Boyd said he didn’t know the girls as well as others in the church, but he recounted things their parents and others had told him.
“These are two girls that lived their life really well. They are in heaven; we know that,” Boyd said.
Earlier this morning, the two girls were buried at Monument Cemetery. Seventy people attended the burial, among them friends and family members from Virginia and Nebraska. “It was very special, very sweet, just family and friends,” said Boyd.
