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Philip Crouse had undergone transformation

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 10, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.

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When Philip Crouse first walked into Peters Creek Christian Center in Chugiak, Alaska, he wasn't ready to embrace anyone, much less the Lord, say friends who knew him well.

Crouse, 24, was one of the two Youth With a Mission staff members who died when a gunman opened fire at the group's Colorado center in Arvada early Sunday.

"When I met him, he was a pretty troubled young kid," said Chris Dunn, who owns a construction company in Eagle River, Alaska, a suburb of Anchorage.

"He was kind of hateful, part of a bad group of people. His family life was pretty hard."

Crouse had been on medications to control a psychiatric disorder and was living on welfare before they met, Dunn said.

"At one point, he just walked into the office and said, 'I'm stealing from the government,' " Dunn said.

But Crouse got off welfare and said he wanted to go to work.

Crouse "came into the church one day, a skinhead with a long trench coat," Dunn recalled. "A couple people reached out to him and showed that they cared about him.

"He didn't like that affection, the friendship. He didn't understand it, so he stormed out, saying he was never coming back again."

But a few weeks later, he was back.

"He said he wanted to make Jesus Christ part of his life, his personal savior," Dunn said.

"He became a different person. He opened himself up to having friends. From being a kind of mean, angry person, he became caring and loving and very outgoing. He would go out of his way to do anything for anyone."

When Crouse was 17, "he didn't look much at his future, he was living day to day, just getting by," said Pastor Zack Chandler, who said he was Crouse's spiritual father and best friend.

At Friday night youth church gatherings, "he had just a radical life-changing encounter - he met a savior, Jesus Christ," Chandler said. "He found purpose in his life. He began to grow and mature. His life was so radically transformed that his emotions were healed."

Before he died, he mended things with his father, and changed from being a selfish person to a selfless person, Chandler said.

Comments

  • December 10, 2007

    7:36 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    taddyschmitt writes:

    His last name is spelled Krauss. as far as i know.
    i am a friend of Phil. I am working on staff with YWAM in Denver...
    Just wanted to mention that Phil will be missed so much. I am also a worship leader @ a local Church, and he was the drummer for about the last 8 months. he had a great heart, was a great servant and he loved Jesus. his heart was for people to meet Jesus through our worship. He and I had become good friends over the last few months. What I will always will remember about Phil is his fun character, his servant heart and his diligence. And his crazy heavy metal guitar riffs... i recorded a song with him just recently... he called it "deadly attraction"... Maybe he was ready to die for Jesus... I think i might write some words to the song and finish it... In honor and memory of him.
    He came such a long way and had such a great future ahead.
    But now he is with Jesus and remains and inspiration and a friend.
    Phil, I miss you so much already. I will never forget you!
    I will see you soon, though.
    In Heaven.
    love,
    Taddy

    Rom 15:13 Now may God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    1Co 13:13 Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

    Rom 5:5 Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
    Rom 5:6 For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
    Rom 5:7 For it is rare for anyone to die for a righteous person, though somebody might be brave enough to die for a good person.
    Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
    Rom 5:9 Now that we have been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from wrath through him!
    Rom 5:10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life!