By fifth period, Breeana was in choir and Natalie in eighth-grade algebra. That’s when a troubled classmate named Barry Loukaitis walked into Natalie’s class with a hunting rifle and opened fire, killing the teacher and two students. As Natalie dove for cover, a bullet slammed through her back and exploded inside. It nearly amputated her right arm as it exited. The shooting ended when another teacher, risking his own life, wrestled Barry to the floor.

By night, Natalie, an ordinary girl, became front-page news in the first of the nation’s spree of school shootings. Surgeons reattached Natalie’s arm, but she lost most use of it. Yet neither she nor Breeana lost the faith that helped them through these last four years.

I caught up with the twins between school, their part-time jobs at K-Mart, debate meetings and play practices. Their family lives in a remodeled mobile home perched above a coulee overlooking ponds where their dad raises fish. Every few minutes, empty passenger jets flown by pilots training for Japan Air Lines swoop close for practice landings at the nearby airport. A Great Dane and a large mixed-breed dog greet visitors. Inside, there’s another surprise: a 35-pound "house kitty" that’s really a bobcat they’re licensed to keep as a pet. It’s a peaceful, fun setting — one that draws lots of their friends to hang around.

How is your recovery coming?
Natalie: I still have physical therapy once a week. Though my right arm is two inches shorter, I have nearly full range of my shoulder and almost all of my elbow. I can open and close my hand, but I can’t move my fingers. Nerves were severed so I don’t have any feeling in my hand. I’ll cut myself and not realize it. I’ve learned to do things like writing with my left hand. I’m learning to type one-handed now. My teacher ordered special materials to help me. I’m typing faster than some of the other kids in my class.

Losing use of your arm meant the end of volleyball, basketball and playing the piano.
Natalie: God’s given me another creative outlet in drama. I’ve taken drama classes for three years, am president of the drama club and act in two or three plays a year. Right now we’re doing improvisational drama, where you make up lines as you go along. That’s really stretched me as an actress.

Breeana, a lot of attention went to Natalie as the survivor. But your family also suffered. How has this experience affected your relationship with your twin?
Breeana: We’ve always been close. In fact, all of us — including our older married sister, Amanda, and little brother, Tyson — are close. Natalie and I have the same friends and still do the same sort of things.

What were your thoughts when Natalie was shot?
Breeana: I didn’t know she was hurt until our class was sent to the gym afterwards. Kids were standing around in shock and crying. My friends hugged me and told me Natalie was hurt badly. I didn’t know how to react. When they told me at the hospital she was in critical condition, I wasn’t even sure what that meant. I realized how serious it was when they decided to fly her to a trauma center in Seattle. The whole time that Natalie was on the brink of life or death, it never crossed my mind that she might die. I just believed that God would help us get through it.

How has the shooting changed your faith?
Breeana: It’s given me more of a concept of blind faith. I’ve learned that when things happen you have no control over, you can still trust God.

Natalie: Our parents always took us to church and Sunday school. Over the last couple of years, both of us have gotten into a deeper walk with God. The hardest part of this situation wasn’t the physical. I’ve accepted my handicap. If you’re ambitious, you can get through the operations, therapy and learning new ways to do things. It’s harder to deal with the emotional side of things. James 1:2 and 3 became my favorite verses: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." God didn’t just let this happen. He’s still in control.

How does the Bible help you?
Breeana: Both of us read our Bibles every night. Mom got us a book called The Bible From A-Z which lists verses by topic, and that helps us choose passages to read.

Natalie: Like, one day when something came up about jealousy, I could look up verses on that topic and let God help me deal with it His way.

The newspapers covered how you expressed your faith during Barry’s trial.
Natalie: Yes. At the end, when Barry was sentenced to life in prison, the judge allowed someone from each victim’s family to make a statement. I wrote mine out the night before and my parents helped me with wording it well. The next day, one father whose son was killed said hateful things to Barry. But the mother of the other boy killed offered forgiveness and begged Barry to seek God.

I reminded Barry that his actions had given me and my classmates another type of life sentence. We’d all suffered immensely by what he did. I had survived only by God’s grace and the skill of doctors. I said I couldn’t comprehend why he did what he did, and quoted Proverbs 16:32: "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper, than one who takes a city."

I told him I was willing to stand up and tell him these things because we cared about his soul. I said our family had determined to forgive him because God said "be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).

I don’t think Barry expected me to say something like that. God gave me the grace not to harbor bitterness. Others had spewed a lot of hate and anger, and my family didn’t want to be a part of it. I was nervous when I started reading, but I knew this was something I needed to do. Barry never looked at me, but I knew he was listening.

You have all had a lot of media attention through this — major television networks, magazines and newspapers.
Breeana: We’ve learned not to take the media too seriously. It makes us seem bigger than life. Our faith helped to keep us balanced.

Natalie: And my family keeps me humble! People even twice my age have told me I’ve inspired them. That’s hard for me to grasp. I’m just an ordinary teenager.

But you’re still different.
Natalie: As a Christian, yes, and that’s okay. One day in class everybody was talking about what’s "normal." I said, "I’m normal." My classmates said, "No, you’re not." I guess they look at me different because I’m a Christian who’s handled what I have been given.

Breeana: We’re different in moral areas too. A lot of our friends have given in to guys. There’s a lot of pressure. But both of us plan to remain pure until we marry.

So people notice the difference that Christ has made in your life.
Natalie: Yeah. I have a really intellectual friend who doesn’t have a faith in God. But she’s opening up. One time we were talking on the phone about wisdom and knowledge. I had my Bible open and quoted her some verses about real wisdom. She told me, "I’m sure that if there’s a God, you will surely go to heaven." I know I have an influence on her.

Since Moses Lake, there have been more than a dozen school shootings. What are your feelings when those happen?
Natalie: I get frustrated and angry. Nobody should have to go through suffering like this.

How’s your town helping families heal?
Natalie: There’s a memorial on the school grounds. One marble pillar honors the teacher who stopped Barry. Another memorializes the three who died. The third pillar has the names of all the kids in the algebra class where it happened. My name has a rose by it for getting injured, but all the other kids were also victims of emotional wounds.

A quotation on the class pillar says, "God created everything small so it would grow up with time . . . . Only sorrow was created fully grown so that it might decrease with time and man be able to live with it." A lot of people were pressuring for things like putting up the Ten Commandments in the school. But this memorial put the name of God right on the school grounds — at the top of the pillar!

That’s kind of like your faith — out there where people can see it.
Natalie: Everybody, at some time, will go through a big sorrow. But God will go with you through it.

Breeana: That’s why our lives need to show we believe He’s still in control.