Valley News Live (Jamestown) – A Jamestown pastor attended conservative political activist Charlie Kirk’s memorial service Sunday in Arizona.

In that massive crowd was local pastor from Jamestown, Shawn Bowman. “Many times I was in tears with the music and the words that were spoken,” said Shawn Bowman, a Senior Pastor at Victory Lutheran Church.

Bowman met Kirk at an event in Bismarck a couple of years ago. He also spoke with Kirk at a Pastors Convention in San Diego.

“We chatted a little about North Dakota and Jamestown and what our church is doing, and he was excited about it and a very smart man who loved the lord and that’s what I liked about Charlie Kirk,” said Bowman.

The Senior Pastor at Victory Lutheran Church was one of 200 pastors invited by TPUSA Faith to attend the memorial service. Bowman met people that weren’t Christians at the event, but he says they could agree on the character of Charlie Kirk.

“It was powerful for me, it was powerful for the people sitting in the highest seats in the stadium. There were a lot of tears, a lot of gratefulness and this nation, I believe will never be the same because of the death of Charlie Kirk and I believe he was a Christian martyr,” said Bowman.

Bowman praised the multitude of speakers that preached the gospel.

“There were godly men and women that stood up and spoke and declared the gospel of Jesus Christ very well,” said Bowman.

Bowman spoke of the moment when Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, forgave her husband’s killer.

“People around me started weeping. The feeling was palpable. It was amazing the spirit of God was so heavy in that place. Isn’t that why Jesus died and rose again so that we could all ask him for forgiveness so that we could give forgiveness,” said Bowman.

Bowman tells VNL he was about 20 rows from the front.