grace during tragedy

Our little town suffered a major blow Wednesday night. We had just finished our prayer services and about 12 of us were still in the parking lot visiting when we got a call that a church van belonging to one of  our sister churches in our area had just been in a terrible accident. And that there were fatalities. The church van had just left their church loaded with 9 children and 2 adults after their Wednesday night services to take them home. The van left the road on the drivers side, hit a concrete culvert and flipped around causing extreme damage to the van and the passengers.  

We immediately headed to the site to be available for our friend and his wife who pastor that church and for the families of those involved. I have never seen anything so surreal in all my life. There were more red and blue lights flashing than I thought existed. There were ambulances and police cars and helicopters overhead and the sounds were almost unbearable. My heart was just torn in two for those involved and I was almost paralyzed with fear for what was to come. My first reaction was to call my mom to get her to pray. She was just leaving her church in Shreveport and there were still some people around so they immediately stopped to pray for all involved.

As I began to see the funeral home cars arrive, all I could do was cry out to God to send His sweet Spirit of comfort and peace. At times when there are no thoughts to be formed, God in His Sovereignty knows. Our precious Jesus intercedes for us and the Holy Spirit gives us utterance. We serve an awesome God.

We lost 5 precious people in the van accident. But praise God, all of them had personal relationships with the Lord. Even the little 4 year old girl did because she was secure in His Grace. There are 6 children and teenagers still in the hospital. Most have suffered many broken bones and have had surgery and still have more surgery to come. One young man has suffered brain trauma and needs our prayers desperately. Please lift up all these families to the Lord. 

I love our little town. I have never experienced the outpouring of love from so many people as I have from the   folks that make up our small community. People loving people. People loving God. People willing to sacrifice of their own for others. 

As we had children in 3 different hospitals in 3 different cities and even 1 different state, my husband and a few other pastors stepped in to help relieve the burden from the pastor of the church. We had a chance to minister to several different families and God just showed up in those visits and gave us the opportunity to share Him in a powerful way. He is so good.

As our town is still in shock over this tragedy, continue to pray that we will give God the praise for His goodness. Pray that we won't lose sight of our purpose here on earth. He is still faithful. His purpose is still Sovereign and Good. He is still on the Throne.  He is still God.

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through

Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,

nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other

creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"

(Romans 8:37-39)

Even in the face of tragedy God has a plan. He has been gracious to those in need and has enabled His love to be shown to those that needed a glimpse of who He is. May He continue to wrap those families up in His loving embrace and dispense His mercy and grace to their spirits. May He lavish His love on each person that they feel an unspeakable peace and presence of Him in their hearts. 

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Pray for those in the hospital: 

Kierra Wilcher

Olivia Oneal

Dalton Williams

Samantha Thornton

Jake Thornton

Aaron Copes

Pray for families of those who lost their lives:

Emma Adams (4)

Brittany Thornton (12)

Kaitlyn Thornton (19)

Portia Thornton (53) 

Joey McKann (30)