SQJ Taipei

First of all… all of the CCFers are alive. Praise God.

We don’t yet know all of the details. I’ll try to keep you updated here in this post as we get more information.

Angie and I graduated from Truman State in 1994 and 1995 and Campus Christian Fellowship was a big part of our lives. One of the biggest events of the year was the “Spring Break Mission Trip”.
This trip grew from about 30 our first year at the school up to about 130 when I led the trip in 1995. Transporting that many people involved many vehicles… many drivers… and much prayer. I prayed more for travel safety than even for the unbelievers on the trip to come to faith in Christ….

Anyway… the caravan was coming through Oklahoma City early on Friday morning when they met a woman driving her car the wrong way on the interstate. The first van swerved and missed the oncoming car. The second van collided with the car and rolled and the third van was involved as well.

We have not heard anything directly from any of those involved… but have read news reports and heard from others various things “through the grapevine”.

We heard that the woman driving the car down the wrong side of the interstate was both drunk and intending to commit suicide.
The “grapevine” says that the woman died in the accident. The news says she did not. (UPDATE: As of Tuesday, March 21 she is ALIVE! Praise God!)
We heard that Joe Belzer, the campus minister, has a severely broken leg (or maybe both) and is in the hospital, but will be OK.
We heard that 17 students were hospitalized… and all should be OK.

I’ll pass on updates as we receive them if you want to check back.
You can also probably click these links below to find a bit more information than I gave you… and to read for yourselves…

We praise God that everyone in the group is OK.

GOOGLE NEWS SEARCH - TRUMAN STATE
YAHOO! NEWS SEARCH - TRUMAN STATE

UPDATE #1: This is from our teammate Jen. The Stephanie she talked to is Stephanie McGlumphry. Her husband is Keevin and they were our teammates for a time here in Taiwan and now work with CCF.

I just talked to Stephanie a little while ago (Sunday morning her time). She said that Joe has a fractured leg that he had surgery on but is out of surgery and doing ok. She arrived home last night with her part of the caravan but Keevin is still on the road with a bus full of students. He stopped in Oklahoma City to pick up those who had been in the accident and then stopped in Witchita to spend the night at the church. There is bad weather (sleet and ice) across Kansas so Stephanie wasn’t sure when they would make it back. She gave me some things that we could pray for:
*For Joe’s injuries–she’s not sure how long he will be laid up but should be able to come home on Sunday or Monday.
*Lydia Belzer who is 7 was in the van that was hit. She is fine physically but emotionally still pretty shook up
*pray that this won’t turn into something that becomes a huge “tragedy” but that the students will be able to praise God for the ways he protected them through out this whole thing
*That she will have a sympathetic heart for those who are working through their emotions and grief
*That keevin and the rest of the students will make it back safely

UPDATE #2: This is from Charlotte Lang who is Stephanie McGlumphry’s mother. It was from an email received on the 19th of March.

We talked to Stephanie and I thought you would like an update on the accident. When she called Joe was still in surgery and she wasn’t sure just what all they were doing. Someone from Kirksville was driving Jennie down to Oklahoma. Joe had five of his kids with him, but none of them were hurt. The youngest of these (Ethan’s age) was kind of in shock, but not hurt physically. One other college boy broke both legs and one girl broke one leg. Other than that everybody else was just cut and bruised, so they were thanking the Lord for His protection. There were about 30 kids in that part of the caravan. The lady that was drunk was airlifted, but later died, so you might keep her family in your prayers.
Keevin was driving the bus which had broken down, so they are still in route as I’m writing this. Please continue to pray for their safety as he and the other driver have had no sleep.
Thanks for your concern and your prayers.

UPDATE #3: Hat tip to DarkRiver for these 2 links to more news.
Truman Students Injured in Accident Returning From Trip (Kirksville Daily Express)
Church Members Injured in Crash (VIDEO - NEWSOK)

UPDATE #4: Joe Belzer apparently has a XANGA BLOG… you might check there for something he might post later about the accident and God’s grace.

UPDATE #5: I’ll probably let the CCF XANGA RING take over from here… there are lots of GREAT POSTS by many people in the ring. You need to take some time and read them. One student talked about how it is relatively easy to feel thankful now since everyone is OK. But what if some had died? A head on collision at 65MPH = death. Right? The students posted the lyrics of the song Blessed Be the Name…

blessed be your name
on the road marked with suffering
though there’s pain in the offering
blessed be your name