April 2, 2001
Car wreck kills youth from two churches
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___BORGER--A tragic automobile accident has brought together two Baptist churches and four Baptist families in the Texas Panhandle.
___Members of First Baptist Church of Panhandle and First Baptist Church of Borger were grief stricken March 3, when a head-on collision claimed the lives of four young people, two from each church.
___Lynley Herbert and Ryan Maxwell of Borger were in one vehicle, and Brandon Earnshaw and Chris Lloyd of Panhandle were in the other. Herbert, 16, and Maxwell, 18, were celebrating their eight-month anniversary of dating by traveling to Amarillo to see a Christian film.
___A police officer working the accident said he had worked many wrecks, but it was the first where he found more Bibles than bottles, said Andy Dietz, associate pastor for missions and evangelism at First Baptist in Borger.
___All four youths were active in their churches.
___Maxwell had begun a music ministry. A few weeks before the accident, he led worship at a boot camp for juvenile offenders. Of the 60 boys attending the service, 47 professed faith in Jesus Christ.
___Dietz said Maxwell was constantly ministering. "He was just a terrific kid."
___Both Herbert and Maxwell were devoted to Christ and Bible study, Dietz said. A survey of Maxwell's room showed he had 22 Bibles he had bought to help him study. "Walk into either of their rooms and Scripture was just everywhere," Dietz said. A count of the verses displayed in Herbert's room put the number at more than 300 passages, he reported.
___More than 2,000 people attended each of their funerals. Fifteen basketball teams Herbert had competed against drove in from surrounding communities to attend. At Maxwell's service, more than 60 people stood to proclaim that they become Christians directly as a result of his ministry. Twelve more came forward during an altar call.
___While Maxwell was a musician and songwriter, his songs had not been recorded with quality equipment. Several of his friends are now planning what they call the Legacy Project to professionally record them and have them put on compact discs.
___In Panhandle, the joint service for Earnshaw and Lloyd had to be held at the high school auditorium because the church would not hold the 900 who attended, Pastor Jim Perkins said.
___Perkins believes the boys' deaths created a great deal of soul searching in the lives of the high school students in his community. "I think it made a lot of them re-examine their lives, to try to really figure out 'What am I doing here?'"
___A large contingent of the high school was present the Sunday after the tragic accident, but only time will tell what good comes from this witness, he said.
___"We will never know why it happened, but if God will use this tragedy to bring some to faith, that will be exciting to me," Perkins said.
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