LOVE IS THE THEME: Bus wreck victims reflect

___Vicki and Troy Hurley had anticipated the trip to Dallas for two months. "We all love the Gaithers," she explained.
___A similar group had traveled to Dallas last year for the Homecoming concert, and the thrill of that experience only added to the excitement this year.
___The Hurleys, 28-year members of Memorial Baptist Church, chose seats on the driver's side near the back of the bus, across from their longtime friends Melvin and Speedie Akers.
___Soon after the bus pulled away from the church, Hurley told his wife she might as well move across the aisle to visit with a friend so she wouldn't keep straining her neck to carry on the conversation. That put Mrs. Hurley one row in front of the Akers.
___As the driver slammed on the brakes and the bus began to slide, it was Mrs. Akers, Mrs. Hurley recalled, who voiced what everyone else feared: "We're in trouble."
___Hurley thought to himself: "This is bad. I could die here."
___"I saw us go through the median," Mrs. Hurley said. "And then we started falling to the right, in slow motion."
___On the other side of the bus, her husband didn't feel the impact of the bus slamming into the SUV, but he heard it. Having been in car wrecks before, he instinctively knew that sound, he said, because there's no other sound like it.
___As the bus fell toward the right side, Hurley hit his head on something, probably as he fell from his seat in what had suddenly become the top of the bus. His hand hurt, but he wasn't aware of how badly or why.
___As he tried to free himself, he noticed his right hand stuck on something--at a distance further from his hand than shouldn't have caused a snag. He looked down at his right hand and saw his little finger twisted in a "S" shape, sticking out sideways.
___He spotted his wife, who was hanging halfway out a broken window on the bottom of the bus, her torso pinned and her head lying on the concrete embankment below. He saw her move, and he knew she was alive.
___Another church member, 42-year-old Alan Horton, noticed the rainwater rising in the ditch where Mrs. Hurley's head lay, and he began scooping up the flowing water to keep her from drowning.
___Horton, others later would testify, performed several heroic acts of rescue, including popping the emergency hatch on the roof of the bus and pulling several people out of the wreckage.
___His wife, Elaine, who also was injured on the bus, thinks she and her husband were there for a reason that day. They were by far the youngest people on the bus, and her husband was the most able-bodied. He also received relatively minor injuries, allowing him to help others quickly.
___With her head in the ditch filled with running water and beginning to smell strongly of fuel, not knowing the condition of the rest of her body, Mrs. Hurley prayed. She suffers from claustrophobia, yet she was trapped and could not move.
___"God took us through it," she said. "He was definitely my comfort."
___The petite woman would be bruised from her waist to her head, but none of her injuries were life-threatening. Her husband broke a bone in his right hand, and a finger was pulled out of its socket.
___Today, the attorney wears a large bandage from his right fingers all the way to his elbow. As he walks the streets of down___town Temple or makes his way through the courthouse, people stop him to say they're praying for him.
___The concern of not only his fellow church members but what seems like the entire community of Temple and Belton overwhelms him.
___On the night of the accident, from a hospital room he watched TV coverage of a prayer service at his church. The thing that struck him was that none of those leading the service were the church's normal worship leaders. Several, in fact, had come from other area churches to lend a hand because Memorial Baptist's pastor and associate pastor still were tending to the injured and grieving.
___"I've always known we're all members of the family of God," Hurley said. "But it has really brought home to me that we're all part of one family."

___As Elaine Horton sat by the side of the wrecked bus, she suddenly became aware of the stream of traffic backed up from the accident scene. Seeing those cars at that moment, she said, she sensed that someone in those cars was praying for her and her friends.
___The calm assurance of that prayer comforted her as she shivered under a blanket in the rain.
___In their time of trouble, Mrs. Horton said, God was not hard to find. "He was there. He was right there with us."

___Robert Mattson, associate pastor at Memorial, was supposed to be on the bus to Dallas that day. He had to back out, though, to take his sister for a chemotherapy treatment.
___Nevertheless, he arrived at the church around 9:25 a.m., just in time to step on the loaded bus and joke with the mainly senior adult crowd and lead them in a prayer. He knew the bus driver from a previous youth choir trip to Florida when Mattson served another church.
___"These are special people," the minister told the bus driver. "Take good care of them."
___As the bus pulled away from the church, Mattson stood inside, out of the rain, and peered through a window. He uttered another silent prayer for safety.
___"I was concerned about the bus on the road," he recalled. "I don't know why. It wasn't really a premonition. I was just concerned."
___Thirty-five minutes later, at 10:05 a.m., the church secretary told Mattson she had just received a call from someone on the bus. There had been an accident, she said, and everyone was injured.
___Mattson hopped in his car and rushed to the scene, arriving about 10:30 a.m. Youth Minister Scott Benson, who is an emergency medical technician, already have arrived.
___Based on the sketchy details of the phone call, Mattson didn't know what to expect at the crash site. Assuming perhaps the injuries were minor, he even asked the church secretary to call the bus company and arrange for another bus to pick up the group.
___When he crested the hill and glimpsed the crash site, Mattson was "just overwhelmed," he said.
___In that moment, though, he sensed God speak to him. He and his family had struggled for several months about whether to accept the job at Memorial, where he had been serving as an interim minister the previous six months. Only in August had he agreed this was the thing to do.
___"When I saw the bus, it was almost like God said, 'This is why you're here,'" Mattson said. "I knew this is where I was supposed to be."
___It would not have been humanly possible for Pastor Roy Parker to handle alone what was to unfold, the associate pastor said. And Mattson's own exposure to the massacre at a Killeen Luby's in 1991 provided a basic primer in dealing with a catastrophe. He had lived in a community that grieved through back-to-back funerals in a single week.
___Nevertheless, the wreckage sprawled before him along I-35 left him feeling numb. He got out of his car and began to assess the urgent needs.
___The injured were transported to three hospitals--Hillcrest Baptist in Waco, Providence in Waco and Scott & White in Temple. Mattson went to Hillcrest, Parker to Scott & White and Benson to Providence.
___Upon his arrival at the Baptist General Convention of Texas hospital in Waco, Mattson discovered a private room prepared for families of the injured, along with a spread of food and chaplains offering comfort.

___"The Hillcrest people were awesome," he said. "I was so proud to be a Texas Baptist. This is what we're about."
___While ministering to the wounded at the hospital, Mattson received a call on his cell phone from Charles Wade, BGCT executive director. "That meant a lot," he said. "We're a small church."
___Nine or 10 people were admitted to Hillcrest for the night, and Mattson was called to Waco Mortuary Services to identify the bodies of the deceased.
___He and Parker and Benson checked signals regularly.
___Parker, he said, has "such a big heart of compassion" and has led the church beautifully through the days since the accident.
___Valentine's Day for Memorial's staff ministers ended in the early morning hours of Saturday, Feb. 15. And Sunday was coming--as well as preparations for four funerals and five burials.
___The load was made easier, Mattson said, by the loving membership of the church and the help of fellow Christians across the community.
___By Saturday noon, two of the hospitalized victims had received more than 60 visitors each, causing nurses to cut off future visits so the injured could rest.
___Women from neighboring churches offered to serve meals to the families of the deceased after the funerals, but the women of Memorial wouldn't have it even though they were struggling through their own grief and shock, Mattson explained. "They said: 'These are our friends. We're going to serve our friends.'
___"The majority of the people here are mature Christians. That maturity shines through in a time like this."
___If anything, the events of Feb. 14 have strengthened the congregation that averages about 200 in worship. "There's a new resolve that we're going to keep on with the plan God has given us," Mattson said.
___"A lot of folks had written this church off as too old. But there's so much life here. I've never been at a church that loves like this church."

___Throughout Memorial Baptist Church, the loss of five lives cannot be ignored.
___Those who died, and those who remain seriously injured, were active members, people whose very names were synonymous with the church's name for many in the community.
___Shirley Sommer, for example, is the church's organist. She remains in critical condition at Hillcrest Baptist Hospital. Two others remained hospitalized in critical or serious condition a week after the accident.
___The Akers, church members readily report, brought life and enthusiasm to every area of the church. She baked pies nearly every day, not to keep but to give away.
___Former Pastor R.B. Baker has the last pie she made sitting in his home refrigerator, a gift to him before she boarded the bus on Valentine's Day.
___The dilemma, he has told friends, is what to do with that precious gift: "We can't eat it, but we can't throw it out."

___The Sunday night before the bus trip, the Akers invited two other couples to their home for sandwiches--Jimmy and Delores Hinton and Jim and Jo Freeman. Five days later, only two of the six remained alive.
___The Akers, Delores Hinton and Jo Freeman all perished in the wreck, along with fellow church member Martha McKee, who had attended Memorial 41 years.
___Today, e-mail messages received from places far and near line the walls of the church's Fellowship Hall. Tables normally used for Wednesday-night dinners are covered with letters of condolence, floral arrangements and large sympathy cards colored by children.
___The expressions of love are displayed for all to share, because all are grieving.
___The tragedy has "hurt the whole church," explained Troy Hurley. "These people who were killed were some of the hardest workers and most willing workers.

___"I loved these people so much, and I miss them so much," Hurley added. "But their funerals were so uplifting. ... I came to the conclusion that it was kind of an honor and a privilege to be with them when Jesus came for them."
___He likes the words spoken by Pastor Parker at one of the worship services since the wreck: "We didn't lose anyone, because we know exactly where they are."

___The people of Memorial Baptist point no finger of blame for what happened. They do not speak in angry tones.
___Some are searching for lessons learned from the experience, though. One who has found such a message is Jim Freeman.
___The Valentine he gave his wife began, "For the one I love."
___The verse continued: "After so many years of picking out Valentines for you, I feel like I've already said I love you in every way possible. But I don't know if I've put into words how grateful I am that we've come through so much together or how sharing my life with you means even more to me as time goes by."
___At Jo Freeman's funeral, her husband read that card aloud. The sanctuary full of friends and family fell silent.
___Then he made his point.
___"The reason I'm telling you this is because you're not guaranteed another breath," he said. "Some people find it very difficult to say, 'I love you.' But you have the opportunity, and you may not always have that opportunity."
___

The Baptist Standard