Life is Precious - God is Good

Wednesday morning

Tuesday night was one of the worse nights of my life but Wednesday morning may have been the best ever.

As you may have heard by now, our son Kevin was one of the seven guys that were trapped under a building for four hours on Tuesday night. We are very blessed. He is doing well but still has some medical issues and will be in the hospital for several days. Three other guys have been released and three others are dealing with more extreme medical issues. Please pray for Matt, David both in Intensive Care and Jason who is experiencing the same injuries as Kevin.

It has been all over the news – in fact they interviewed Kevin live from his hospital bed last night on Fox News – Greta On The Record.

I don’t have enough time to write the full details but here is a short version.

Kevin and his friends were in a student commons building. Seconds before the tornado hit, three ran into the girl’s bathroom and four into the boy’s for cover. Kevin said his “ears popped, the building shook, and then we were covered and in the black.” The two story building literally imploded around them and the roof and walls of several dormitories then fell on top of that. The paramedic said that they were about 30 feet deep and about two to three tons of rubble on top of them. Yet somehow, God made the decision to spare their lives.

When the building imploded Kevin was left partial standing with his legs turned backward and under him. He could move his neck, his right arm and that was all. All of the guys were blow into little pockets and were awake. Kevin said “for the first 30 minutes we all screamed and yelled – we begin to understand that we could hear each other but we had no idea how deep we were. One of the guys, Jordan, said he was in a little pocket and not injured. He had been sitting on the commode when it hit and now was able to wiggle down into a hole below. He became the leader of the survival. He began to pray out-loud and take an inventory of who was hurt and how bad.” They guys begin to talk and take turns praying. Matt was hurt the worse with large concrete on his legs. Jason had concrete and rubble on his chest. Kevin said his legs and one arm begin to go numb after 45 minutes. We learned later that for the first 1.5 hours that the fire fighters could not find them. One of the boys called 911 on their cell-phone. Kevin had just pulled his out to text his mom and lost it in the implosion. Kevin said he begin to quote scripture out-loud that he has memorized. The other guys joined in. They also sang hymns and asked each other “what did God have planned for them when this was over.”

After 45 minutes the guys said they begin to hear the muffled sound of rescuers. Jordan could yell and give information about their status.

The first guy was pulled out after 2 hours. Kevin was the fourth guy out at about 3.5 hours. The last kid was out at 5 hours. The paramedic said it was “a mini version of the World Trade Center.”

There is a whole other odyssey about me getting from Las Vegas, where I was training, to Jackson. I arrived yesterday at 9am.

So that is the short version – there is just so much more to tell. The medic said to me yesterday when I visited the “hole” that “there is just no way that we were able to pull seven guys alive out of that rubble – it had to be a ‘God Thing.’ Standing here it is hard to believe that we could have found them and gotten them out of the pockets of rubble”

Kevin’s version of this is much more powerful and detailed.

You can google “Union University” for some of the amazing photos. I hope to have access to upload some later today.

So – Please pray that the guys continue to recover. Pray for the moms, dads and families that are dealing with the shock. Pray for the 1600 kids that were on the campus and are still alive today.

I will send more updates…

Feel free to call me but I have very limited access to email (only on my phone).

Yesterday was one of the best days in my life as I hugged my son. We are blessed.