… and desperately. Via The Anchoress and Jeannette comes this horrific, staggering story of loss. Writes Jeannette:
I received this in an email from our dear friend Truthseeker.
This family is distantly related to Truthseeker’s wife and we need to get a prayer chain going for the mother, the father, the other driver and the new baby to come in addition to other family members. The grief they are experiencing must be beyond words, but they have a strong faith and believe everything works for the good of those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.
Here’s the story:
11/02/2005
Associated Press
Two pickup trucks collided head-on in the city’s northern outskirts, leaving five young children from a Mennonite family dead and their father badly injured, authorities said.
Jeffrey B. Schrock and his children were in the extended cab of a southbound 1986 Ford F250 when it collided with a northbound 1999 Ford F250 which had crossed a grassy median and entered the southbound lanes of U.S. 395 about 4:20 p.m. Tuesday, according to a Washington State Patrol report.
Carmen Joy Schrock, 12; Jana Louise Schrock, 10; Corina Jean Schrock, 8; Jerrill Burdiette Schrock, 5, and Creig Allen Schrock, 2 were pronounced dead at the scene.
“This may go down as the worst crash†in the Spokane area, patrol trooper Jeffrey M. Sevigney told The Spokesman-Review newspaper. “Nobody could remember one, at least in this area, in recent times that’s been this bad.â€
Schrock, 38, co-owner of a furniture store in Chewelah, and Clifford L. Helm, 55, of Deer Park, driver of the newer pickup, were rushed to Sacred Heart Medical Center. Schrock was in serious condition early Wednesday after initially being listed as critical and Helm was in satisfactory condition, both after undergoing surgery.
Evening rush-hour traffic was detoured around the crash scene just north of North Hatch Road. Northbound lanes were reopened about 8:45 p.m. but southbound lanes remained closed a longer time.
Ralph Hooley, another member of the 12-family Mennonite community in Chewelah, about 45 miles north of Spokane, told the newspaper the family was going to meet Schrock’s pregnant wife Carolyn, the children’s mother and the other store co-owner, who had gone shopping in Spokane.
The crash shook windows in the area and horrified passers-by who tried to render aid.
“I thought it was like an earthquake,†said Jayme Marquardt, who lives nearby.
“There were about 30 people all standing around with their jaws touching the ground,†said Caleb Gilbert, a motorist who stopped soon after the crash.
Gilbert said two of the children still had pulses when he reached the Schrocks’ pickup, including a girl who was conscious but struggling to breathe. He said he pulled a body off her, but she died soon afterward.
Cause of the crash remained undetermined. Sevigney said there was no immediate indication drugs or alcohol were involved.
“We’re going to spare no expense in conducting an investigation,†patrol Lt. Steven G. Turcott said.
According to an article in The Spokesman-Review in 1997, the Schrocks opened North Country Furniture after they and two other Mennonite families moved to Chewelah from Tangent, Ore.
“He has a shop there at his house where he makes furniture — tables and chairs and things like that,†Hooley said.
Update from Truthseeker: Funerals will be held next Monday. Only 12 families in the small church but I’m sure the community will be there. Let’s get the prayer warriors on this.
The Anchoress adds:
This is just an unthinkable disaster – I don’t know how people can recover from such staggering loss, but I do know that grace is there, even in all of this. There is no depth so deep that Christ is not deeper still, and no darkness which cannot be penetrated with His light. Please remember these people in your prayers, and not just for today.
AMEN and AMEN, I say. Please, let’s be the Body of Christ for this family. If we can give them nothing else, WE CAN AND MUST GIVE THEM THAT.
Oh my… Words fail me. Um… Wow. Okay. I can’t even begin to think how I’ll “compose” a real prayer, but I know the Spirit knows what I mean when I groan and shake my head, pleading with my heart towards God for this family…
Oh, Lord Jesus…words fail me as well. God be with this family in their deep grief!
my heart is in my throat. what a tragedy – i will remember them in my prayers.
To Tracy, and your readers, thank you for your concerns and prayers, and yes, we cannot speak or pray understandably on these matters, but the Holy Spirit conveys our groanings to God.
Anchoress is spot on in her view of this horror. We (our families and fellowship) believe that God can use this tragedy to bring glory to Himself and is in control of the outcome for the good of His servants, and in the lives of others that this tragic incident may touch; there is no depth of sorrow so deep that He cannot reach us with His comfort and peace to heal our agonizing hearts and minds and bring in the Light of Hope, if we will but reach out to Him and trust Him.
what a tragedy.
Truthseeker — Thank you for stopping by and for your comments, here and elsewhere.