Tomorrow?
10/10/06 - Third Day - After Breakfast. "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" (James 4:13-15).
After the Sabbath, we had our usual Sat. night Q&A session. Everyone had arrived for Ranchfest and we were sitting around the fire chatting. Some people had asked me if we could record Q&A, so I agreed to. We had some pretty good questions going for an hour or so, then the recorder stopped working. It would have been interesting if it had not. One of the guys asked this question to the whole group...
"What are you all doing here? Are you following a man?"
Each person then answered the question, in turn giving testimony of how God had brought him or her to this place, and why we believe the way we do. One good friend said that, because of his age he figured he might only have 15 or 20 years left and he want to use those years in the Lord's service. He no longer wanted to be deceived.
Our good friend Doug Howey responded... "God has not promised me tomorrow, so we cannot know that we have one more day, much less 15 years. We have to be obedient today, because God may call us home tomorrow." This is a message I have been repeating for many years, and I was pleased to hear Doug remind us all that God's providence and soveriegnty trumps the designs and plans of man. So many people plan to be obedient tomorrow, and they plan to do the right thing some time in the future. They put off obedience because of their circumstances, and make excuses for why they are not obeying today. Doug's statement was right on the money, and was spoken via the Spirit of God as a testimony to us all.
The next day, after the sermon at about 2:30, Doug and his wife Sarah asked me some questions about San Antonio. Doug had mentioned on Saturday that a friend had really encouraged them to go visit the Riverwalk if they could. Doug asked what I thought about them running down to San Antonio for the night (a little over 3 hours south); they would try to be back in time for a lesson Monday night if the Lord willed. I told them that if they wanted to go, it wouldn't bother me. I like San Antonio quite a bit... for a city.
So at about 3 p.m. or so Doug and Sarah loaded up the rental car for their day trip down south. The rest of us sat around and had fellowship and chatted until bedtime.
At 4 a.m. my daughter came into the cabin and told us that a friend from the forum had called one of the ladies on her cell phone. Sarah was trying to get a hold of us from San Antonio and had put a message on the "shoutbox" on BiblicalAgrarianism.com for me to call her at the hospital. I fired up the computer and found an email from Sarah from 12:38 a.m. There had been a horrible accident and she needed me to call her at the University Hospital in San Antonio. We called the hospital, but we were told that the phone system in the patient rooms wasn't activated until 6:30 a.m. I responded to the email and told Sarah that we couldn't get through and gave her David's cell phone. After numerous attempts to get a call through, we finally were able to contact Sarah through the private cell phone of a hospital employee.
The Howey's had been in an accident on the way to San Antonio and Doug had been killed instantly. Sarah said that she was physically ok, other than the fact that she was pretty banged up and felt like she had fallen 20 stories from a rooftop.
We were floored. Literally speechless. I tried my best to keep solid and I told Sarah that David and I would be down there as soon as possible. We left immediately. David and I arrived at the hospital at about 9:30 a.m. and began the process of sorting out what had happened, and of doing our best to serve Sarah in whatever we possible. Things were overwhelming and Sarah clearly needed our help. She was a foreigner (they are from Canada) in a strange place. Everything she had was in the rental car, which had been totaled and hauled away. Her clothes had been cut off of her, and she didn't even have a purse, a wallet or a drivers license. I told her that everything would work out, and that we didn't have to figure everything out immediately. She was in good physical shape and we could take our time to work things out. I told her that she was our responsibility, and that we would do everything we could to take care of her.
1 Tim. 5:3
James 1:27
I told her that she was welcome to live here at the land forever if she liked, and that the fellowship was here to serve her.
Doug and Sarah had passed through Fredericksburg, Texas at a little after 5 p.m on the Lord's Day. They stopped just as they were leaving Fredericksburg to get gas, then got back on the road. Just a few miles south of town, there was an area of construction where the middle lanes were closed off with large orange barrels. Far ahead, coming towards them, they saw that a woman in a pickup truck full of children, talking on her cell phone and likely speeding, had begun to fish tail and lose control of the vehicle. For a second, it looked like she had regained control, then inexplicably she sped up and fishtailed again. There were cars both in front of and behind the Howey's rental car. The woman slammed on her brakes which caused her to lose control. The truch shot across the closed lanes smashing through the orange barricade barrels and spinning out of control. The truck slammed into the Howey's car at a very high rate of speed, crumpling the drivers side and sliding the car off the embankment. Doug was killed instantly. Sarah was conscious, but the car was filling with smoke. A woman appeared and literally ripped the passenger door open, hauling Sarah effortlessly from the car. Emergency services arrived, and a helicopter was called to medivac Sarah to San Antonio and the hospital.
Our friend and brother Doug Howey was killed by a careless and negligent driver sometime before 6 p.m., less than 24 hours after his prophetic exhortation that none of us take tomorrow for granted.
Sarah is strong, and she believes in the providence and sovereignty of God. The task before us has just begun. David and I have begun dealing with the funeral home and we were able to empty out Sarah's belongings from the destroyed vehicle.
We ask for your prayers for Sarah and for us as we move forward.
No one has promised you tomorrow. Doug's message to you is this... "Are you moving towards obedience to God today? Or are you counting on a tomorrow that has never been promised to you?"
Some of you have asked how you can help.
I don't know yet.
We are commanded to provide and take care of widows in the Body of Christ. We will do so. Prayers are necessary, and money helps.
I am your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
After the Sabbath, we had our usual Sat. night Q&A session. Everyone had arrived for Ranchfest and we were sitting around the fire chatting. Some people had asked me if we could record Q&A, so I agreed to. We had some pretty good questions going for an hour or so, then the recorder stopped working. It would have been interesting if it had not. One of the guys asked this question to the whole group...
"What are you all doing here? Are you following a man?"
Each person then answered the question, in turn giving testimony of how God had brought him or her to this place, and why we believe the way we do. One good friend said that, because of his age he figured he might only have 15 or 20 years left and he want to use those years in the Lord's service. He no longer wanted to be deceived.
Our good friend Doug Howey responded... "God has not promised me tomorrow, so we cannot know that we have one more day, much less 15 years. We have to be obedient today, because God may call us home tomorrow." This is a message I have been repeating for many years, and I was pleased to hear Doug remind us all that God's providence and soveriegnty trumps the designs and plans of man. So many people plan to be obedient tomorrow, and they plan to do the right thing some time in the future. They put off obedience because of their circumstances, and make excuses for why they are not obeying today. Doug's statement was right on the money, and was spoken via the Spirit of God as a testimony to us all.
The next day, after the sermon at about 2:30, Doug and his wife Sarah asked me some questions about San Antonio. Doug had mentioned on Saturday that a friend had really encouraged them to go visit the Riverwalk if they could. Doug asked what I thought about them running down to San Antonio for the night (a little over 3 hours south); they would try to be back in time for a lesson Monday night if the Lord willed. I told them that if they wanted to go, it wouldn't bother me. I like San Antonio quite a bit... for a city.
So at about 3 p.m. or so Doug and Sarah loaded up the rental car for their day trip down south. The rest of us sat around and had fellowship and chatted until bedtime.
At 4 a.m. my daughter came into the cabin and told us that a friend from the forum had called one of the ladies on her cell phone. Sarah was trying to get a hold of us from San Antonio and had put a message on the "shoutbox" on BiblicalAgrarianism.com for me to call her at the hospital. I fired up the computer and found an email from Sarah from 12:38 a.m. There had been a horrible accident and she needed me to call her at the University Hospital in San Antonio. We called the hospital, but we were told that the phone system in the patient rooms wasn't activated until 6:30 a.m. I responded to the email and told Sarah that we couldn't get through and gave her David's cell phone. After numerous attempts to get a call through, we finally were able to contact Sarah through the private cell phone of a hospital employee.
The Howey's had been in an accident on the way to San Antonio and Doug had been killed instantly. Sarah said that she was physically ok, other than the fact that she was pretty banged up and felt like she had fallen 20 stories from a rooftop.
We were floored. Literally speechless. I tried my best to keep solid and I told Sarah that David and I would be down there as soon as possible. We left immediately. David and I arrived at the hospital at about 9:30 a.m. and began the process of sorting out what had happened, and of doing our best to serve Sarah in whatever we possible. Things were overwhelming and Sarah clearly needed our help. She was a foreigner (they are from Canada) in a strange place. Everything she had was in the rental car, which had been totaled and hauled away. Her clothes had been cut off of her, and she didn't even have a purse, a wallet or a drivers license. I told her that everything would work out, and that we didn't have to figure everything out immediately. She was in good physical shape and we could take our time to work things out. I told her that she was our responsibility, and that we would do everything we could to take care of her.
1 Tim. 5:3
James 1:27
I told her that she was welcome to live here at the land forever if she liked, and that the fellowship was here to serve her.
Doug and Sarah had passed through Fredericksburg, Texas at a little after 5 p.m on the Lord's Day. They stopped just as they were leaving Fredericksburg to get gas, then got back on the road. Just a few miles south of town, there was an area of construction where the middle lanes were closed off with large orange barrels. Far ahead, coming towards them, they saw that a woman in a pickup truck full of children, talking on her cell phone and likely speeding, had begun to fish tail and lose control of the vehicle. For a second, it looked like she had regained control, then inexplicably she sped up and fishtailed again. There were cars both in front of and behind the Howey's rental car. The woman slammed on her brakes which caused her to lose control. The truch shot across the closed lanes smashing through the orange barricade barrels and spinning out of control. The truck slammed into the Howey's car at a very high rate of speed, crumpling the drivers side and sliding the car off the embankment. Doug was killed instantly. Sarah was conscious, but the car was filling with smoke. A woman appeared and literally ripped the passenger door open, hauling Sarah effortlessly from the car. Emergency services arrived, and a helicopter was called to medivac Sarah to San Antonio and the hospital.
Our friend and brother Doug Howey was killed by a careless and negligent driver sometime before 6 p.m., less than 24 hours after his prophetic exhortation that none of us take tomorrow for granted.
Sarah is strong, and she believes in the providence and sovereignty of God. The task before us has just begun. David and I have begun dealing with the funeral home and we were able to empty out Sarah's belongings from the destroyed vehicle.
We ask for your prayers for Sarah and for us as we move forward.
No one has promised you tomorrow. Doug's message to you is this... "Are you moving towards obedience to God today? Or are you counting on a tomorrow that has never been promised to you?"
Some of you have asked how you can help.
I don't know yet.
We are commanded to provide and take care of widows in the Body of Christ. We will do so. Prayers are necessary, and money helps.
I am your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 10/10/2006 06:26:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home