Heroes

I thought it would be helpful to describe some of the things that I witnessed this weekend with the support of some of Scott and Jill's friends and family. I will try to write about a few of the people who were so supportive during such a difficult time.

Brother Charles Attebery and Mrs. Janice
Scott's dad displayed genuine Christ-like compassion for his son this weekend. I can't imagine someone being a better support than he was. Just watching him truly ministered to me. He never left his son. May I be such a father.
His mother was so kind and tender toward her hurting son. Her love for Scott shined through in every move, every hug, every look on her face.

Jill's Parents
Jill's parents were very supportive of their son-in-law. Their compassion for Scott along with their obvious love for their daughter was a testimony of their faith.

Clif Johnson
Clif was truly a faithful friend this weekend. He was there the entire time, and never left Scott. He was the "rock" that many of us needed. His presence was calming and his love for Scott and Jill was obvious.

Andy Jarvis
Jill's brother was an encouragement to me. Scott frequently asked for prayer throughout the entire time. Andy prayed, and it was a huge encouragement to me. He displayed an unwavering trust in the sovereignty of God in this situation.

David Attebery
He was another "rock" that gave support in a very trying time. He displayed deep love and compassion for Scott.

Brandon Lupkey
Brandon was also a constant friend and immediately began thinking of ways that we could show Scott our love and support for him in the coming weeks and months.

Adam Thomas and Donny Hymer
They served Scott in such an amazing way this morning by going back to El Dorado to conduct our church services. Their love of Scott was evident as they interacted with him last night at the hospital. I can't imagine any two other people that I would want to be on our staff with Scott.

There were so many more, but these are the ones that I noticed.

Jill's Great Hope

It is amazing how your focus can change so quickly. 30 hours ago I was wrapped up in the coming political election, now, frankly, I couldn't care less (that is a little hyperbole). Tragedies like this cause your focus to shift from secondary matters to the most important matters.
I know Jill, and she would want me to share her Great Hope with all of you who are reading. If you truly understood the holiness of God, you would see yourself as undone before Him. No self-righteousness, no pride, no "I'm basically a good person" arguments will stand in the fiery brightness of God's holiness. All of your sin and mine are completely clear to God, and He is offended. God desires and deserves all glory. To the extent that we fail to give it to Him, we stand condemned. We have all completely and utterly failed at giving God the glory due His name, we magnify everything but God, and He will judge us for it. We are completely unable to reform ourselves, we are helpless, blind, dumb, deaf and lifeless. But God, at the expense of His own Son, bore our penalty. Canceling the debt we owe God for our sins, and living the life that we should have lived. He has done all of this, and if this thrills your heart that God has provided a Way, venture on this Christ. Flee to Him, trust in Him, cast yourself on Him. I am not asking you to recite a prayer, I am not telling you to "ask Jesus into your heart" I am telling you to turn from your sins and turn to Christ. Hide from God, in God. Be transformed by His work on your behalf as Jill was transformed by His work on her behalf.

If you want to talk with me about Jill's Great Hope I will be glad to talk with you. I realize that there may be many unanswered questions, and I will be happy to interact with anyone who has questions.

Sorrow

I've never felt this kind of sorrow before. I've never had someone so young and so close to my family die before. I have noticed over the past few hours that different people mourn differently. For me, pain and weeping come in waves- when I think about the 10,000 things that are going to be so difficult for Scott in the coming weeks, months, years. I can't bear to think about it for long. Needless to say I haven't been much of a "rock" for others.
This has caused me to ask the question: "What does it mean to trust in the sovereign goodness of God during a tragedy like this?"
It doesn't mean that you will approach it with some kind of stoic emotionlessness. It doesn't mean that you won't be devastated and fall. It doesn't mean that you won't wonder "why?"
It does mean that even though your heart is breaking, and your emotions are haywire, you do have a resting place. It does mean that even though you are devastated, and even though you are crying your eyes out, and even though you fall, you fall on the Great Hope you have in Christ. He is our solace, so that's where we go WHEN we are devastated. It does mean that we may wonder "why?" but that we also trust when things don't seem to make sense. If nothing else it means we take God at His word when He says "All things work together for good, to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose." Notice, it does not say that all things are good, but that God works all things for good.
I may have already shared this, but it deserves a repeat. Our church has been hit with tragedy after tragedy for the last 3 years. If nothing was happening spiritually at our church we probably wouldn't be going through this, or it may be proper to say if we hadn't been hit by tragedies we wouldn't be making progress like we are in so many areas. True growth rarely happens in the rosy times. Don't get me wrong, I prefer rosy, but obviously God has other plans right now, and we should trust Him.
Resting in Christ,
Jonathan

Pics from earlier posts

Here are a couple pics of Jill with Bryce.

Here

We Saw Her

Emily was the brave one. She wanted to go back and see her so I agreed to go back with her. She was very peaceful. What a privilege to have known her. I know she wouldn't want us to be as upset as we are, but she was a special person to our family, as she was to so many. Scott is holding up amazingly well. What a testimony. I was talking to Mark Harmon about our church and the hard knocks we have taken over the past three years. He pointed out that we ought to count it as a compliment, that if we weren't doing anything substantial, we probably wouldn't be going through this.
Nonetheless...still wishing this were a dream... a bad bad dream.
Jonathan

Goodbye Jill

They are allowing the family and friends to see her before they take her off life support. They have met with the organ donation representative and will write her testimony to give along with her organs.

In Memory of Jill

I would ask everyone who can to please write a longer comment on what Jill meant to you and post it here. I will make sure they get to Scott.
Thank you for your comments, Scott has read a few, and I'm sure he will read them much more in the coming days and weeks. Let's all rally around him right now. I cannot bear to think about the next week, month, year of his life. I know in whom he has trusted and am convinced that He is able to keep it until the day of his coming. Pray that God would sustain him, and comfort him, and pray for us that we will be able to support him.
Thanks again for your comments.

The Updates Will Probably Be Few Now

Please continue to comment. They will be an invaluable gift for Scott in the coming days and weeks. It's going to be a long hard road for him. I will update if anything significant happens. Thank you all for your prayer and concern.
In Christ,
Jonathan

The Last 18 Hours

They have been incomprehensible. To think that God sees every situation like this, is unfathomable. Scott is sitting across from me now with his head in his hands, and his mother at his side. I'm so thankful that God is in control and works all things together for good, even when we don't understand. John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. If we did not believe that, we would be going even crazier than we already are.

Scott Wants Everyone to Know

He appreciates your prayers. They are keeping her on a ventilator so that she can donate her organs. They are going to move her to a room where we can see her. This is going to be a long road, but God is faithful, sovereign and good.
Scott is going around hugging everyone right now.

They Came Back

They just pronounced Jill dead. There is heartbreak all around. Please pray.

They Just Came and Got Jill's Nephews

To take them back there. We still haven't heard anything.

Scott

He is in pretty bad shape right now, please pray for him specifically.

They Just Took the Family Back to Share the Results of the Test

The results are in and they are consulting with the doctor right now. It doesn't look good. I'm afraid we are going to hear the news that we don't want to hear.

Another Test

They are about to give her another test showing how much blood is circulating to her brain. This will tell a lot. They should be coming to give the results anytime now. Her pressure has decreased, but it is still not looking good. They just called. The results are in, and a nurse should be in to tell us.

update

they did the intracranial test and her pressure was 80. 20 is normal. This is not good at all. At a pressure of 30 brain damage begins. They will do a test to see if and how much blood flow she has. We are basically to the point where we need a miracle. Hopefully God has us right where He wants us. Please pray.

update

The neurosurgeon said he thought she had severe brain injury. They will confirm shortly with the monitor. Not good news, but we still hope.

Update on Jill

They have gotten her blood regulated like it needs to be to start monitoring her brain. Scott is signing consent forms right now for them to begin the monitoring.

The Christian Life... Suffering, Not Prosperity

This is a video describing the Christian life by John Piper. He is one of Scott and Jill's favorite pastors. Hopefully this video will help put some things in perspective.

Her Parents

I'm listening in on a conversation between Jill's parents and Scott's dad. They are talking about the feelings they were having on the way in. Her mother specifically was saying how she was numb sometimes, and cried a few times, but figured the weight of this would land on her in a couple days. She described her emotions when she was being told her daughter may not be there when they got here.

The Good News- His Mercies Are New Every Morning

In the midst of all the bad news I thought I'd recap the good news.
1. People were on the scene immediately that knew CPR so she didn't go long without oxygen to her brain.
2. Her vital organs are all ok. They did an EKG on her heart and when they did the exploratory laparotomy, they were able to stop the bleeding in her liver, and there was only minor kidney damage.
3. There doesn't appear to be any spinal damage. She had a small fracture in one of her lower vertebrae, they don't know but it will probably not cause paralysis.
4. The brain damage, while unknown, does not seem to be catastrophic.
5. Scott and Bryce were not harmed at all.

The doctor just came in and said everything is still the same. The next step is to be able to monitor her brain. When that happens we will know a lot more.

More Family Arrived

Jill's brother and nephews just got here. Scott is updating them right now.

More on Scott

Scott wanted to come over to my brother's house and take a shower(I know-TMI, but I want ya'll to experience this as close to first hand as you can get). On the way, he wanted me to remind him to make a list of the ways he has seen God's hand today. What faith, to seek to think of ways to magnify God in the midst of tragedy.

Scott is a rare person, I would even say the world is not worthy of him (he certainly wouldn't say that). He is tough and tender. The way that he loves Jill makes me want to love Emily more. The way he stands for what he believes in is admirable. The diplomacy he uses is effective without being patronizing or deceptive. He doesn't fear man, but God, that makes him very tough. He genuinely cares about people, which makes him tender.

We're about to go back to the hospital where he will try to get a few hours of sleep.
This may be my last post of the night. If so, I'll start again tomorrow.

Reflections On Today's Events

It was a normal day until we got the call. The one you never want to get. Scott, Jill and Bryce had been in a bad car wreck. That was all we knew. For about 15 minutes we were in agony not knowing anything. Then we got a call that Scott and Bryce were ok, but Jill was unconscious and in the ambulance. About 45 minutes after we got the first phone call, we began to pack to come to Pine Bluff. At that time we got another phone call that things did not look good at all. Jill was in a coma, the CT scan showed some brain trauma, we learned that she had been ejected from the car and that they had performed CPR on her at the scene.
The drive to Pine Bluff was emotionally draining. I both dreaded and longed for the next phone call. Emily and I sat in silence most of the way except for a short prayer and about 50 phone calls. All I could think about was why I wasn’t the one in the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital about 1 hour and 45 minutes after we left, Google maps said it would take 2:17. It seemed like 5 hours.
We saw Scott. Now is not the time for theology, it is time for hugging and support. Thankfully, with our relationship, volumes of theology are there, but go unspoken. No need for words, what words would we say?
Jill was airlifted to UAMS and we arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes after she got here. We went and picked up Brian (my brother who is in med school) and went straight to the hospital.
There were probably 50 people here at one point, such a testimony to the lives that have been touched by Scott and Jill. They are a special couple. It is a privilege to be able to serve them during this difficult time.

A Prayer For Jill

Lord, we come with heavy hearts, humbly asking, imploring you to intercede on Jill's behalf. We do not demand, nor do we presume, but boldly in Christ we trust that you are sovereign and you are good. We ask for mercy now, not justice, not fairness. We ask that you would glorify yourself through the healing of Jill. Be with the doctors, help us not to trust in them. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord. Prov 21:31. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Psalm 127:1. Help Scott to rest in you, trust in you, hope in you.
In Christ's name

Morale

I wanted ya'll to get an update on Scott's status right now. Currently he is in good spirits. He has asked for prayer multiple times and the fellowship has been sweet. His faith during this difficult time has been encouraging.
I asked Scott what he would like to say and he said:
"Thanks for praying and continue to do so. We have seen God's hand move throughout the day, and He listens when His people pray."
I'm sure he will be able to read the comments soon, he has read some, but is busy.
He is currently talking about Marky Mark, and NKOTB.