The following is based John 11:1-45 Click here to read this in the New Revised Standard Version.
(After writing this, I realized that it is extremely LONG! I would suggest reading it in several sessions.)
On May 14, 1988, a school bus full of children, teens, and chaperons was traveling down interstate 71 en route to Radcliff, Kentucky. They were on the way home from a church outing at a Cincinnati amusement park.
As the bus was nearing Carrollton, Kentucky, a drunk driver in a pickup truck was heading the wrong way down the highway and slammed into the bus head on. The bus burst into flames, killing 24 young people and three adults. Thirty other people were injured in the crash. The pickup driver, Larry Mahoney, was a repeat drunk driving offender. He survived, sustaining only minor injuries. His blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.024), substantially higher than the legal limit in Kentucky.
In just a few terrible moments more than 57 families were shattered and an entire community was in shock. Some lost sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, parents and others lost friends friends. Many had to help surviving loved ones recover from injuries and trauma.
Many of the survivors and families of victims traumatized by this senseless crash have spent the last 22 years rebuilding their lives through the hard work of emotional and physical healing . They have met together, worked together, and even fallen in love with one another. They are "average" people with inspiring and exceptional stories—stories about coping with heart-wrenching loss, giving selflessly of themselves to build safer communities and finding a way back to hopefulness.
