Update on Ron & Hannah Luce

Many years ago, when I was only seven years old, a young teen-age boy came to live with my family. He and I shared a small room in a small parsonage behind a small church where my father was pastor. Only having three older sisters at the time, I idolized this guy big time... the big brother I never had! This awesome young man eventually gave his heart to Jesus... in a radical way... and went away to college at ORU. His name is Ron Luce. He became the founder of Teen Mania Ministries and one of the top youth evangelists of our generation. I am not as close to him as I'd like to be, but have always considered him a 'foster' brother. Over the years Ron has impacted my life more than he'll ever know.

He is currently going through a pretty rough season. His 22 year old daughter, Hannah, was the lone survivor in a small airplane crash. She is in ICU at a hospital near where I live. This has brought Ron and I together and I've seen him more in the past few days than I have in the past few decades. The following is a letter I recently wrote to the rest of my family. I'm placing it here in hopes that many of my friends and loved ones that visit this blog, will take a moment to lift my 'brother' and his daughter to the Lord in prayer. Thanks.

Dear Friends & Family,

First, thanks for all your prayers for Ron Luce and this situation. Last night I picked up Ron at the airport (I was honored he called and asked for my help). His plane landed at 11:05pm - he was exhausted. He had had a full day of meetings with lawyers and experts advising him on how his ministry should be responding, etc... He is truly heartbroken over the loss of the four young men, and feeling somewhat surreal concerning the fact that his daughter is the lone survivor. He was pretty tired, but opened up to me. I drove him the 40 minutes to the hospital where he went in to visit his daughter for a while. I waited in the car for him. She was awake and in much pain, so he wrestled with the nurses to "up" her meds and loved on her a bit. When she fell asleep he came back out and I took him to the place where he is staying. It's another 20 minutes away. I dropped him off around 1am and he was just wasted-tired. He told me he had to wake up and be back at the hospital by 5:30am to finally give an interview to the media (something he is being hounded about). Understanding how tired he was, I think he did an incredible job! You can watch that video here:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/#47442873

On a happy note, Hannah is going to be okay.

Also... Ron explained how his deep desire was to attend all four of the funerals (happening at different times, in different places all over the country), but couldn't get schedules to work with airlines AND STILL be back at the hospital each night to be with Hannah (something he is determined to do). Today, for instance, is the Marine's funeral, Austin Anderson, and it's hours away. However, Joyce Meyer's ministry CEO, her son, called offering "anything we can do". Ron called him back and it turns out that they are going to get a personal jet and pilot to fly Ron around that will take him from Kansas City to within five minutes of each funeral... wait for him... and then fly him back here. Pretty cool, right? Ron will be sharing at each funeral, and would appreciate prayer for that. The next few days will be rough for him.

Ron is a really great man of God. I look up to him immensely.

I love you all.