No words can help minister Les Ferguson and his family deal with the recent deaths of his wife, Karen, and son Cole. Ferguson and his sons Casey, Conner and Kyle are in mourning but are supported with love by the members of Orange Grove Church of Christ in Gulfport, Miss., where Ferguson is the minister. “I want to thank everyone,” Ferguson said. “My church family was just here and took over my needs that could be met. I am leaning on them and God. I have not been alone and have not had to do things on my own. I am very grateful to everyone. The church has allowed me to take as much time as I need before returning to the pulpit.”

Anabel Reid’s boyfriend told an audience of nearly 1,400 mourning his fellow Abilene Christian University classmate of his love for a “totally righteous babe of the Lord.” Reid’s devotion to God was why Wann and a handful of other mourners from Broadway Church of Christ said they were happy knowing Reid was in heaven.

Lubbock Christian University students and faculty gathered Monday morning to remember Anabel Reid, the 19-year-old Abilene Christian University sophomore killed Friday in a bus crash. The 11 a.m. LCU chapel service included song and prayers of hope and healing to remember Reid, her loved ones and others affected by the Friday’s accident.

When an ACU shuttle bus veered into a ditch and crashed at an intersection near Ballinger, the students and faculty from the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences were heading south toward Medina Children’s Home, a campus 40 miles northwest of San Antonio, for their annual mission trip. Medina Children’s Home, part of the not-for-profit Christian care organization Arms of Hope, assists orphans, at-risk youth and single-mother families. After the accident, word traveled to Medina quickly.

Phil Schubert, president of Abilene Christian University, discusses Friday’s bus crash in the video message. “Our community is strong, but we are hurting,” Schubert says. “Please continue to lift these families up in your prayers.” ACU has created a special website to provide updates on the crash.

One person has died and several more were injured when an Abilene Christian University bus overturned near Paint Rock, Texas, on Nov. 4. Twelve students, three faculty members and the spouse of one faculty member were passengers, representing the university’s department of agricultural and environmental sciences. The group was en route to an annual service project for the Medina Children’s Home in Medina, Texas.

In the midst of unimaginable tragedy, Les Ferguson Jr.’s faith survives. “God didn’t do this,” said Ferguson, preaching minister for the Orange Grove Church of Christ in Gulfport, Miss. “This was just evil.” Even as he clings to God, Ferguson can’t help but weep as he mourns his wife, Karen, and son Cole, 21, who were shot to death in the family’s home Oct. 10.

On Monday morning, Karen Ferguson posted a Facebook message wishing her husband Les Ferguson Jr. — “the love of my life” — a happy 24th anniversary. Later in the day, police found the Mississippi minister’s wife and the couple’s severely handicapped son, Cole, 21, slain in their home. The 70-year-old suspect in the double-homicide died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at his apartment about two miles away, The Sun Herald in Gulfport reported.

The Christian school in Florida where 10-year-old Nathan Hayes attended is grieving over his death, and people who did not know the child’s family have been calling Christian Home and Bible School in Mount Dora to express their condolences, officials said. A funeral service is planned Thursday at the Orange Avenue Church of Christ in Eustis, Fla., the family’s home congregation.

Tragedy has struck the Airport Road Church of Christ in Crestview, Fla. Three young sisters who attended the northwest Florida church with their mother, Jenny Furr-Higdon, were killed in a traffic accident this week, said Thomas R. Dugan, the congregation’s prison minister. “There are no words to express the sorrow,” Dugan told The Christian Chronicle.