Browsing Tag

car accidents

Blog, Faith, Parenting, prayer, Spiritual Gifts, Writing

Darkness moves the Spirit of God

Vickie Oakley

Vickie Oakley

The Women’s Battles Radio Show today with special guest Vickie Oakley was very powerful.

On this show, Vickie shared the story of her 17 year old daughter Hope being suddenly and tragically killed in a car accident, and how God changed Vickie’s life through it.

One thing she said which struck me was when she shared from Genesis 1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

She said, “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Darkness moves the Spirit of God.”

Wow.

Are you in a dark time? Do you need hope?

If you weren’t able to attend the show today, you can listen to the replay by clicking on the link below:

Women’s Battles Radio Show with Vickie Oakley

Are you a parent whose child died, or another loved one?

Have you faced the loss of your marriage, job, career, ministry, home, or another kind of loss?

How did you get through it?

Vickie shared that while she greatly struggled after Hope’s death with the normal grief stages of shock, anger, confusion, and hurt, it is Jesus Christ who gave her the strength to get through the pain. He is now using Hope’s life and death in a powerful way. 

Remember that with Christ there is always hope.

I was so blessed that some of Hope’s family and friends were in the chat room and on the phone lines today to support Vickie and to honor Hope’s life. Her family and friends said she was a wonderful person who truly loved her family, friends, and others, had a contagious laugh and a giving heart, and was very sweet. I wish I’d known her.

The name of Vickie’s new website at www.VickieOakley.com is a play on words with Hope’s name: Messages of Hope.

There Vickie will be sharing inspiring, hope-filled messages from God’s word and life to encourage you. She is an anointed speaker, teacher and writer, and I believe today was the launch of something new and great in her life.

I also LOVE that Vickie is a very unique, creative person -a photographer and a Harley-riding chick, who rides motorcycles with her husband and their biker friends. You can see the picture of her and her husband with Vickie on their Harley bike at the home page of her website www.VickieOakley.com.

Hope, we honor your life today. Thank you for inspiring others and impacting them with your life.

Bible Studies, Blog, Faith, Parenting, prayer, Spiritual Gifts, Writing

Women’s Battles Show with Vickie Oakley, March 22

Imagine it is a normal, routine day for you. But imagine that day turns out to be the worst nightmare of your life: your precious child’s life is suddenly taken. 

How can a parent bare his or her own child’s death? How can you even go on any more from the intense grief?

Join International Speaker/Host Beth Jones with her special guest Vickie Oakley for this powerful episode as Vickie shares about the day her 17 year old daughter was involved in a 2-car accident, with both cars filled with teens. 

“All of the kids in those cars went home, except my daughter. That night she went to the funeral home,” Vickie says.

Yet through her relationship with Christ, Vickie found hope and faith. Ironically, her daughter’s name was Hope.

Vickie will be sharing how God has turned her life around through her daughter’s death for God’s glory.

We’d love for you to join us in the chat room on Saturday, March 22, 2014, @ 10 a.m. Central Time (11 a.m. Eastern Time) by clicking here.

You can also call into the show.

The call-in details are below:

Talkshoe Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698

Vickie has been married to her husband for 19 years, and is the mother of 2 children, 1 surviving, 1 deceased. She is the Director of Human Resources for a 120-person engineering firm.

Vickie has a Doctorate in Ministry in Christian Counseling, a Masters in Human Resource Development, a B.S. in Psychology and Sociology, and is a Certified Life Coach by the International Christian Coach’s Association. She has taught Sunday School for 25 years and loves to teach the Bible. Vickie has been involved in Women’s Ministry for 10 years. Her favorite books in the Bible are Isaiah and John. She currently attends CrossWay Ministries Church in Andalusia, AL.

She is an avid photographer and motorcyclist, riding hers and her husband’s Harley Davidson motorcycle. She loves to read God’s word, write, and speak. She has 2 fur babies, Blue, an American bulldog, and Harley, a Daschund.

We’d love for you to join us for this show, and be sure to invite a friend!

Savannahh Nash
Blog, Faith, Parenting, prayer, Spiritual Gifts

Celebrating Savannah: How does one bury a child?

Savannahh Nash

Savannah Nash

Today I attended the funeral of our friends’ daughter Savannah Deann Nash, 16 years old and 8 days.  Our daughters grew up with her, and she spent the night several times at our house with our daughters Eden and Leah for girls’ night sleepovers.

What I remember most about her is that she was shy (as a child), had such a sweet spirit and had such a beautiful smile.

On Thursday, May 16, Savannah was tragically killed in  a car wreck when she turned left to go north onto highway 7, an area that had heavy road construction with trucks and equipment (and no flagman), and she didn’t see a semi-truck on the highway coming toward her.  She had just recently gotten her license and her car. She was on her way to the grocery store to get items for the family dinner.

16. Savannah was a beautiful girl, inside and out. Her smile lit up a room and she had such a strong faith in Jesus and a sincere, huge love for everyone. To help you understand what kind of impact she had on everyone around her, today the officiating pastor of her church said that over 2,000 people attended her viewing yesterday. I believe it because I was there for over three hours with our daughter Heather, and people just kept coming through the church doors. I didn’t see how her family stood there so long, talking to everyone in line giving their condolences to the family~ but by the grace of God.

As I watched with a heavy heart Savannah’s parents at the funeral today, I thought, How does one bury a child?

I can’t imagine anything worse. It would be unbearable.  I don’t think I could stand it.

Yet God did it.

He allowed and watched His only son Jesus die a torturous death on a cross over 2,000 years ago, so you and I wouldn’t have to die for our sins. Then God raised Him from the dead so you and I could have a relationship with God and live with Him in heaven forever. 

And so in times of intense grief like today, we could know His comfort, mercy, and love.

The kind of love Savannah knew, lived, and shared so well.

Savannah was endearing to all who knew her. She was a burning, flaming light in a dark world, with her beautiful smile, her happy little giggle, and her sweet, genuine spirit.

She loved her family and her friendsand oh, how obvious it was yesterday and today that she was well loved! Her great, God-like love convicts me. Lord, teach me to love You and others in that pure and sincere way.

Today at the funeral we laughed and we cried. We watched a power point slideshow of pictures from Savannah’s life from babyhood to her recent 16th birthday. We heard how creative and artistic Savannah was, constantly drawing art and writing poems.

We listened to the heart-breaking, daddy-little girl song, Butterfly Kisses.

We heard a salvation message at the end of the service, something Savannah would have wanted because her relationship with God was real and intense. She loved to worship God at church.

She’s now worshipping Him in heaven, forever.

I told a friend today that she wouldn’t have wanted me or anyone else to lay hands on her and command her to live in the name of Jesus. No, she wouldn’t have wanted to be raised from the dead. She’s perfectly at peace and full of joy where she’s at now, in God’s presence.

Will you be there when it’s your time? Do you know Jesus as Savior?

Today we celebrated Savannah.  She’d want us to celebrate Jesus, family, friends, and life.

Thank you, Savannah, for being such a wonderful role model to so many. You were a beautiful person, inside and out. Your life will continue to impact many people, even in death.

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”  ~ 1 Corinthians 15: 55-56, NASB

***
FYI: It is being widely reported in the news that she was texting and driving, but there’s NO proof whatsoever of this, and her father Paul Nash refutes this on his Facebook page. You can read what he said at the end of this post.

Here is Savannah’s dad Paul Nash’s post about the news reports about Savannah texting and driving:

 Hey everyone don’t believe the propaganda that’s is floating around in papers and on he news Savannah Nash wasn’t texting the only reason she wrecked was because of inexperience in driving and the road construction from MODOT had the left lane blocked with a asphalt chipper  and large gravel trucks were in her lane of  sight she couldn’t see around all the men and trucks and equipment there was al…so there was no flag man to flag people down and there was no slow Down sign of speed limit sign to reduce speeds. As soon as the crash took place The Missouri highway patrol And the cass county sheriffs office decided To remove the extra Equipment to reduce congestion for traffic while dealing with the scene if the accident . Savannah Nash would not even touch her radio dials yet because of fear of hurting someone else. She was in front of I Stephanie Nash just one minute before the wreck took place her car only went 75 ft from our drive way and she was texting in front of her step mom not in the car that’s why they are releasing this info about texting she threw her phone in the passenger seat and headed to town. Savy would never have been disobedient of the laws of driving she still lacked confidence in her driving as it was . The road crew just flat out made It difficult for her to see and that caused her a blind spot that is the simple truth to this accident she was being obedient as always . There is two things I can’t stand in life and people’s insensitivity to our situation from themedia is number one they have given out info before the family even new of our loss and the sheriffs office has spoken out of turn with no evidence in the crash scene they just found a phone and that’s the facts the phone was broken prior to the scene it was my old phone I should know. There is a lot of issues with te fact of people not caring about us as a family they are just using Savannah Nash to build a case campaign as to make examples of kids now to save lives later . If that’s what they want to do rather than be sensitive then I gues so forgive them but don’t care For it at all and they will all have to deal with theirselves. Thanks for listening to my heart . Sincerely Savannah Nash Dad