Convention employee finds God’s blessings in tragic events

By Barbara Denman
Sept. 21, 2007

JACKSONVILLE, FL—(FBC) After a Sept. 2 pre-dawn accident on South Carolina I-95 killed his 16 year-old-daughter and critically injured his two sons, Florida Baptist Convention employee Jeff Fournier refused to point fingers or blame God.

Instead, Fournier, a specialist in the Information Support Services department, expressed gratitude for God’s blessings in the midst of overwhelming tragedy.

“I will always cherish the memories and love I was able to share with my daughter,” said Fournier. “But a lot of miracles happened during this time, where I could absolutely see God’s hand at work.”

Sara Fournier, 16, and her brothers, Jeffrey, Jr., 17, and Justin, 14, were traveling from Virginia with their mother, Fournier’s ex-wife, and a family friend over the Labor Day weekend. The children were planning to visit their father and other relatives in Jacksonville when the early morning multiple-vehicle pileup occurred.

The teens were thrown from the truck escaping the fiery furnace that engulfed the truck and critically burned their mother and family friend. Seeing the accident and Sara lying in the highway, a newlywed couple driving along the highway pulled off the road and attempted to pull her to safety.

But another vehicle struck the truck the Fourniers were traveling in, burst into flames and flew into Sara, killing her on impact and injuring the newlywed couple.

The boys were taken to Charleston’s Medical University of South Carolina where son Justin was placed in a drug-induced coma while doctors worked to save his life and Jeffrey, Jr. was treated for multiple broken bones. Their mother was sent to a burn unit in Augusta, Ga., where she has been fighting for her life.

Fournier firmly believes that God performed several miracles that morning, sparing the lives of his sons and their mother.

Noting that Sara “was always like a second mother to her brothers,” Fournier said, “I am sure she is with the Lord, watching over them and helping them get through this.”

Within hours of learning of the accident, Fournier traveled to South Carolina to care for his critically ill sons and make plans to bury his only daughter. For a week, he stood by his sons’ bedside in Charleston, where he was given a room at the Ronald McDonald House, saving hundreds of dollars in hotel fees. Again, Fournier chalks this up to God’s hand at work.

During the next days, Fournier handled legal issues stemming from the accident and daughter’s death while making medical decisions for his two children in two locations in the hospitals and keeping up their mother’s condition in a hospital several a hundred miles away.

While he cared for his sons, Convention employees embraced Fournier and his needs. Upon discovering that Fournier had spent his monthly rent for airfare to fly his former wife’s family members and himself to the two hospitals, the convention paid his September rent. Although his Convention insurance policy only partially covered the funeral and burial fees, Convention employees opened their hearts and checkbooks to underwrite additional expenses.

While Justin laid in a coma in the hospital, on the Friday after the accident, convention employee Lonnie Wright traveled to the Palmetto State to bring Fournier and his eldest son home to Jacksonville and prepared to bury his daughter. Retired convention employee Irene Stapleton traveled to Charleston to sit by Justin’s hospital bed.

While they traveled, Convention employees organized an impromptu prayer gathering to lift up the young family.

The Fourniers arrived in Jacksonville to find that the Convention staff had donated food and clothes for Jeffrey Jr., whose belongings still remained in Virginia. Meanwhile, members of the Convention’s disaster relief team drove to Virginia to retrieve other personal items to make the teenager feel at home in his new surroundings.

At his daughter’s funeral, dozens of Convention employees grieved with Fournier and his son over the loss of a child.

Performing the funeral, Robert Mounts, director of Pastor/Church Staff Relations, shared his own grief of losing a child. He told of getting a call in the middle of night and racing to the hospital only to be told his son would not live. Directing his words at Fournier, Mounts recalled the story of Jesus calming the storm, saying that Jesus did not promise there would not be storms in life. But, Mounts said, “He did promise that you would get to the other side and he would take the journey with you.”

Fournier returned to Charleston after the funeral to find his youngest son awake for the first time since the accident. Though frightened at first when he knew no one, Justin soon formed a bond with the grandmotherly Stapleton, Fournier reported. During his hospital stay, Justin endured a seven-hour spinal fusion surgery and pneumonia. Upon discovering the damage to his spine, doctors reported it was a miracle that he was not permanently paralyzed.

Both boys have months of recovery ahead.

The boys’ mother continues to struggle with problems caused by burns that cover 90 percent of her body and will face additional surgeries to restore her face and many skin grafts. Fournier asked for prayers for her, noting “they boys still need their mother.”

While the past weeks have been “overwhelming,” Fournier said, “the assistance of the Convention family—our family of Christians—has made it bearable.”

“There have been many, many blessings. I could not have made it through without God carrying me and my family through this rough time.”