Updated: Young Christian, Harding student dies helping accident victims

Update: Details from a story in the Tennessean added.
Ty Osman, an 18-year-old freshman at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., died March 3 from injuries he received in a multi-vehicle wreck the night before, TV station KARK reports.
The wreck happened on Interstate 30 near Hooks, Texas. Osman and five fellow Harding students were on their way to Fort Worth, Texas, in two vehicles. Osman was driving a truck with one passenger and the other four students were in a Jeep. Road construction and a wreck on the interstate had slowed traffic, Today’s THV reports.
A Dodge Charger rear-ended the Jeep. Osman stopped and got out of his truck to check on the students in the Jeep and the driver of the Charger.
Everyone was OK, so Osman headed back to his truck. That’s when a 2009 Chevy Silverado hit Osman’s truck, which struck Osman.
Osman was airlifted from the scene and received treatment at the Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview, Texas.
Friends set up a Praying for Ty blog and posted updates. A post from Sunday, March 4, reads:

We regret to announce the passing of Ty Howard Osman II. He has succumbed to the severe injuries he sustained on 3/2/12. We celebrate, along with his family, the great.gif?Action=thumbnail&Width=460&algorithm=proportionalt of God he was to all who knew him. The family wishes to thank friends and loved ones for the ocean of prayers raised up on Ty’s behalf. Ty Sr., Nancy, Adair, and Kendall continue to covet your prayers as they negotiate the difficult days to come.

Before he graduated from Brentwood High School in Tennessee and left for Harding, Osman was an active member of the youth ministry Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville.
Keller Phillips, one of the Harding students who witnessed the accident, described Osman as someone who “really cared about the people around him,” the Tennessean reports.

Sunday services at the family’s church, Woodmont Hills Church of Christ, were emotional after Osman’s death was announced there. …
At Brentwood High, Ty ran the 300-meter hurdles and was a member of the 4×400-meter relay team. He helped the Bruins win Class AAA boys track and field team state titles in 2011, 2010 and 2008.
“It’s a loss for Brentwood High School. It’s a loss for Harding University simply because of the type of person that he is,” said BHS Athletic Director Ronnie Seigenthaler. “Because he is a recent graduate, several of the underclassmen knew him because he was so active and so involved in so many things.”
The family donated Ty’s organs and posted on Woodmont Hills Student Ministry Facebook page to pray for those who will be recipients in the next 48 hours. They also asked for prayers for the driver of the truck that hit Ty’s truck.
“We’re just out of tears,” said Keller Phillips, who will head back to Harding University with Burch next Monday. “It’s been tough.”

Read the full story.
See the Praying for Ty blog for funeral and memorial information.

• Feedback
  Such a tragedy. Where does one find anything good in this? This young life taken while on his way to do something good.
  Now his parents must deal with the loss of a child. How does a loving Father put His children through this?
  We believe….We have faith without seeing, We believe in Genesis 1:1
  It’s in our songs, our (His) teachings, our (His) One Way to Him.
  WHY…WHY…WHY? And I know all the scripture some may reply to my e-mail.
  It is not I don’t know…..It is I don’t understand how a loving Father can be so cruel to those that love Him, yet He allows the ones who mock and hate Him to flourish…….:(

  Ron

  March, 5 2012

  Dear Ron, if you know what God says, then why would you not believe Him?
  The many passages that deal with your specific questions are there to give comfort. Please, please, go to His word and take the comfort that He longs for you to have in times like these.

  Lori

  March, 5 2012

  I am the sister of one of the students involved in the wreck. My brother and Ty have been best friends since before they could talk. This past weekend has been the worst weekend of my life, and yet I still have my brother.
  The Osmans were not so fortunate. We love their family dearly. Dearly. Ron, I can’t explain why Ty was taken from us so quickly. So many good, God fearing people are crippled by this. Because we love the Lord, do we get some special pass from the pain this world inflicts? No. The only scriptures I could stomach were prayers of anguish, sorrow, and mourning. I spent Friday night, Saturday, and the wee hours of Sunday morning on my knees, on my face, spitting out words through the sobs for deliverance. We were not delivered, but Ty was. In this life, we are dead. In Christ we are alive; Ty is alive now and is waiting for us. This is no fruity, feel good pill I’m forcing myself to swallow. We were not delivered. The pain is real and it is exhausting.
  Let me tell you what else is real. The Family of God. Church. That is real. I thought it didn’t exist. I thought ‘Church’ had become a gathering place for rich, white people who had no concept of the hurt and need of the world around them. I thought we had so poisoned God’s intent that there was no going back. Ron, I was so wrong.
  My brother and his friends were traveling hours away from any member of their physical family, but one phone call to a member of a Church nearby, and our Spiritual family stepped up. When the students arrived at the hospital, they were met by a member of that Church. Do you get how important it was that my brother was not alone? Who would do that for a stranger? A brother in Christ. As our families arrived from Nashville, they were met with food, housing, council, money for travel expenses. Again, I say: Who does that for a stranger? And not 1 stranger…. close to 30. This is God’s family.
  Do you want to see how big God’s family is? Go to the blog. Go to the Remembering Ty facebook group page. Read the prayers, the stories, the people who fought for Ty’s life on their knees. I don’t know why he chose to take Ty from us so soon. But I do know, he has given us a family larger than a non believer could ever know or understand on their own. Come and see the abundance of love freely flowing from God’s family. Come see and believe. God is good.

  Jamie

  March, 5 2012

  Wow, Jamie, that response was awesome. I grew up in the church and am now 24, and your words were extremely encouraging to me. You are so right that we have a family bigger than any non-believer could ever know.
  I will be praying for Ty’s family, that they are comforted by the fact that Ty has been delivered, yes – prematurely – but he will no longer deal with the struggles and pains of this world.
  God bless you all.

  Megan

  March, 5 2012

  Jamie, that was beautiful. “The only scriptures I could stomach were prayers of anguish, sorrow, and mourning.” That is why God gave us the Psalms of lament. May God be with you and heal you. Your testimony of God’s people rising up to be with Ty and the others was deeply moving. You have a very special way with words. May God bless.

  Paul Smith

  March, 5 2012

  Please keep the the family �of �Ty Osman, Jr. �in your �prayers. He was the grandson of Richard & Janell Lewis �of Johnson City, TN. �He was a �freshman at Harding University on Spring Break. He �passed away on March 3, 2012 as �a result of an accident on �I-30 in Texas. �Here is a �link to a �report �in the Christian Chronicle.

  News and Notes � Word & Work

  March, 5 2012

  Jamie,
  Wow. And amen!

  Ginger

  March, 5 2012

  Jamie,
  I personally appreciate what you wrote. Such a good reminder of the great importance of our family in Christ. Your thoughts will help many people, Jamie.
  Thank you and may God bless and comfort all involved.

  Jo Byrd Huddleston

  March, 5 2012

  I’m writing in Rome (Italy). My daughter Virginia is studying in Harding (Searcy)and she knew Ty. She told me about Ty and I’m crying my eyes out. I have two children (Virginia, 20, and Riccardo, 23) and I can’t even imagine the sorrow his family is passing through. I participate with all my heart to their tragedy. I’ll be praying for them. May our Rock give them His strength.
  Tonia Vitalone, Rome (Italy)

  Tonia Vitalone

  March, 6 2012

  Jamie,
  What a beautiful letter you wrote. You are wise beyond your years. May God bless you and your family. I cried for Ty and his family and friends. My daughter is a freshman at Harding as well, but I don’t believe that she knew him. This really hit me because she was traveling during the same time that this accident took place, it could have been her.
  You are so right about the church stepping up even for strangers to help in their time of need. I’ve seen the church reach out so many times and not just for members of the church, but also for non-believers.
  As to why God aloud this to happen, God has given man free will and as long as there is sin in the world bad things are going to happen. We are not immune to life’s problems. However, God has promised to be there for us when these difficult times come.

  Suzanne

  March, 6 2012

  For the sake of Ty’s family and for those he left behind, I ask that you be present with us on Friday. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, at 11:00 am I invite you to stop, take a breath, and spiritually lift up the hearts and the heads of Ty, Nancy, Adair, and Kendall Osman. Thank you for your words and your thoughtfulness thus far.

  Jamie

  March, 7 2012

  I do not know the family, but I cry for them, because I am a parent and I know how devastated I would be to lose any one of my children.
  The verse I go to when terrible things happen is Romans 8:28 – For we know ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
  We may or may not see that good, but God’s word tells us it is there. I cannot tell you why God chose to call Ty home so early, but it was His will. Why does God allow a young father in the military to be killed in Iraq two weeks before he is supposed to finish his tour and go home to be with his wife and infant child who he has never held in his arms? Why does God take back to Him a seemingly perfect, healthy baby hours before she is born? I don’t know (but I do know the families who have suffered these things). These times are a severe test of our faith, but God WILL get us through them, if we will allow Him to.
  My prayers are for all the friends and family of Ty, who are grieving so deeply at this time. It is an immense sadness! I pray that they may all come to know fully the comfort of our Lord, and that they may feel our Father’s arms hold them close to Him.

  Sue Sutherlin

  March, 8 2012

  I did not personally know Ty. Being a fairly recent graduate of Harding, though, (May 2010) it is likely that I saw him from time to time when he was visiting or on other occasions (the name and face are both very familiar for some reason). That is beside the point, though.
  I cannot begin to understand the feelings that his family and friends are experiencing right now. I only know the strong empathy that I am feeling right now and what it has been like for me when I have lost friends or family in the past.
  I do not want to turn this into a spiritual – or even philosophical – discussion, but these are just a few things that I know and hope can comfort those that are wrestling with the questions that arise from something like this:
  1. When God created this world, he set up natural processes and “laws” that it would follow (several passages, especially Genesis 1) and miracles that supersede those laws no longer occur today (I Corinthians 13:10)
  2. Everything – whether good or bad – happens without respect to a person’s religious status (Matthew 5:45)
  3. Sometimes, bad and seemingly unexplainable things happen that test us (Job), but if we continue to trust God we will be rewarded (Romans 8:28, Revelation 2:10)
  4. We are not promised another day (James 4:13-14, Proverbs 27:1, I Thessalonians 5:2), so we must live every minute as if it is our last
  The only comfort that we can take from this story is that Ty was a Christian, that he has his reward as we will (I Thessalonians 4:13-18), and that the family of Believers is so strong that they respond as the members in Longview did.

  Paul

  March, 8 2012

  Paul,
  Even with all the quoted scripture, and believe me, I have heard and studied all of them time and time again, I still do not understand the workings of a “loving” father who puts His children through pain and suffering such as this while allowing those who commit heinous crimes against children to thrive and flourish and continue! And I don’t mean just the persons one sees or read about on T.V. or in the newspapers.
  I don’t believe I shall ever understand, it is far beyond my level of understanding. Some may find this offensive, butIi also believe the book of Job to not be actual history, but more of a teaching. I don’t believe any person could endure the pain and suffering Job did without some sort of feeling forsaken.

  Ron

  March, 8 2012