BILLINGS, Mont. — Two North American Mission Board (NAMB)
student missionaries remain in critical condition after the Jeep Cherokee in
which they and two others were riding flipped and rolled over on Interstate 90
near Belgrade, Mont., around 3:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, July 21.
At last report, Jeremy Vangsnes, a student missionary from
Spartanburg, S.C., was listed in critical condition after being flown by
helicopter from Bozeman’s Deaconess Hospital to St. Vincent Hospital in
Billings. On a ventilator, Vangsnes is reportedly showing brain activity but
remains unconscious.
The driver of the SUV was Scott Minear, a Georgia Baptist
Convention student missionary who is active in University of Georgia Baptist
campus ministries. Minear also was airlifted to the Billings hospital following
the accident and remains in critical but not life-threatening condition.
Jeremy Vangsnes was one of three brothers involved in the
single-car accident while on assignment as NAMB student missionaries in the
West Yellowstone, Mont. His brother Daniel is still in the Bozeman hospital
while another brother, Ryan, has been treated and released. The Vangsnes
brothers’ parents are en route to Billings from their home in Spartanburg, S.C.
“Right now, we’re getting calls from people who want to know
what they can do, but all they can do is pray,” said Amy Signaigo, student
consultant for NAMB, whose job includes the placement of all student
missionaries.
Signaigo said the four student missionaries are part of
NAMB’s Innovator resort ministry program around the U.S. She said the accident
victims were four of 17 self-funded student missionaries working this summer in
the Yellowstone Park area under the supervision of NAMB full-time resort
missionary Brad Lartigue.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Noah is a writer for the North
American Mission Board.)