CUNE overflows with prayer and support after fatal collision

A sympathy card-making station in Thom.

Photo credit: Nora Betts

By The Sower Staff

This article is featured in the April print edition of the Sower newspaper. 

Concordia’s campus has been responding with prayer and support after a car accident on March 13 killed junior Matthew Wing and severely injured junior Noah Ramirez, who remains hospitalized. The car containing Wing, Ramirez, and two other men on Concordia’s track and field team was hit head-on by an SUV traveling the wrong way on Interstate 49 near Harrisonville, Missouri, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported. The two other students in the car sustained minor injuries.

The Concordia community responded to the tragedy with an outpouring of support and prayer. Card-making and poster-signing stations were set up in Weller and in Thom in March as ways to show support for the Wing family and the injured students.

A fundraiser at 10:31 Coffee on March 24 raised more than $6,000 for Ramirez’s hospital bills through the shop’s profits and free-will donations, with hundreds of students and members of the Concordia and Seward communities showing their support.

Matthew Wing. Photo: Concordia Athletics.

Wing is remembered fondly by students, staff, and track teammates.

“Matthew was so kind to everyone around him,” said junior Reagan Martens. “I had the privilege of serving with him in RA’s last year, and he was also on my intramural teams. No matter where he was, he brought light with him, always including others, stopping to catch up, and showing genuine care. He reflected God’s love in such a real and beautiful way.”

Track and field athlete Xavier Marburger reflected on the memory of Wing and the bond they shared on the 4×100 meter relay team. He remembers Wing as a dedicated athlete who brought energy, focus, and encouragement to every race and practice. Marburger said the team will continue to honor his memory, carrying his spirit with them as motivation on and off the track

The Rev. Dr. David Coe, an associate professor of theology, remembers Wing as a very humble and kind student in his classes. When Wing and his wife, Brianna (Worley) Wing were married and celebrated their honeymoon last summer, Coe said that Brianna’s perfect attendance in Doctrine II class online was “a beautiful witness to the seriousness with which they received their life as disciples.”

“Matthew was and is a Baptized, beloved child of God, flowing from the sweet spring of God the Father’s Baptismal grace in Christ Jesus,” said Coe.

Ramirez, who remains hospitalized after the accident, is a member at St. John Lutheran Church, and he was confirmed in his faith on Feb. 15. The senior pastor at St. John, the Rev. Scott Bruick, said he got to know Ramirez well through adult confirmation classes and other conversations.

Bruick, who texts often with Ramirez’s mother, said Ramirez is continuing to improve.

Bruick said that some classmates are easier to know than others, but Wing, Ramirez, and the other injured students “seem like guys that just connected with people.”

Concordia’s campus chaplain, the Rev. Ryan Matthias, said that we don’t get all the answers for why tragedies happen. He reiterated that heartbreak will continue to happen in this life, and the only source of true comfort comes from faith in Jesus Christ.

“Mere Christianity,” a book by C.S. Lewis, helped to show Matthias that no experience can fill the void left by a tragedy. Lewis writes: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Matthias emphasized that there is no individual church, but the big church of all believers in Christ. He described Chapel, which is held every weekday from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Weller Hall, as a great place to go, especially when things get difficult.

Posters at 10:31 Coffee on March 24 with ways to support Noah Ramirez and his family. Photo: Nora Betts.

Matthias said there are benefits of doing things that bring comfort, and how normal, everyday things can make that happen. He spoke to members of the CUNE Track and Field team and saw firsthand how the athletes going out and running a normal practice can have a positive impact.

When times are difficult, Bruick encourages people to recognize that “we have a God who never gives up on us with His love, even when we have hard questions for Him.”

Bruick loves Psalm 6 and Psalm 13, where David is frustrated that God seems silent. “Sometimes in tragedy, there is so much noise from the tragedy that it feels like God is silent. But we have a God who is big enough to handle the toughest questions we have,” Bruick said.

He also said that “prayer is a gift, and it’s okay to be bold in your prayer.”

Martens said she is praying or Ramirez, his family and everyone who is hurting.

“Our Concordia community is strong, and I believe God is present and working even in this heartbreak,” Martens said. “We love you and are surrounding you with prayers, comfort and hugs.”

Bruick said that presence is sometimes the best ministry, even if you don’t have anything wise to say. “The body of Christ is so important.

For other classmates and stuff just to sit and be present, there’s no need to talk,” he said.