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Esh, John (1946-2010)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Apr 5 p. 1, 8
Birth date: 1946
text of obituary:
By Mennonite Weekly Review staff
MUNFORDVILLE, Ky. — A vehicle crash before dawn march 26 killed 10 Beachy Amish Mennonites and a tractor-trailer driver.
Two children, ages 3 and 5, survived when the truck hit their family's van head-on after crossing a highway median, according to an Associated Press report. The truck then hit a rock wall and burst into flames, the AP reported.
The Beachy Amish Mennonite family, from Burkesville, Ky., was headed to Iowa for a wedding, according to news reports.
The highway where the accident occurred has barrier cables to prevent vehicles from crossing the median, but they were not strong enough to stop the tractor-trailer, which was loaded with auto parts, Kentucky police told the AP and The New York Times.
Those killed were John and Sadie Esh; their children, Anna, Rose, Rachel and Leroy; Leroy Esh's wife, Naomi, and their infant son, Jalen; Rachel Esh's fiance, Joel Gingerich; and family friend Ashlie Kramer. Also dead is Kenneth Laymon of Alabama, who was driving the truck.
Leroy Kauffman, pastor of Marrowbone Christian Brotherhood in Burkesville, Ky., told The New York Times that the Esh family had recorded four gospel albums and had children serving as missionaries broad.
"They has a real mission heart," Kauffman said.
John Esh was assistant pastor at Marrowbone, part of the Maranatha Amish Mennonite Churches. He and Kauffman had moved to Kentucky from North Carolina 11 years ago to plant the church, Kauffman told The New york Times.
The Esh family's house had burned down in December, and church members built them a new home, Kauffman said.
"We're experiencing a lot of heartache and a lot of sadness, but with that a hope," Kauffman said in the AP report. "We know where these people are going. They were all saved Christians and walking with the Lord."
Maranatha Amish Mennonites are one of several moderate-conservative Beachy subgroups, wrote Cora A. Anderson in a June 2008 article in Mennonite Weekly Review.
Now including 16 congregations, the Maranatha Amish Mennonites formed in 1997 over disagreements with the broader Beachy church, especially a perceived lack of accountability, Anderson wrote on beachyam.org.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Apr 12 p. 1, 7
text of obituary:
By Carmen K. Sisson
For Mennonite Weekly Review
Friends said John Esh, an associate pastor of Marrowbone Christian Brotherhood, a Beachy Amish Mennonite congregation, would have wanted it that way.
Esh, who died in the March 26 crash, dedicated his life to uplifting others, quietly leading by example, jubilantly celebrating in song.
Esh and his wife, Sadie, who also died in the crash, survived the loss of a son four years ago and a devastating house fire in December, yet their message never changed: Keep hope. Keep faith. Keep strong, Keep going.
It is that strength of spirit to which this 18-family community, nestled within the hills of south-central Kentucky, is clinging as the church struggles to accept the loss of nearly a tenth of its members.
The crash, which cost 11 lives, was believed to be the deadliest motor vehicle accident in Kentucky since 1988.
A tractor-trailer hauling brake drums left the southbound lane of I-6t, crossed a 60-foot grass median, plowed through a cable barrier and struck a 15-passenger van head-on before hitting a rock embankment and bursting into flames.
Ten of the 12 Mennonites in the van — eight of whom were members of the Esh family and a ninth soon to be an in-law — died on impact.
Killed were John