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The Jungkurth family: Victors not victims
by Billy Hamm
While driving home from an evening concert in Nashville, the Hughes family
was enjoying some togetherness in their SUV when a car driven at high
speed by a drunken man hit them from behind. It occurred May 31, 1996, on
I-40 just outside of Lebanon, Tennessee. Joseph Hughes (40) and son,
Christopher (8), were thrown from the car while it rolled over and over
from the eastbound to the westbound lanes; they died on the scene. Traci
Hughes (37) and son, Peter (5), were taken to a local hospital where she
was diagnosed with a fractured ankle but he was not injured.
It
was a shocking tragedy for a small town in middle Tennessee where Joe and
Traci had built a large home for their family to enjoy country living. He
had built a successful advertising and merchandising company while Traci
had a career in sales and marketing for two television network affiliates
in Nashville. The Hughes family was active in the First Baptist Church in
Watertown. Joseph was a leader in children’s ministry and Traci was a
teacher in the Sunday school; both were musicians and singers. Christopher
was involved in Cub Scouts and Peter was involved in everything.
The news hit my family hard because Traci is the daughter of my wife’s
sister. We have known her all her life and had enjoyed occasions with her
fun-loving husband and two boys. We’re all part of the Singing
Wills Family of Texas so we were together many times in family
reunions that became concerts in city auditoriums and churches.
Six weeks later, at the Spiritual Summer Summit in Colorado, Joe Burress,
a pastor in Rochester, New York, brought a pastor friend whose wife had
recently died of Hodgkin’s disease. Vic Jungkurth, pastor of Columbus
Baptist Temple in Columbus, Ohio, had watched his wife of many years
slowly lose her life. He wept the whole week still bearing his grief
openly. The nearly 200 pastors, missionaries, and families prayed that
week for each other; they especially drew close to Vic after he gave his
testimony. He heard encouraging messages and bonded with new friends in
the ministry. Pastor Jungkurth went back to Columbus with a new support
system for his very personal grief.
Then, while others thought she would be better to stay close to family and
familiar surroundings, Traci took her son and moved to Florida about a
year after the tragedy. In her thinking she and Peter needed a new
environment while she sorted out her new life without Joseph and Chris.
They took a cruise and met new people. They enjoyed many of the family fun
features offered in the Sunshine State.
Later, Vic attended the Spiritual Summit in Schroon Lake, New York, during
October 1997. He and I spent one whole afternoon talking about his grief
and what God might be doing in his life. He was open to the idea of
marriage again but only with a woman of the Lord’s choosing. He
genuinely missed the companionship of a loving wife.
Traci and Peter finished their time in Florida and moved back to Nashville
in May 1998 where she bought a condominium apartment. During July she
discussed with her mother, Betty Stephens, the idea of training to be a
counselor for people who would experience what she’d been through. She
even talked of writing a book about her experiences. She completed her
Bachelor’s Degree in Business at Cumberland University in Lebanon,
Tennessee.
The marriage Joseph and Traci had was very good. The experience of a happy
life with her husband caused her to want that again. After hearing her
talk about it, her friends joked with her that her standards for a husband
were so high that she’d have to marry a preacher. Her mother told me
about Traci’s desire for an effective ministry and about her prayers for
a husband from the Lord at a family reunion the next month. It made me
think about my new pastor friend, Vic Jungkurth. I learned later that
about the same time Vic was praying, “Lord, I’m through with dating;
it’s up to you to find me a wife.”
God begins to work
Things happened quickly. Betty told Traci the next week — Traci
called me about it — we talked about Vic and I promised to call him that
day. When I talked with him he was very interested — I called Traci back
for permission to give Vic her number — she agreed — Vic called her
and they talked the whole evening. Not surprisingly, they talked and
prayed together every day after that. Both Vic and Traci had been seeking
the Lord’s will for a mate who wanted to serve in the ministry; it was
the main topic of their conversations. Suddenly they found themselves
immersed in God’s answer for them — they delighted in answered prayer.
“Delight thyself in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of
thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).
Traci
sent Vic a photograph from her modeling portfolio. He showed it at pastors
meetings in Ohio. Some of his preacher friends were skeptical that he
would even know someone with her looks. He even had her picture printed on
a T-shirt and wore it to activities. Traci quizzed him about not getting a
photo of him but he said he wanted her to know his heart before she saw
his face. That concerned her; so on Labor Day weekend she took Peter and
drove the eight hours from Nashville to Columbus to meet him in person.
She wanted to hear him preach, meet his daughter, and visit his church.
Things were moving in an appointed direction and they were falling in
love.
Vic traveled to Nashville later that month to meet her family. She took
him to meet her pastor and counselor, Buddy Lynch. She even took him to
talk with her lawyer about their plans because each of them had family to
consider. Betty knew they would be married soon. She said, “God brought
them together.”
One evening while Traci was cooking dinner, Peter talked with Vic in the
living room. He asked, “Do you really like my mother?”
Vic answered, “Yes, I do. Very much.”
Peter replied, “Good, because she needs a husband and I sure do need a
daddy.”
They
were married at Columbus Baptist Temple on October 21, 1998. Paul Gabriel,
Vic’s associate pastor, officiated. They honeymooned at Niagara Falls.
Vic and Traci Jungkurth became a married couple and, along with Peter,
became the pastor’s family.
A different lifestyle
Traci entered the pastor’s home from a professional business career
— it was a culture shock to experience the difference. Her sister, Tammy
Smith, says, “When she moved to Florida, Traci was running away from her
pain but she ran right into God. There she realized God was calling her
into full-time ministry. She is driven and strong so she needed someone
who was gentle and loving. After praying for two years for the right man
she met Vic; then she wondered if it was too soon to be an answer to her
prayers.”
Traci had gone to church since birth and had been involved in church as a
faithful member but that had not prepared her for the expectations placed
on a pastor and his family. Church ministry had always been a delightful
reward at the end of a hard workweek, but with Vic it WAS the workweek and
the demands were different. One evening when Vic left for an early meeting
before the service, 10-year-old Peter asked, “Mother, are we ever gonna
to get to miss church again?”
Opposites attract
The Jungkurths are dedicated Christians, but they are opposites in
many ways. Vic comes from a background of pastoral training and ministry.
He served on staff at his church before becoming the senior pastor in
1994. By marrying Vic, Traci followed his first wife of 27 years. Fay was
very different from Traci. Traci is outgoing, tall, and blonde. Fay was
quiet, short, and brunette. She was greatly loved by her husband and by
their church. Fay had suffered with Hodgkin’s disease before she died in
1995. Her suffering was used by God to give Vic an open heart for
suffering families and an effective ministry for those in hospice. It
changed his life.
Traci comes from a family that is known nationally for their music. The
Wills Family began singing gospel music in 1938 and has sung in thousands
of churches in the United States as well as several foreign nations. Four
generations of the family were present on their syndicated television
program during the 1960s and 1970s. As a little girl, Traci appeared on
that program and later as a teenager, she sang in one of the traveling
groups. To be part of the Wills family is to be part of a tribe of happy,
gregarious Christians where there is never a quiet moment when they get
together. Becoming a pastor’s wife after all that meant adjustments to
her priorities, her time, and her temperament. In her business career she
was the manager of marketing for TV stations in both the Fox and ABC
networks. Now she works with church volunteers to get things done; it is a
different world.
A ministry of comforting
By giving their testimonies and sharing their stories through music
and seminars, Vic and Traci have a remarkable ministry with hurting
people. They present their experiences through the theme of “Picking Up
The Pieces” at church services and in Christian retreats. They were part
of the Spiritual Summit in 1999. Vic has made seven albums of Christian
music. He writes songs regularly while playing classical Spanish guitar.
Traci authored a book with her pastor’s wife Suzanne Crosby. It was
published by Fairway Press under the title, Lord, Why Am I Still Here? She
speaks at Mothers Against Drunk Driving conferences. Traci founded and
incorporated a ministry to help families through grief and loss — she
calls it, Christopher Ministries, Inc. The Web site is: www.christopherministries.org
and is a good place to find more information along with family photos.
The scriptural foundation passage of Christopher Ministries is 2
Corinthians 1:3-5: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts
us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with
the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the
sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our
comfort overflows.”
A popular trend in American culture today is to use the plight of victims
for political or financial causes. There seems to be no shortage of
victims testifying before Congress or being interviewed by the media. And
by any definition the Jungkurths are victims of terrible circumstances,
but they have chosen to use their lives in pointing people to Christ
rather than seeking pity. A common saying today is, “The difference
between victims and survivors is that survivors fight back.” Vic and
Traci did survive because they wouldn’t give up on the Lord to supply
them with victory. They are examples of believers who have the better
parallel for Christians in Romans 8:37, “In all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us.”
“Victors not victims” is the continuing story of Vic and Traci
Jungkurth as they serve the Lord. Vic recently retired as pastor of
Columbus Baptist Temple, www.cbtemple.com.
You can now contact Vic and Traci Jungkurth at: Christopher Ministries,
Inc., PO Box
291823, Nashville
, TN
37229, Phone: 615-391-3723, Fax: 615-391-3724, Email: CMinistry@att.net.
Author Billy Hamm has served as pastor of Mountain
States Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado since 1979. He holds a B.A. in
Theology, an M.S. in Clinical Pastoral Counseling; and, a Ph.D. in
Psychology and Counseling. He has specialized in counseling missionaries
and pastors for over 30 years. Write him at
billy.hamm@comcast.net
Published in Baptist Bible
Tribune,
March 15, 2001.
Updated by the author on August 15, 2004.
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