I along with the entire team at Students for Life am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support, and prayers for the loss of Kortney and her pre-born daughter, Sophy, and for Jon’s continued recovery. Jon continues to make small progresses and has overcome many large obstacles since the accident, but he isn’t out of the woods yet and still desperately needs your prayers. Please continue to flood heaven so that our dear friend can be healed.
Your generous donations have also raised more than enough for the burial costs for Kortney and Sophy. On behalf of the Gordon and Blythe families, we are truly thankful for the incredible amount of emotional, spiritual, and financial support you have shown in the past few days.
For those interested in sharing their last respects with the Blythe and Gordon families, Kortney’s funeral service will be held at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina on 800 Fullwood Lane. The family will begin to receive visitors at 11:30am EST and the service will begin at 1:00pm. If you plan on attending, please let us know and indicate whether or not you will need help with transportation. We will be streaming the service live as well as recording it, so please check back with our website for details on how to watch from home.
For those unable to make the North Carolina service, her family is also hosting a memorial service in the Washington, D.C. area close to her home on Saturday, October 22. Please be on the lookout for coming details.
On Monday, we hosted a national webcast to honor the lives of Kortney and Sophy and to offer intercessions of prayer on Jon’s behalf. Pro-life leaders and students from across the country joined us in prayer and discussion, including representatives from Rock for Life, Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, David Bereit of 40 Days for Life, Claude Allen of the Gerard Health Foundation, Reverend Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, and Jeff White of Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. Hundreds of listeners offered their words of support and praise for the lives of Kortney and Sophy and for the work that both Kortney and Jon have accomplished within the pro-life movement, and we were overcome by the beautiful words from friends and families of our dear friends. For those who were unable to listen in on Monday night, the recording of the webcast is available here: http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=23295666. The webcast focused many prayers toward Jon and his family and helped greatly in his healing.
And although Jon has made various, gradual improvements, he has a long road of recovery ahead of him. His stability has fluctuated since the accident and, despite making a number of medical advancements that keep us all optimistic about his recovery, his condition continues to rise and fall throughout the day. We are beyond thankful to Our Lord for delivering Jon from the horrible accident that took the lives of Kortney and her daughter, but Jon is in need of many more prayers from us all to recover fully from his near-fatal injuries. Please make time to keep him in your thoughts and check back with us for details on his condition as we receive them.
From all of us, “thank you” is simply not enough to express how we feel about your many, many kind words and prayers. We are humbled and strengthened by your support, and we know that Kortney is smiling down on us all as we grieve the loss of her and Sophy and continue to shower Jon with the help he needs. The unspeakable loss of Kortney and Sophy and Jon’s fragile condition are a direct result of the progress we as an organization and as a movement have made, and certainly how incomparable both Kortney and Jon are. Our mission at Students for Life, the work of Kortney and Jon, and Christ’s own vision for the respect for all human life in our country and around the world are bigger than the hurdles we face and the rips in our hearts. We draw strength from their examples and from your prayers, and we are now more than ever working as a unified team, strengthened by the examples of our friends and the grace from God as we recover. We now more than ever strive to end abortion in our lifetime, and we are now more than ever motivated to attain that goal.
