A memorial service will be held this week for Caylee Dugger, a popular student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City who was killed in a car accident last week. She also was a youth director at First Baptist Church in North Kansas City.
“The entire seminary community mourns the passing of Caylee Dugger,” seminary President Jason Allen said. “She was a delightful young woman, devoted to seeing others come to faith in Christ. Even as we grieve, we grieve not as those without hope. Our hope is in Christ — as was Caylee’s.”
Dugger, 30, was traveling to Texas to visit her nephew when the accident occurred in Oklahoma. Other drivers involved in the crash with Dugger’s 2014 Nissan Versa are Timothy Shoulders, 43, of Oswego, Kan., who was driving a 2012 Kenwoth T800 semi truck and Richard Berzas, 51, of Chetopa, Kan., who was driving a 2005 Ford F350 pickup, the patrol said.
Allen’s wife, Karen, who is the director of the Midwestern Women’s Institute, said, “I was deeply saddened to learn this morning of Caylee’s tragic car wreck. To know Caylee was to love Caylee. Her deep passion for the nations was evident, and I know the ladies in Midwestern Women’s Institute will greatly miss her, as will I.”
The memorial service will be held this week at her home church in Joelton, Tenn. Dugger lived in Overland Park.
“Her love for good coffee, good conversation and good books is only surpassed by her love for God and his word,” the church posted on its website. “When Caylee isn’t sipping coffee and reading her Bible or another book, you can find her writing, hiking, paddle boarding, traveling or simply exploring the city around her. Caylee has worked and traveled extensively./ She hopes to one day return overseas to serve as God leads.”
In a blog post last June, Dugger wrote: “I’m a Christian. I’m a follower of Jesus who holds the Bible as the infallible word of God and who believes that I am saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. The Holy Spirit is at work in my life making me more like Jesus every day (even when I fail and mess up, He is still faithful) and at the end of all things, when I’m worshiping the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the only title that’s going to matter is ‘Redeemed.’”
Berzas was treated and released from Mercy Hospital with head, trunk internal, arm and leg injuries. Shoulders was not injured.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice
