A 21-year-old pastor from Minden, Louisiana and his wife died in a car crash on Sunday, December 19, leaving behind their two-month old baby who miraculously survived the ordeal.
The Christian Post reported that pastor Hunter Wilkes and his wife Alexis, both 21, were driving to church in Texas with their child, Jett, when the fatal accident happened on Highway 59, located south of Carthage, Texas.
As per KSLA, the crash happened at 10 a.m. and both parents were dead on the spot due to the impact. Surprisingly, their baby boy only suffered a bruise on his leg, as per KLTV, and was declared safe and okay after being sent to a hospital in east Texas for treatment.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said the weather was clear and the road dry as Wilkes drove their 2021 Mazda CX5 bound westward on an exit ramp and tried to make a left turn on U.S. 59. Meanwhile, a pickup was on the northern part of US 59 in the left lane towing a trailer. The pickup hit the Mazda as it entered the intersection. The pickup driver and Wilkes and his family were all wearing seatbelts. The pickup driver was sent for treatment to an east Texas hospital.
Wilkes is a Louisiana Missionary Baptist Institute & Seminary Student and the associate pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Gary, Texas; particularly handling the youth. He became a youth pastor on July 20, 2020, according to his Facebook post.
Eastside Baptist Church Pastor Raymond Walker expressed his "shock" in an interview with KLTV on Wednesday and said he was about to check on the couple who were absent from church when he received a call informing him they were involved in the accident.
"Right now I say we're just pretty much in shock," Walker said.
"The older I get, the less I remember, so I wasn't sure if Hunter had maybe told me they were going to be with his parents or something else that day. And I thought, 'well, you know, I'll just go ahead and stay in the class,'" he added.
Walker shared that Wilkes preached to the youth of their church and he took his place when the couple didn't arrive. Walker said the call came in as soon as he finished Sunday services.
"He taught the young people, so I went in there and stayed with them for a while and taught a lesson. And so, after church, I was going to call and check on them. But we received the call first. It came right as we had dismissed the morning service and found out they were involved in that accident," Walker recounted.
Walker disclosed how valuable the couple were to him and to the church because of their contagious zeal and optimism. He called the couple a "blessing" and revealed that he was really happy the Wilkeses came to church.
"I've been in the ministry for 31 years, and when I started out, you have a lot of zeal sometimes and you cannot allow people and things to kind of hinder your excitement. So whenever Hunter and Lexi came, they brought a lot of zeal. And it's helped me a lot to try to be more positive. He (Hunter) said his parents are always positive, and I said, 'Well, I need some of that.' And so, a lot of that has helped me through this time. Because it's easy to get bitter in this world, but they've been a blessing," Walker shared.
Wilkes' brother, Hayden, posted on Facebook on how "devastated" he is over their family's loss. Hayden recalled how his brother would often send him Bible questions via SMS and pledged that Jett would be "raised to love the Lord." Hayden also promised to make sure Jett would know his parents and their love for him.
"I grieve deeply, but I also rejoice. My brother and sweet Lexi are with Jesus. We live in a fallen, broken world. I trust Jesus. I don't know why I lost my 21 year old brother and his wife. But I do know that God's promises are true. 'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.' - Romans 8:28," Hayden said.
On the other hand, Hunter's father, Mike, has setup a custodial fund for his grandchild due to the "overwhelming" requests by friends and church congregants.
