A lasting legacy: Teen killed in church van crash touched lives beyond Overland Park

Leaning against his front door Sunday, looking out at the summer evening’s golden light, Tom Bayse imagined his 17-year-old daughter coming home again.

“She’ll be telling me everything that happened . . . a thousand miles per hour,” he said. Like she always did.

Samara Bayse, of Stilwell, died Friday in a church van crash near Bolivar, Mo. Two teens who were with her on their way to a river float trip also died — David “Tommy” Martin, 16, of Olathe, and Hannah Foy, 14, of Louisburg. Ten other youths and adults in the van suffered injuries and survived.

Her name — was Hebrew for “protected by God.” It would seem to carry her through life’s dangers.

It came to her as a shield, chosen when Tom and Danette Bayse knew during the pregnancy that Danette had serious colon cancer. Danette died when Samara was 4.

It was hard for the single father to stop worrying over all three of his daughters — Samara being the middle child.

The work of their church, Faith Chapel Assembly of God based in Overland Park, carried Samara on many mission trips where her strength shined.

Teens and adult leaders once went down to Skid Row in Los Angeles, handing out bathroom hygiene kits, standing face-to-face with suffering, then went with signs to the streets of Hollywood to witness for God.

They held signs that bore messages of struggle on one side, then flipped the signs over to show a message that God had helped them through it.

Samara’s sign said “I know the pain of loss.”

Tom was told about a passerby who sized up Samara and her sign, seeing a vibrant, healthy, smiling blond girl and challenged her, asking what pain had she known.

“It just goes to show that you don’t really know people,” Tom said.

All of the teens on the trip — Samara, Tommy, Hannah, and those who survived the crash — dared to be part of an outreaching mission that challenged them to be uncomfortable, Bayse said. The pastor called it willing to be vulnerable.

Tom said: They were “bold.”

Now he wanders in search of God’s meaning, seeing the legacy born of Danette Bayse’s spirited life, embraced by Samara in her full 17 years, and somehow passing on now.

Samara just recently had declared to her father she knew “exactly” what she wanted to do with her life — become a youth minister. She had earned a scholarship from her church’s national body to support that mission.

It was painful to return to church Sunday morning, Tom Bayse said, taking the seats his family always took, knowing there would be an empty space.

But the lives of Samara and Tommy and Hannah came into full bloom as people who knew them and loved them came to comfort Bayse and the other parents at church on Sunday.

Tributes on social media overwhelmed him.

“Samara, in her short 17 years of living, touched more lives, affected more people than I ever have,” he said. “People by the bucketfuls want to friend me on Facebook. I didn’t know them, but they knew her.”

The messages have been powerful, those written and those shared with hugs face-to face.

“People have told me, ‘I changed my life because of Samara and because of her love,’” he said. “Kids (on Sunday) came to me and said, ‘I guess God has a bigger plan for me,’ because of the life she led.”

God protected Samara, Bayse said. He kept her in his presence and holds her there now, he said. And she is home.

“She has this lasting legacy,” he said. “Me and my daughters, we’re going to live to that legacy.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2018 at 10:03 AM.