Community mourns Van Ryn

ADA, Mich. -- Members of Laura VanRyn's church prayed for her and her family Sunday morning as the congregation prepared for a later memorial service for the 22-year-old college student mistakenly believed to have survived a deadly van crash in Indiana.\nThe west Michigan woman and four other people from Taylor University were killed April 26 when a tractor-trailer hit their van. Taylor is an evangelical Christian school in Upland, Ind.\nIn a case of mistaken identity, authorities, doctors and relatives thought for weeks that a badly injured VanRyn was recuperating in a hospital.\nRecently, her Caledonia family learned that another, similar-looking student, Whitney Cerak, 19, of Gaylord, was recuperating in a hospital bed and that VanRyn's body was buried in Cerak's grave.\nA verse from the Bible's book of Isaiah was projected onto a screen behind the altar at Forest Hills Bible Chapel to greet about 150 congregants who attended an early, informal "breaking of bread" service of song and prayer. It preceded a more formal, late-morning service and a memorial service planned for 3 p.m. Sunday at a larger church in nearby Kentwood.\n"He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; He gently leads those that have young," the verse said.\nSeveral worshippers stood and offered their thoughts and prayers during the early service. The church, located in the unincorporated village of Ada about 10 miles east of Grand Rapids, is affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren.\n"What do you say at a time like this?" asked Ken Snooker of Grand Rapids, his voice cracking as he spoke.\n"If you say anything, will it be perceived as comfort or as patronization?" asked Snooker, a 20-year member of the church.\nThe congregation also offered its prayers to Dave and Ruth Ann VanRyn, Laura VanRyn's uncle and aunt, who recently sold their Grand Rapids home to move to the Upper Peninsula. They will help run a Bible camp near Marquette.