9 van crash survivors return to Colo. from Ore.

DENVER - Nine of the 14 survivors of the church van crash have returned to Colorado from Oregon on Saturday.

The ministers-in-training flew home after visiting the most seriously injured who are still in a hospital in Boise, Idaho.

Two Masters Commission students from New Life Worship Center in Federal Heights were killed.

Thirteen of the 16 people in the van were ejected.

Senior Pastor Bo Sosa, who went to Oregon and Idaho after the crash, led the students back to see the crumpled van.

"You see pictures of it," Sosa said. "You can't even prepare yourself."

"We just walked around the van and looked inside," Sosa said. "They just stood there and wept."

One young woman pointed to where she was hanging out a window when the van came to a stop.

"She showed me where she was and she said, Pastor Bo, I'm just glad that I'm alive," Sosa said.

They were on their way to work at a convention in Portland, Ore., to raise money for their studies.

One of the students who died and six of the injured students are from Colorado. A church in Baker City took in the students as they were released from hospitals.

"An entire community took them and just like they were their own children, they attended to every need," New Life Pastor Jake Ishmael said.

The students called him from the scene of the crash after they called 911.

"There was a lot of chaos and confusion," Ishmael said. "And even in the midst of that, leadership began to take place even before the paramedics arrived."

"They were thrown from a van and they were spread out over well over a hundred yard area and the cold of the morning with no sun up, complete darkness in the middle of a deserted highway," Ishmael said. "They began to go from survival mode to ministering to one another."

Ishmael said the students with the least serious injuries collected the others and checked to see if the most seriously injured were breathing.

Seeing photos of the crushed van reinforced Ishmael's faith.

"We began to understand the miracles that were taking place," Ishmael said. "There was a strength is seeing how many more people should have lost their lives."

As of Sunday, four of the young adults were still hospitalized.

Joshua John Pishcura of Ohio and Taune Nicole Winter of Deer Trail, Colo., were killed.

A memorial fund has been set up at North Valley Bank under New Life Worship Center.

State police in Oregon continue to investigate the cause of the crash.

If you have questions, comments or more information about this story you are welcome to e-mail investigative reporter Kyle Clark.