Fields of Grace ― Faith, Friendship, and the Day I Nearly Lost Everything

On May 11, 2012, a small plane carrying five young adults en route to a Christian youth rally plummeted into a Kansas field. Only two survived the crash: twenty-seven-year-old ex-marine Austin Anderson, who would die the next morning from extensive burns, and his friend Hannah Luce, the twenty-two-year-old daughter of influential youth minister Ron Luce. Had it not been for Austin rising out of the rubble to help Hannah along in his last hours, and the assistance of a passing driver who just happened upon them, she may have died.

Fields of Grace is a story not just of survival against the odds, but of spiritual revelation. On the surface, Hannah was the dutiful daughter of Evangelical royalty, with a degree from Oral Roberts University and a staff position in her father’s ministry. Yet she had begun to investigate and question her early religious convictions. Hannah recounts the transformative aftermath of the crash—Austin’s strength as he took care of her even as his own body failed, the miracle of the stranger who rescued them, and memories of her beloved friend Garrett. Profoundly moving and ultimately uplifting, Fields of Grace is a story of a girl staring death in the face only to find resilience and hope from her faith—a new kind of faith that would change her forever.