Toler was one of the 12 miners in Sago, W.V., who died of carbon monoxide poisoning after an explosion Jan. 2 sealed them in a premature tomb 260 feet below ground. As in many previous times when the earth covered over those who reap the bounty of its strata, the fate of most inside was unknown for several days. As before, the world watched and waited, fed by nonstop media coverage. And, as before, many prayed for specific people in peril and loved ones who endured the agony of a life and death vigil.

The tragedy was deepened by briefly publicized false hopes based on inaccurate information from state officials. When the reality of the miners’ fate was confirmed, anger and grief flowed in tandem. And yet alongside every pointed sound bite that conveyed the intensity of the mourners’ pain, the forthright yet calmingly reassuring words of Junior Toler remained in the public’s eyes and ears.

The note, after all, was “a kind of a testimony and a witness to others of what he believed,” said his nephew, Randy Toler, in a CNN interview. It was in fact a remarkably cogent and eloquent statement of the faith of a strong Christian man, written under unimaginable duress and in final stages of consciousness. The unqualified hope of resurrection to eternal life — in an unbroken, ongoing journey with Christ — is there first. And following is the assurance of a man dying peacefully, and of one blessed by love, and blessed to share it.

Junior Toler, 51, had worked his entire adult life in the mines. He brought to his job and to his fellow workers the same embrace of life that he brought in his church, Stump Chapel, an American Baptist congregation in Sutton, W.V. Described by those who knew him as relentlessly joyful and good-natured — one who “always kept his chin up” — he inspired others by the natural expression of his faith. A deacon at Stump Chapel, Toler, along with his wife, Mary Lou, also was active within the ministries of the West Virginia Baptist Convention.

“He was a deacon’s deacon, available for anything and anybody,” lauded the Rev. Marvin Given, pastor at Stump Chapel. “He was an old country boy who did things right — the way the Lord wanted it done.”  Given, who became a deacon at the same time as Toler and subsequently went into pastoral ministry at his home church, noted that Toler “was the glue that held things together.” His outreach included hospital visits, Bible study leadership and many other ministries — all undertaken on top of 12-hour days in the mines.

Toler was not the only outspoken Christian among the 12 who perished. “I’m sure there was a prayer meeting goin’ on in that ol’ coal mine the other evening like we’ve never seen before,” said the Rev. Wease Day, during a memorial service for the victims Jan. 15 at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Day and his church, Sago Baptist — located near the mine entrance — drew national attention for their ministries to families of the miners.

The faith of those loved ones who waited excruciatingly long hours for news also was apparent. The Rev. Mark Flynn, a nearby Methodist pastor, rushed to Sago upon hearing of the explosion. “Pastor Wease Day welcomed me warmly and encouraged me to help the families in any way that I could,” Flynn shared in a sermon he delivered during the vigil. “I went to Sago to minister to these families, and they ministered to me. They knew that God was there in the darkness of that mine. They knew that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus — not even two and half miles of mine tunnels, and not even death itself.”

Many have speculated that as lives ebbed away underground, Junior Toler passed the pen he used for his note to others, encouraging them to tell their families of their love and of their trust in the ongoing life made possible through Jesus Christ. It would have been in character for him to do so.

Also characteristically, Junior Toler read Scripture at Stump Chapel the night before he died. It was a familiar passage: the admonition of Paul to Christians in Colossae (Col. 3:2) to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

For some, that Scripture might seem palpably ironic. But for those who appreciate a Christ-centered witness as deep as Junior Toler’s, such words are foundational to life at its best and worst, guiding each waking hour.

Given recalled the special sense of spiritual tranquility conveyed by Toler at that service. Knowing that the mines would be reopened the next day, Given, a longtime miner himself, urged his friend to be careful. “It will be all right,” Toler assured him. “It will be all right.”

“There was a glow about him,” Given remembered. “It was the glow of a man who was at peace, a man who knew that everything was in order.”

Rich Schramm served as deputy general secretary for Communication of American Baptist Churches USA from 1996-2005.