Hundreds turn out to celebrate the life of slain missionary from Socastee

Hundreds of people filled the Socastee High School auditorium Sunday to say goodbye to – and celebrate the life of – Travis John Eiler, 23, a Socastee resident and missionary who was murdered while on a Campus Crusade for Christ trip to central Asia at the beginning of December.

Songs, laughter and tears filled the hall as people watched a slideshow of Eiler’s short life, while friends, colleagues, teachers and preachers praised Eiler as a man of God.

Eiler’s father, Eric, spoke at the gathering and reminded people of his son’s passions – ministry and running – even as questions continue to rise about what happened to the young man who was found suffocated with a plastic bag over his head in the apartment he shared with another missionary.

Eiler left for the trip Sept. 21, and was found dead in the apartment by his roommate, Brian Hart, on Dec. 2. His mother, Danielle, had spoken with him the night before, and knew her son was planning to get up early to have breakfast with Hart.

Hart has said that on the afternoon of Dec. 2, he left the apartment for about an hour, and when he returned, Travis Eiler was dead.

“Early on, we were hearing more (about the investigation),” said Campus Crusade spokesman Phil Thompson, who attended Sunday’s memorial along with Hart and many other Campus Crusaders. “They keep saying they are investigating, but they don’t work on the same timetable as we do,” he said, referring to authorities in the country where Eiler was teaching English for a non-governmental organization.

Toxicology tests are being run, according to a news source from the region where Eiler died. One story says there was no sign of forced entry into the apartment, nor any signs of struggle.

The international organization Campus Crusade for Christ, headquartered in Orlando, has asked that the country not be named to avoid endangering other team members. The group began on the campus of University of California, Los Angeles, in 1951, and now has a ministry presence in 191 countries.

But the memorial service wasn’t about remembering Travis Eiler’s death; it was about his life.

After several people talked about Travis Eiler’s life as a missionary, Eric Eiler got up to speak, taking up a pair of his son’s running shoes that sat on a small altar next to the urn holding Travis’s remains, a flower wreath and a wooden cross bearing pictures of Travis.

“Can anyone fill these shoes?” Eric Eiler asked the memorial attendees, before reaching under the altar to pull out a laundry basked filled with pairs of Travis’s running shoes. “… I’m going to make it my mission to fill these shoes.”

He introduced his family, including wife, Danielle, and two younger sons, Corbin, who turned 21 on Sunday, and Austin, who asked his dad to pass along a message to all of the Campus Crusade members and supporters in the audience.

“He loved you all, and wouldn’t want you to be mad,” Eric Eiler said.

Many of the people attending Sunday’s service knew Eiler from church or school, like the Rev. Keith Darnell, former leader of Palmetto Shores church, who is now heading a new offshoot church called The Hub on Forestbrook Road. He talked about his relationship with and respect for Eiler.

“Thank God I had the privilege to serve alongside a man of God like Travis Eiler,” he said.

Attendees applauded the speakers and the musicians, who sang a variety of Christian songs. Everyone in the audience stood to sing along with some of the songs chosen, raising their hands in worship.

People talked about Eiler’s “huge, big smile” that seemed to be a constant, and had funny stories to tell about him.

“We still have a rule called The Travis Rule,” said Barry Bouchillon, one of the team leaders from Campus Crusade. “The rule is you have to clean up your room at least once a week.”

“I wish I had known about The Travis Rule,” Eiler’s roommate Brian Hart said, “because he never followed it.”

Hart said the first few months of his nearly two-year relationship with Eiler were rocky.

“We were at opposite ends of the Myers and Briggs spectrum,” Hart said, referring to the institution’s famous personality test. But after awhile, the two became close, Hart said, because “God reconciled us.”

“If he was here, he’d be jumping up and down, with the aforementioned smile, ruining all the surprises we would have had if he hadn’t gotten (to Heaven) first,” Hart said.

A reception in the main lobby of the school after the service offered people a chance to leave the Eiler family messages about Travis via a videocamera set up for everyone to use, and Eric Eiler said he wanted to get the chance to hug everyone who came to remember and celebrate Travis.

Trying to remain positive in the face of every parent’s nightmare, Eric hugged his family close, as did many other parents in the audience Sunday.

“I still have three sons,” he said. “Two of them I can touch, and I have a guardian angel looking out for the family.”