Kiyovtura
09-17-2004, 01:03 AM
UZBEK EXCHANGE STUDENT DIES IN USA
A Mississippi College student killed in an accident on the coast left this world the same way he arrived in America — alone, but with great hope.
That was the description given at Maksim Sisoev's funeral Wednesday evening by Frank Thomas Jr., pastor and host father to Sisoev, an exchange student from Uzbekistan, The Clarion Ledger reported.
Sisoev and two other Mississippi College students died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Friday.
Thomas said the young man was a Christian with the courage to face challenges and that his zest for life lives on. He called him a masterpiece in the making, gone all too soon.
Sisoev, 20, died Friday. Students Lindsay Miller of Pascagoula and Elizabeth "Beth" Finch of Clinton, both 19, also died of injuries sustained in the same wreck on I-10 near Biloxi. Miller died Saturday and Finch died Monday.
Miller's twin brother, Josh, and Nicole Thurman, of Picayune, both 19, also were injured.
At Sisoev's funeral, Alta Woods Baptist Church in Jackson was packed with college students filing slowly past the open casket, some holding each other as they cried.
Sisoev's parents were not able to make the service but will arrive in America Saturday to take his body home for burial.
They sent a message of thanks to all those who loved their son.
Sisoev was described by friends as an exuberant individual, full of curiosity about life. He played soccer, tennis and football — and joined every club that would accept him. He also regularly made the dean's list.
"I always wondered if Maks ever slept. He always had something going on every second of every day," said Graham Thomas, Sisoev's host brother.
"He came to us when he was 17 years old, a stranger I didn't know. And he left a 20-year-old man, a brother I loved," he added.
Sisoev, a senior at Mississippi College, had beat out stiff competition of about 50,000 applicants to come to the United States. He spoke seven languages and planned to apply to the CIA as an interpreter, Thomas said.
Debbie Pierce, who heads the college's foreign language department, fondly recalled when Sisoev ran as a freshman for the student body with the slogan, "Why have the minimum, when you can have the Maksim?" She said he was always a peacemaker, building bridges among the students and staff.
Also breaking up in tears, his close friend Evan Carpenter, described Sisoev as someone who always had a smile and would "tell you how it is, whether you wanted to hear it or not." One of Sisoev's most cherished dreams was to become a US citizen someday, he said.
"He loved the United States and Mississippi College. He felt blessed by the opportunities he had," Carpenter said. "He taught me so much about life that I will cherish forever."
A Mississippi College student killed in an accident on the coast left this world the same way he arrived in America — alone, but with great hope.
That was the description given at Maksim Sisoev's funeral Wednesday evening by Frank Thomas Jr., pastor and host father to Sisoev, an exchange student from Uzbekistan, The Clarion Ledger reported.
Sisoev and two other Mississippi College students died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Friday.
Thomas said the young man was a Christian with the courage to face challenges and that his zest for life lives on. He called him a masterpiece in the making, gone all too soon.
Sisoev, 20, died Friday. Students Lindsay Miller of Pascagoula and Elizabeth "Beth" Finch of Clinton, both 19, also died of injuries sustained in the same wreck on I-10 near Biloxi. Miller died Saturday and Finch died Monday.
Miller's twin brother, Josh, and Nicole Thurman, of Picayune, both 19, also were injured.
At Sisoev's funeral, Alta Woods Baptist Church in Jackson was packed with college students filing slowly past the open casket, some holding each other as they cried.
Sisoev's parents were not able to make the service but will arrive in America Saturday to take his body home for burial.
They sent a message of thanks to all those who loved their son.
Sisoev was described by friends as an exuberant individual, full of curiosity about life. He played soccer, tennis and football — and joined every club that would accept him. He also regularly made the dean's list.
"I always wondered if Maks ever slept. He always had something going on every second of every day," said Graham Thomas, Sisoev's host brother.
"He came to us when he was 17 years old, a stranger I didn't know. And he left a 20-year-old man, a brother I loved," he added.
Sisoev, a senior at Mississippi College, had beat out stiff competition of about 50,000 applicants to come to the United States. He spoke seven languages and planned to apply to the CIA as an interpreter, Thomas said.
Debbie Pierce, who heads the college's foreign language department, fondly recalled when Sisoev ran as a freshman for the student body with the slogan, "Why have the minimum, when you can have the Maksim?" She said he was always a peacemaker, building bridges among the students and staff.
Also breaking up in tears, his close friend Evan Carpenter, described Sisoev as someone who always had a smile and would "tell you how it is, whether you wanted to hear it or not." One of Sisoev's most cherished dreams was to become a US citizen someday, he said.
"He loved the United States and Mississippi College. He felt blessed by the opportunities he had," Carpenter said. "He taught me so much about life that I will cherish forever."