Walter, Bill, and Eduardo. This picture makes me laugh because they look so serious, but they were telling jokes at the time!Two days ago a dear friend of Annie and Bill's, Eduardo, was killed in a car accident along with his wife and their two sons. Their daughter is in the hospital in serious condition. I didn't know him very well, and I hadn't met his family. I met him at a two-day meeting in March and he stayed at my house with two others one night awaiting a return flight to Paraguay. He was one of those people you liked instantly -- funny, genuinely interested in others, deeply spiritual. Annie and Bill had just spent five weeks with him in Mexico when Eduardo flew up there to help with the Franklin Graham Festival. Eduardo and Sandra were in their 40s, and had moved to Paraguay a few years ago for ministry. They were on their way back to their hometown in Argentina for vacation when the accident happened.
I believe that God doesn't cause evil to happen, since that would be against God's nature. But God clearly allows it to happen. Will we ever know why? What will happen to Damaris, the nearly-15-year-old girl who is the only survivor of their immediate family? How will she make it through this ordeal physically? Spiritually?
My friend Nora said yesterday that she doesn't know where to go anymore with the 12- to 14-year-olds she teaches on Sundays. Most of them don't believe there is any point to prayer since God knows what we need anyway. Also, they've noticed that if they talk over problems with their friends they receive an immediate, clear answer, which does not happen when they talk to God. To me these are great quandaries to have. I mean, if I'm honest I have these same struggles, but I choose to live with the "creative tension" and continue to pray. I've always said that one of the things I loved about my years as a youth minister was that the youth didn't sugar-coat or deny their doubts like many adults do.
