Audrey and Amanda Anaba, daughters of internationally known pastor and author Eastwood Anaba, were traveling home to celebrate Easter with their family.  While on the way, Amanda and Audrey, along with four other members of their church, got into an accident.  Pastor Eastwood got the news just as he was about to preach. After the service Pastor Eastwood was informed that all six passengers, including his only daughters, Audrey and Amanda, were killed.

PASTOR EASTWOOD: I didn’t know whether the world had stopped.  I didn’t know that this thing could be true.

Pastor Eastwood broke the tragic news to his wife.

ROSEMOND: The only words that I found coming out of my mouth was, “We are in His hands.”  That was all I could say, because it was too much.

PASTOR EASTWOOD: I was broken.  I had believed God in so many ways.  So I’m like, what am I to believe again.  So I’m on my knees and I’m saying, “God, I need you to speak.  I need you to touch my heart.”

Despite his pain, Pastor Eastwood continued to seek God for answers.

PASTOR EASTWOOD: Are we going to believe God for them to be raised?  That was before the funeral.  And the Lord told me, He said, “No.  What I’ll give you is consolation and comfort.”  From that point of discouragement, when God begins to speak and you cooperate with Him and you begin to hear what He’s saying, everything begins to change.

But change was slow, especially for Mrs. Anaba, who had already experienced so much loss in her life.

ROSEMOND: Why me?  Why should this happen?  Between my father and my mother, I am the only child, I lost my sister.  I had two siblings, one before me, one after me, both died.  I lost my mom some years back, just about six or seven years ago, and then this.  Lord, what’s happening?  And I kept asking, “Why me?  Why me?  Why me?”

Rosemund felt so much shame that she didn’t minister in church for an entire year.

ROSEMOND: I was like, what am I going to say to them?  The Word did not work for me.  I wanted to run away.  Because it was as if people were hooting at me, you know, “You say you believe God, you say you trust in God, you say God has given you such wonderful children, and what happened?”

Mrs. Anaba asked her husband to pray for her, and gradually the shame left and she began to speak again.  She also stopped asking God why.

ROSEMOND: I realized that if I kept asking “Why me?” I would never get an answer, because what right has the clay got to say to the potter, “What doest thou?”

Both Pastor Eastwood and Mrs. Anaba came to understand that sometimes in life bad things happen.

PASTOR EASTWOOD: I had to come face to face with the sovereignty of God, that no matter what faith you carry, how righteous you are, how much faith you put out there, your ability and the power to say the right things, there may be situations you can’t control.

Pastor Eastwood says through his own heartbreak, he has developed more love and compassion for people.

PASTOR EASTWOOD: I am able to receive people better.  I used to be just kind of blunt.  If you are wrong you are going to hell right there.  And if you did – if something wrong happened to you, it was because you did something wrong.  That is why evil happened to you.

ROSEMOND: Or you didn’t have enough faith.

PASTOR EASTWOOD: Or you didn’t have enough faith.   But then – and now I have to ask myself, “What did I do wrong to deserve this?”  It started changing my mind.

Though the Anabas are still grieving, with God’s help they are moving on with life and ministry.

ROSEMOND: But I want to say that God is faithful, and don’t give up.  Don’t give up on life at all.  It may be gradual.  Everybody’s rate of recovery is different.  But don’t waste the grace of God.  Don’t frustrate the grace of God.  Surrender to God.  Allow Him to work through your heart.  Cry when you have to cry, but in the crying, cry like a child of God.  Don’t cry like someone who has no hope.

PASTOR EASTWOOD: In the midst of the situation, have we fully recovered?  No.  We are still nursing our wounds.  With my left eye filled with tears, I try to see the glory of God with my other eye.  With one ear I listen to all the negative things people have to say.  With another ear, I listen to what God has to say.

Although the Anabas are continuing on, their believed Audrey and Amanda will forever remain in their hearts.

ROSEMOND:     And I was like, “God, so if you hadn’t come to die for me, it means I wouldn’t see these children again.  But because the work on the cross, now I know that one day I will see these children, and it has given me hope.”