Straight to the Heart

Last night at midnight, just as I was about to go to bed, I received some very sad news.

Queens Road Church has served all year as the training base for forty gap-year ‘FP-Impact’ students who have volunteered a year of their lives to serve in a church in London or the Home Counties. We’ve hosted them as overnight guests in our homes, and got to know them as friends. They are a brilliant group with enormous potential in God.

Next month marks the end of their FP-Impact year, and to celebrate twenty of them took a holiday together this week in North Wales. Last night, four of them were together in one car on a Welsh road when they were involved in a collision. Tragically, Annie Clague, the driver of the car, was killed on impact. She had celebrated her 19th birthday only days before.

Please pray for Simon Benham, the leader of Kerith Church in Bracknell, where Annie was spending her FP-Impact year. You can read more about Annie’s death and how he is leading the church through the loss on his blog - http://www.simonbenham.com/  Annie was working this year with children and teenagers at Kerith Church, so pray for them too as they process this news.

Please pray also for Annie’s parents, Bill and Anne, who are en route to North Wales to retrieve their daughter’s body. Pray for Rory, another FP-Impact student who was in the car, who has two broken legs and cuts to the face (I’m told the other two passengers are shocked and sore but OK).

But praise God that we do not have to pray for Annie herself. A few weeks ago she quoted on her blog from Psalm 16:11 - “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” Praise God that Annie is experiencing that joy in God’s presence right now, and is tasting the pleasure of living with him forever. She blogged about it then; she is living it now.

We grieve our bitter loss, but we do not lose hope. She has gone ahead of us, and one day we will rejoice with her in the place where death and tragedy will be no more. Listen to how the apostle John describes the age to come in Revelation 21:3-4 - “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” This was Annie’s hope, and it’s the hope which sustains those whom she has left behind.

Rest in peace, Annie. We miss you, and look forward to seeing you again in glory.