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God doesn’t get upset with us when we don’t understand.

Dotty sensed God saying to her spirit, Would you offer to Me a sacrifice of praise? When we got to that part of the song that says, “My heart sings His praise again,” she lifted her hands and sang those words. When she did that, the power of God came upon her. She ran as hard as she could run all over that platform with both hands in the air. There were about 800 people in the auditorium that Sunday morning. When she began to run, they began to run and shout praises to God. In the midst of their praise, a clearly visible glory cloud appeared in the sanctuary. It hung halfway over the auditorium from one end to the other. You could not see the ceiling. The people stood from 11:30 that morning until that afternoon under a glory cloud worshiping God in spirit and in truth.

God restored Dotty’s family through another victim of the tragedy. Lee Williams lost his entire family on that bus. His wife and his daughters, 14 and 10, were killed. Because Lee was an only child, as were his deceased parents, he had no living family. God eventually brought Lee and Dotty together in marriage (see the December 19, 1999, Evangel), and they have a wonderful family and ministry today.

One of the most powerful examples of praise and faith I witnessed was Mattie Nichols. Following the tragedy, Don and I had to announce each fatality to each set of grieving parents. We had just finished telling one father and mother that their only child, a son who was supposed to graduate from high school the next week, had been killed. Now, the Nicholses were sitting before us. Billy, their 17-year-old son, was a junior at Fort Knox High School. He was their only child. We said to Bill and Mattie, “We’re sorry we have to tell you this. Billy did not make it.”

Bill wept, as you would expect any father to do. But Mattie did something amazing. She looked to the ceiling with tears on her cheeks and said, “God, thank You for 17 wonderful years. You could have taken him earlier, but you allowed us to have him for 17 wonderful years.”

Mattie personally demonstrated to me a completely unselfish Christlike love. My only son, Allen, had come off that bus without a scratch. She lost her Billy. But she came up to me and hugged me and said, “Sister Tennison, I am so happy that Allen made it off. We’re so thankful to God that he made it.”

That very week, when Billy’s friends came by to offer their condolences, Bill and Mattie led 27 of them to the Lord in their home. The same number we lost on the bus they led to the Lord that week and brought them to the youth group.

Something I have learned from those terrible days in 1988 is a deep appreciation for people. I learned to appreciate my family, my friends and my church today. Those precious people met with us on Wednesday evening as a church and we came back on Sunday morning and many had been taken from us. I have thought to myself, God, did they really know how much I loved them and appreciated them? Did I express that to them? It changed my life and my attitude — with my family, with my church, with my friends. I tried from then on never to let one of my people leave church without saying, “I love you and appreciate you.”

I also learned the necessity of forgiveness. For Jesus to heal us, we had to begin by forgiving the drunken driver who brought the hurt. Those who hurt you cannot heal you. Only Jesus can heal you. But healing begins by forgiving the individual who has hurt you. Forgiveness doesn’t release people from accountability. We get this confused. We think if we forgive someone they should be free and not be accountable. But when we exercise forgiveness, they’re still accountable for what they’ve done. We have simply released them to God.

One thing people will ask is “Why?” In life, God gives us choices and lets us choose. In this case, a good choice collided with a bad choice. It’s a mystery of life and we cannot go around dwelling on the why. If I had all the answers, He wouldn’t be God.

We still have to trust God. He’s in charge. He’ll see us through. That’s the truth we must lean upon. We can’t dwell on the why and allow ourselves to get depressed over the why because there’ll never be an answer to that. The hope we have is that one day the trumpet is going to sound. Those precious young people who died in that bus tragedy, and every other believer in Christ who has already gone on, will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain will meet the Lord together in the clouds of the air. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? And that’s the hope that keeps us going. The only way that we survive is through Him, the only Way.

Martha Tennison travels widely with her husband, Don, as an evangelist. She is a featured speaker at the 2004 Conference for Women in Ministry, March 10-12, in Springfield, Mo.

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