Farm Tragedy

Agnostics and Christians alike have asked the following question for centuries: Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Instead of delving into that topic for the evening, I would simply like to ask for your prayers due to a bad thing that happened to some very good people. My parents have life-long close friends who suffered a tragedy last night. One of their hired men died - most likely from suffocation. They found him after they cut through one of their corn bins.

These close-friends of our family are the kind you really do have for life. My brothers and I were the same age as their kids; we grew up together. We played hard and worked hard on the farm together. We went to church together. We even dated each other. Our families were not only fellow farmers, but we once owned a ranch together up by Westerville. They are the kind of friends small towns provide. And this afternoon when my dad called one of his closest friends after he heard the news - his friend broke down. An old-school 60-something year-old farmer broke down.

Corn bins are scary places to be. When a chute gets stuck, someone has to go up there to fix it. Unfortunately, he didn't tell anyone where we went. He fixed the clogged corn, but never made it out. He had a broken leg and arm - and the bin was already 2/3rds full at this point. They are assuming he slipped off the ladder and his leg caught on a rung to cause the breaks. Probably immobile, it only takes a few seconds before it's too late.

This young man worked for these friends of ours for nine years. He was a member of their family. He was single, and the rest of his family still lived in Mexico. They adopted him as one of their own, and he was one of the hardest workers they'd had. Typically, a hired man on a cattle/corn farm doesn't last longer than five years. So nine? Is pretty much unheard of.

Please pray for the family of the victim. People pray for our friends. They are all hurting, and rightfully so.